Election 2013 Index of Posts

[naomikritzer]

Here is the index of my 2013 election-related posts, broken into helpful categories. (Well, I found them helpful, anyway.) Assuming I didn't miss any, all the posts are linked from AND link back to this index. PUBLIC SERVICE IS SO MUCH WORK, YOU GUYS. OMG.

Minneapolis Mayoral Race: Candidate Descriptions

Election 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1: THE CLOWN CAR

Election 2013, Volume 1, Issue 2: Anderson, Anderson, Andrew, Baxter, Benjegerdes

Election 2013, Volume 1, Issue 3: Bennett, Bruyere, Carney, Cherryhomes, Clark

Election 2013, Volume 1, Issue 4: Cohen, Everett, Fine, Gorman, Gould

Election 2013, Volume 1, Issue 5: Hanna, Hartwig, Hodges, Iverson, Kahn

Election 2013, Volume 1, Issue 6: Kelly, Lane, Mann, Rahaman, and Rea

Election 2013, Volume 1, Issue 7: Samuels, Savior, Sparrow, Stroud, and Wagner

Election 2013, Volume 1, Issue 8: Wilson, Winton, Woodruff, Workcuff, and Zimmerman

Issue Comparisons and Miscellaneous Snark

Election 2013, Volume 2, Issue 1: Candidates on Policing....or not

Election 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2: The State Fair

Election 2013, Volume 2, Issue 3: Who answers their e-mail?

Election 2013, Volume 2, Issue 4: Miscellaneous Updates

Election 2013, Volume 2, Issue 5: Star Tribune Poll!

Election 2013, Volume 2, Issue 6: How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways

Election 2013, Volume 2, Issue 7: Let's Try a Mayoral Flow Chart (note: not a flow chart)

Election 2013, Volume 2, Issue 8: Mayoral Closing Arguments

Minneapolis Park Board

Election 2013, Volume 3, Issue 1: Park Board At-Large

Minneapolis City Council

Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 1: City Council, Ward 12
Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 2: City Council, Ward 5
Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 3: City Council, Ward 10. Meg Tuthill vs. Lisa Bender
Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 4: City Council, Ward 6
Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 5: City Council, Ward 9
Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 6: City Council, Ward 3
Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 7: Mpls City Council, Ward 1, Ward 2, Ward 4, Ward 7, and Ward 8!
Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 8: City Council, Ward 11
Election 2013, Volume 4, Issue 9: City Council, Ward 13

Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation

Election 2013, Volume 5, Issue 1: BET

Minneapolis Charter Amendments

Election 2013, Volume 6, Issue 1: Minneapolis Charter Amendments

St. Paul Races
Election 2013, Volume 7, Issue 0: Tried to do the St. Paul School Board but had an incorrect list of candidates. Post preserved because god dammit I went to all the trouble of writing it.
Election 2013, Volume 7, Issue 1: St. Paul School Board, NOW WITH THE ACTUAL CANDIDATES
Election 2013, Volume 7, Issue 2: St. Paul Mayoral Race
Election 2013, Volume 7, Issue 3: St. Paul Ward 1 Council

TIME TO GO VOTE
Election 2013, Volume 8, Issue 1: It's almost time to vote
ENDORSEMENTS: MINNEAPOLIS
ENDORSEMENTS: ST. PAUL

Wrap Up and YouthLink Fundraiser

I hope people have found this helpful!

I realized semi-recently that I have a substantial fan base of people who read my political posts and have no idea that I am also a fiction author. YES! I write science fiction and fantasy, which you can find at Amazon.com, BN.com, and at a bookstore near you, if you happen to live in the Twin Cities, because my print novels are carried by both Uncle Hugo's and Dreamhaven. If you're looking for an inexpensive sampler of my work, you could check out one of my short story collections, Comrade Grandmother and Other Stories or Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories. Probably my most politically-oriented fiction would be the Seastead stories I've written in the last year; the first of them is available FREE online here, and two more were published in F&SF. The three published short stories actually form the first half of a novel, which I'm trying to find a publisher for.

This has been a remarkably entertaining election season. I'm going to guess that they'll raise the ballot access fee after this year, and Minneapolis races will get a bit less colorful. (Although the fact is, in an election year without an incumbent or a strong incumbent, and no primary to winnow things down, there will always be a substantial crop of candidates to research.)

Right now, I have no idea who's going to win (other than, "not the 'WAKE THE F*CK UP!' guy"); the Star Trib did a poll but the results were so unhelpful I don't think they've tried another (if they had, I would have expected it to run in the Sunday paper. Maybe it'll run in this Sunday's paper?) There are a lot of possible scenarios. I may add a section for post-election analysis once it's over (we'll see if anyone's still reading then, I guess...)

