Endorsements: Minneapolis

[naomikritzer]

For the convenience of people who just want to vote as if they were me, a cheat sheet.

Mayor
1. Betsy Hodges
2. Don Samuels
3. Stephanie Woodruff

I spent a lot of time pondering Cam Winton vs. Mark Andrew on the assumption that if it's not Betsy vs. someone or Don vs. someone in the final round, surely it'll be Cam vs. Mark.

But you know, in all honesty, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know who's going to turn out for this or how they'll vote. The only poll was frankly really pretty useless. So rather than tying myself in knots trying to guess who the final two might be and which of those two is the lesser evil, I've decided I would just vote for my three favorites and hope for the best. (I am not super optimistic that Stephanie will even still be in play in that third round, but you never know. I like her focus on transparency; it's something Minneapolis could definitely use more of.)

City Council Ward 1
1. Kevin Reich

City Council Ward 2
1. Cam Gordon

City Council Ward 3
1. Jacob Frey

City Council Ward 4
1. Barb Johnson
2. Kris Brogan

City Council Ward 5
1. Ian Alexander
2. Blong Yang
3. Brett Buckner

Ian vs Blong is a close call, but I like Ian's background in public policy.

City Council Ward 6
1. Abdi Warsame
2. Robert Lilligren

City Council Ward 7
1. Lisa Goodman (running unopposed)

City Council Ward 8
1. Elizabeth Glidden (running unopposed)

City Council Ward 9
1. Alondra Cano
2. Charles Curtis
3. Ty Moore

City Council Ward 10
1. Lisa Bender

City Council Ward 11
1. Matt Steele
2. John Quincy

City Council Ward 12
1. Andrew Johnson
2. Chris Lautenschlager
3. Ben Gisselman

City Council Ward 13
1. Matt Perry
2. Linea Palmisano
3. Missy Durant

Board of Estimate and Taxation
1. Carol Becker
2. David Wheeler
3. David Pascoe

Park Board At-Large
1. Jason Stone
2. John Erwin
3. Ishmael Israel

(After talking to John Erwin I moved him back to #2. I like both Jason Stone and John Erwin; I'd like to see both of them on the Park Board. I'm keeping Jason Stone at #1 because I think he's more likely to need the help. ORDER MATTERS IN THIS RACE. You should pick three and rank them IN YOUR ORDER OF PREFERENCE, even though there are three open seats.)

Minneapolis Charter Amendments

YES and YES

Comments

[ben harris (from livejournal.com)]

You seem to have skipped Ward 13 for city council, which is a shame. It's a tight race, but Matt Perry deserves a good look. He's more than ready to excel at the job, and one of his strong points is an honest passion for open dialogue and responsive government. The worst I've heard from people is that he hasn't pandered to them - but I guarantee he's listened.

[ben harris (from livejournal.com)]

Apologies. I missed the separate post in which you do address Ward 13, and I'm glad to see you agree that Matt will make an excellent representative.
I would point out, however, that his decision to resume campaigning came only after deep reflection and much encouragement from community members who have worked with him, and even some who started off against him on one project or another, but recognized a unique ability to listen to all viewpoints, and a dedication to fairness and responsibility that earned their admiration.
I say that as someone who cannot vote for him (wrong Ward), but I still feel I would benefit by having the likes of Matt Perry on City Council.

[naomikritzer]

Ahhh shoot, ward 13 should've been in this post. I've edited to add it.

[cdgarden.livejournal.com]

Funny that you landed on Stephanie--You did not seem like a big fan in your overview.

[naomikritzer]

She improved her website a lot, and that helped; back in August it was an absolutely terrible website.

Other than that, it also helped that I didn't learn new information about her over the last few months that made her go down in my estimation (other than that she wants to buy iPads for all the Minneapolis students, which I ran across today and which I think is generally a silly use of money for school districts.)

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

I really appreciate all the work you put into these posts. Makes it so much easier to figure out who I want to vote for (essentially the same people you like, since you are reasonable, but the specifics you uncover are super-helpful in seeing who agrees with me). :)

[1crowdedhour.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for all your hard work on this! I found it invaluable.

[juana sandoval (from livejournal.com)]

This was so very helpful to me, not this post specifically but all of your previous reviews. I'd be happy to donate something, do you have some sort of way to take donations? (I'm 100% serious.) Thank you so much!