Greetings and good living,

It’s too late / early for me to be blogging since I have a long day tomorrow beginning with a LONG bike ride to the Minnehaha falls area to discuss the city budget, but I am expressing myself. 

Picking up the pace

With a little more than 8 weeks remaining before Election Day, I have been motivated by necessity to pick up the canvassing pace.  We’ve canvassed half of the Ward, approximately 200 blocks, meaning 200 more need coverage.  I’ve been urged by some to stop the EVERY door to door campaign and target the “persistent voters,” those few thousand residents who always vote in City Elections.  I considered such a change in the original plan to knock nearly every door on every block, but I decided against it.  I truly want to be a City Council Member who represents the entire ward, without bias.  Moreover, half of those persistent voters are hardcore bj supporters, and if we knock on every, or most doors in the Ward then we’ll reach all of them anyway in addition to thousands of other potential voters who are discontent with the incumbent and / or open to my campaign and community visioning.   

I’ve made a recent recruitment call for 20 volunteers to commit to canvassing 10 blocks each by mid-October.  10 people quickly committed.  I can probably cover another 100 blocks in 6 weeks, but the more help I get the more other kinds of campaigning I can do.  We need 10 more people.  It’s easy, mostly fun, good exercise and a transformative learning experience if you do enough of it.  Each block takes an average of an hour.  Will you be one of the 10? 

If you are afraid of door knocking then consider lit dropping, or leafletting doors without talking to residents. 

Please contact me if you’re interested and available: (612) 600-0155 or marcus@marcusharcus.org.

Better photographc images

I’ve received many complaints during this campaign about not presenting a more professional looking photo on my website.  Many people have talked to me about the importance of exhibiting a polished image, always in a suit and tie with a clean shaven, bald face.  That’s not me.  I’ll wear a goattee baby.  To be honest, I only own one suit - it’s very nice - and although I do have some nice slacks and shirts, my wardrobe is lacking.  Don’t worry though fashion police, because after I’m elected I’ll purchase 2 weeks worth of suits and wear them nearly everyday to work.  Most importantly, I’ll remain humble no matter what I’m wearing because people and machines make my clothes, but clothes don’t make Marcus Harcus.  I believe in treating everyone, all good people, with equal respect, regardless of how they are dressed.  ”Destruction of your soul is vanity…” - Buju Banton.  Uh, oh, I realize I’m preaching, so I’ll stop. 

In the tri-fold brochure I’ve been delivering to thousands of doors I am wearing a pin striped, long sleeve shirt and have a 7 o’clock shadow.  It was the only electronic photo I had because I don’t own a digital camera.  In the next order of 5,000 brochures I’ll be wearing my only suit with a clean shaved goattee.  Subsequent campaign lit pieces will look as polished as my advisors desire.  We’ll all be happy!  Blah, blah, blah…  

Yard Signs

I am currently losing the sign war in dramatic fashion.  I am confident that I will ultimately win this election because of the many direct connections I’m making at the homes of voters, but my weakness in raising funds has delayed the ordering of hundreds of campaign signs.  All of my opponents have more money than me; it’s evident.  If I could self-finance the campaign I would, but I can’t, so I ain’t.  This is a grassroots campaign and I am depending on low-income and middle-income earning individuals and families to make small donations.  Hundreds of campaign signs will arrive by next weekend and they will go fast, so I know I can compete.  I’ve got more demand than I can supply unless my supporters make donations so I can replinish the stock.  The psychological impact on some of my close supporters about losing the sign war hurts them and it consequently hurts me a little bit.  An old, wise friend of mine with over 5 decades of political experience told me that the yard signs are played out, politics as usual business that doesn’t influence additional voters much = inconsequential.  The candidate with the most campaign funds or signs is not gauranteed to win.  History has proven this all over the country.  If you count up all the tp and bj signs it would not equal a third of the number of people who will ultimately vote on election day.  I’ve got several hundreds of committed voters already without the signs yet, and that doesn’t include their families, friends and neighbors.  My supporters will be encouraged, with guidance, to mobilize their networks to get out the vote in record numbers and make some local history over North this November 3rd.  I look forward to my signs proliferating in yards throughout the 4th Ward, but I’m not fazed much by seeing my opponents’ signs outnumbering me.  When mine are up in strong force I will not allow it to get to my head. 