Comments

[coho29.livejournal.com]

Some City Council campaign items: Diane Hofstede (Ward 3) and Meg Tuthill (Ward 10) lost their DFL endorsements to younger challengers. I think you could describe these two incumbents as "pro-preservation"/"anti-growth;" each seems to have rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way personally, as well. Tuthill and Matt Perry (Ward 13, a non-incumbent) each pledged to suspend their campaigns in the event of another candidate winning the DFL endorsement, only to say [in so many words] "I didn't say how long I'd suspend!" after losing out at their respective conventions. Perhaps the most complex situation is Ward 6, where DFL-endorsed Abdi Warsame faces incumbent Robert Lilligren: see, for example, http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2013/06/robert_lilligrens_campaign_accuses_somali_challenger_of_using_homophobic_tactics.php

[coho29.livejournal.com]

As for Kenilworth, "fright trains" is a great typo ;-) At the risk of oversimplifying: They want to run light rail there, but there's already freight rail and a bike trail there. To have light rail AND freight rail ("colocation") AND the bike trail there is too much for the locals. Variants, including a bike bridge and a train tunnel, have been discussed but seem unpopular. The only alternative as of now, called "relocation," would send the freight rail to St. Louis Park. Problem there is, the proposed new freight route is unsafe unless you put in 20-ft earthen berms, a step that the SLPers understandably oppose. Personally I hope they go back to the drawing board.

By the way, I have yet another beef with Mark Andrew here. He argued in an op-ed (http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/220588301.html) that Hennepin County and SLP "were on their way to a win-win partnership" in the 90s, where the county paid for an environmental cleanup and SLP would get the freight reroute. The SLP mayor replied, adding some context (http://po.st/ZtvSyC) that made Andrew's piece look misleading and self-serving.

[naomikritzer]

I actually went biking on the Kenilworth trail today, and we saw lots and lots and lots of signs objecting to various things about the plan. Some people were demanding a deep tunnel for light rail through that area; I'm not sure if that's even feasible (it's very close to a whole bunch of lakes) and it would certainly be incredibly expensive.

I grew up with a little-used freight line running behind my house (in Madison, Wisconsin). We had neighbors who complained bitterly about the occasional trains. My parents' attitude was that they'd bought a house right next to a railroad track so complaining about trains would be pretty ridiculous; the people on the Kenilworth corridor bought next to a freight corridor, and it's been slated for many years to be turned into an LRT corridor. So my sympathy for the demands for a tunnel for the trains is limited.

On the other hand, it is a really awesome bike trail. I don't really know what they ought to do here. My husband suggested tonight that they ought to scrap the LRT project here and extend the Blue Line into North Minneapolis, and I think that's an excellent point -- why the hell is North Minneapolis not next on the list to get rail?

[elisem.livejournal.com]

These are SO useful. Thank you for doing them!

[erica mauter (from livejournal.com)]

This is pretty awesome, thanks. Entertaining and informative! (Also, I think I have a few comments in your spam queue.)

[naomikritzer]

I am hunting through the replies and I will un-screen any I find. I haven't found any others by you yet, though.

[naomikritzer]

FOUND THEM. Or one, anyway. Un-spammed it.

[fred beukema (from livejournal.com)]

Would love to get some info on the Ward 12 candidates -- feeling unmoored without an incumbent to judge against. In any case, your Mayoral profiles have inspired me to dig in a bit deeper. But, to start with, am I correct in my understanding that Dick Franson is a perennial, unserious candidate?

[naomikritzer]

Dick Franson is a perennial, unserious candidate. I mean, he takes himself very seriously but I don't think anyone else does (which makes him really indignant).

I'm going to try to get to at least the interesting City Council and Park Board races. We'll see.

[fred beukema (from livejournal.com)]

Even if you don't, thank you for what you've done so far. I think I've got my order for the three viable Ward 12 candidates.

[redbird]

A news story about the New York City primary for Public Advocate (basically an ombudsman), noting that the winner of the Democratic run-off is almost guaranteed the job, because there is no Republican candidate led me, indirectly, to discover that there are fourteen candidates on the New York mayoral ballot. No IRV, and almost certainly either the Democrat or Republican will be elected. Which brought me back here to read, again, about the clown car, though the Lauraist Communist makes the perennial "Rent Is 2 Damn High" candidate seem reasonable and electable in comparison.