Branding myself as a political commodity to get elected is kind of unreal.  I don’t care for intense self-marketing, but I’m doing this for the cause behind it - to become a strong community advocate and political organizer - and because I believe in implementing real representative goverment and participatory democracy.

I will not make promises of specific results, but I will share my goals and promise confidently that I care deeply about the community and will try my best to succeed in representing and serving the Northside progressively, equitably, engagingly and effectively. 

 Please join this campaign for Northside CHANGE.

Thx!

mh

612 600-0155

marcus@marcusharcus.org

(inner) peace

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is the new voting system being implemented this year by the City of Minneapolis.  There will be no Primary election in September, which most voters typically skip anyway.  All candidates who filed candidacies at the Minneapolis Election Office will appear on the ballot on General Election Day, November 3^rd, 2009.  Voters will rank candidates in order of their preference for up to 3 candidates – 1^st ranked choice, 2^nd ranked choice and 3^rd ranked choice.  In order to get elected one of the candidates must get 50% of the votes +1 (a true majority). 

There are 4 candidates running in the 4^th Ward City Council race this year.  If none of us reaches this 50% +1 majority threshold on the first vote count then the candidate with the least votes gets eliminated from the ballot and all of the voters’ 2^nd ranked votes get transferred to the remaining 3 candidates.  If none of the remaining 3 candidates reaches that 50% + 1 threshold then again the candidate with the least votes gets dropped from the ballot and the voters’ 3^rd ranked votes transfer to the 2 remaining candidates.  There must be a winner at this point.  I’ll explain this better in the near future with visual images once I gain clarification and figure out how to articulate the process better (best). 

I launched my campaign on January 31^st of this year, 2009.  While I initially wasn’t expecting another challenger to the incumbent’s 3^rd re-election bid – she ran uncontested in 2005 - I was not surprised nor disappointed when TP announced a month or two later.  Understanding the advantages of having three or more opponents in an RCV election means that TP’s candidacy increases my odds of winning. 

The candidate filing period for Minneapolis elections this year began July 7^th, 2009 and ended July 21^st, 2009.  On the final filing day Grant Cermak (GC), a self-described “Ron Paul Republican” filed as an Independent candidate seeking the 4^th Ward City Council office.  GC ran as a Republican against the incumbent State Representative Joe Mullery during the last 58A election.  GC seems to understand RCV because he called me the day after candidate filings were closed and we met the following morning.  He proposed that we collaborate by encouraging our supporters to rank each of us as their 2^nd ranked choices on the ballot, in order to unseat BJ.  Republican is a bad word for many people in Minneapolis, especially over North, but there are some here.  (Some have indicated that I may get their votes)  Although I vote Democrat most of the time and have never voted Republican, I’m essentially non-partisan – really independent – so I don’t obsess over political party affiliation.  I’m not any party’s ‘ride or die’ member.  I appreciate GC’s independent leanings and I didn’t disagree with the few issue positions that he shared with me, but I didn’t commit to the proposal because he said he wasn’t going to be actively campaigning and I need to know more about his politics.  He’s depending on support from some of the 3,000 votes he told me he got during his State Representative campaign.  When I asked GC if he was going to reach out to TP he wasn’t clear, but it seemed possible.  We’ll see.  I’ll be glad to have an additional voice in the candidate debates.  This is all so very interesting…

OK, I’m finally getting to the point of this post: TP doesn’t seem to get RCV.  I parked behind him when I arrived at the Lind-Bohanon National Night Out event with my daughter.  I greeted him and his family and suggested to him (even after a few previous incidents with non-responses) that we collaborate by encouraging each others’ voters to rank each of us as their 2^nd choice.  BJ is deeply entrenched and has a reliable base of 2,000 – 3,000 voters, but both TP and I are reaching out to many people who usually don’t vote in City level elections, and to the many consistent voters who are discontent (to put it mildly) with the incumbent. 

(One man said to me, “If so many people don’t like BJ then how does she keep getting re-elected?”  It’s because most of the Ward typically tunes out of local politics - although many of us stay tuned to the national news - resulting in low voter turn-out.  This year BJ has an opponent in me who is going door to door, and God willing, I’ll make it to nearly every door.  Once the residents who care about the community but are disconnected from their City Council / City politics get connected with candidates that they can believe in then entrenched incumbents can be removed from office by the majority, the disaffected people.) 

In response to my proposition, Troy mumbled unconvincingly under his breath that “we might sit down one day.”  If he can’t think on his feet and make a simple decision about an arrangement that works in his favor and in the best interest of our community than it’s hard for me to be confident that he’ll make more critical decisions on behalf of the community – decisions that will often require discernment under pressure and decision making within a short time frame.  Frankly, I’m disappointed in TP and will not directly encourage my voters to rank him as their second choice.  BJ will be glad about this.  I’ll be doing my best to educate the community about how RCV works, but my supporters’ 2^nd and 3^rd choices are up to them.  For the many Northsiders who don’t want a 4^th term of the incumbent, they’ll know who to not rank.  She’s a nice lady, but I’m not feeling her politics and that’s why it makes since for the challengers to collaborate with RCV.  I’m still asking for the 2^nd or 3^rd ranked choices of all the candidates’ supporters, including everyone whose 1^st ranked choice vote isn’t Marcus Harcus. 

I don’t think any of the 3 challengers will be openly collaborating with the incumbent.  I’m sure she realizes this.  A couple of months ago the City Council voted whether or not to move forward with the implementation of RCV this fall, because they had the option of deciding that the city wasn’t ready to implement the new voting system.  5^th Ward Council Member Don Samuels was absent from that vote and BJ was one of 2 Council Members who voted against the will of the people again: → In a 2005 City referendum (a public decision to be made by the voters on their election ballots) 2/3^rds of the Minneapolis voters voted in favor of RCV and that’s why it’s going down this year Minneapolitans.  I’m worried about the potentially high level of confusion at the polls, because most of the people I speak to about RCV don’t know about it or don’t yet understand how it works.  I’ve knocked on the doors of many election judges who are nervous about it too. 

It should be made clear to all candidates and voters that ranking only 1 candidate poses the risk to a voter of not having their vote count in the event that their 1^st ranked choice candidate is dropped from the ballot before a winner is decided.  Hypothetically speaking, if either TP’s supporters only ranked him as their 1^st ranked choice but didn’t rank another candidate, like me, as their 2^nd or 3^rd ranked choices then their vote would not count in subsequent rounds if and when none of the candidates reached the 50% + 1 majority of votes in the first or second or third round(s).  Voters should also know that they cannot rank 1 candidate more than once, meaning my supporters cannot rank me as their 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd choice.  We’ve got to play by these new rules people otherwise we’ll get played! 

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Splitting the Race-based, Age-based, Partisan-based voting

Many people have suggested that because both TP and I are Black that we will split the Black vote.  I admit that I’ve worried about it too, more than once.  This is quite possible, but it seems inevitable that many, if not most of TP’s African American voters and most of mine will more than likely rank each of us as their 2^nd choice anyway.  It should be noted that most Black people do enjoy supporting Black candidates, but most of us don’t blindly cast our ballot for candidates simply because they are Black.  That would be ridiculous.  If U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas moved over North and ran for City Council he’d struggle to get 100 Black votes.  African Americans are far from monolithic, just like any other ‘census tracked group.’

I don’t like analyzing potential voter segments along the lines of so-called “race,” because it seems polarizing to me, but it is the way our “race obsessed” society operates, in perpetuity.  For me, there is only one race, the human race, but I recognize that there are idiosyncratic cultural differences between groups that must be acknowledged and accommodated.  The diversity of physical appearances, historical experiences, continents and countries of origin, traditional customs, religious views and practices, and varying social norms are valuable.  However, regardless where we or our ancestors migrated from, we all share a human experience, meaning we all do the same basic things to survive.  An older Hmong man said it would be great if we could all get to know each other better so that we can understand each other and get along better.  All of this diversity exists in our neighborhoods and it is beautiful on a physical level, but I believe that the more we can focus on our communalities the greater sense of community we can build.  Many people have lamented about the lack of cross-cultural interactions in our very diverse neighborhoods. 

There are about as many European Americans as there are African Americans and the Asian American population is sizable here too.  I’ve met many Native Americans.  I’ve met many Latinos, multi-generational Americans and new immigrants, as well as immigrants from Africa, the Middle Eastern and Western Asia who have lived here for years.  The electorate is diverse and therefore no one “racial group” will decide the outcome of the Ward 4 race.  Moreover, any elected officials who represent North Minneapolis must be culturally competent in communicating with and representing the interests of a very diverse community and I believe I’m most qualified because I’ve grown up during the past few decades during the local explosion in “racial” diversification.  I’ve gone to school, worked with and befriended a wide cultural diversity of humans and I have a knack for getting people from all walks of life OPEN and comfortable communicating and working with me.  I speak with and mostly listen to people even if they lack the right to vote (too young, not citizens, or disenfranchised by probation / parole, prohibited by religious doctrines, etc.) because regardless who votes for me, I will represent and serve all 4^th Ward residents.

I hope people are not voting for candidates simply because they perceive one supposedly “looks like me,” is older, a member of a particular political party (“you’re in a gang”) or the candidate with the most yard sign, because that is superficial, out-dated and foolish thinking.  I know “sense is not common,” but come on Northsiders - choose the best political representation for our community!  Get OPEN, listen to the candidates… see through the empty rhetoric, political posturing and pandering and make your ranked choices based on the one(s) whose platform resonates most with your values, with your heart and mind.  Vote for the candidate who is most capable of representing and serving our community with equitable, engaging and effective public leadership.  The status quo is unacceptable, as is ambitious political career opportunism dominated by self-interest.  You’ve got a nurse, a pipefitter and an intellectual community organizer to choose from. 

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Good Living,

It’s been too long since my last BLOG!  Long story short: I’ve been disconnected from the internet, like half of the Northside.  This blog will reflect on the campaign since my last post…

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On July 1^st I drove my family deep down south to Louisiana and had my garage broken in to.  An hour after we left my mom arrived to house sit and she found an open and damaged garage door.  As far as I could tell, my bike was all that was taken… but talk about a feeling of violation!  The apartment my family lived in prior to buying our first home was broken into because we left it unsecure – open ground level window.  This time I closed a ground level window near the garage at our house, but I neglected to lock it.  This incident reminded me of the need to always fully secure my home when I leave.  Don’t merely close your windows - lock ‘em!  Illuminate the entrances at night, and set the alarm.  I hate having to live like this, taking various precautionary measures, but that’s the world we’re living in and break-ins can happen anywhere.  I’ll maintain my peace while preventing future opportunities for break-ins to occur at my crib.

It’s amazing that people are bold enough to invade homes.  I’ve been told of dozens of stories of break-ins around the ward, from the south end in Jordan to the north end in Shingle Creek and in my neighborhood, Lind-Bohanon.  (For the record, I grew up in the Willard-Hay neighborhood.)  These house and garage burglars seem to be watching.  Beyond security locks, alarms or dogs, it is very important to have cordial and supportive relationships with neighbors – know them and look out for each other.  The blocks I’ve walked that seem most comfortable are those where the neighbors know and look out for each other! 

With my primary transportation (bike) stolen I had to walk and bus it to canvass for a few weeks; however the walking was very good for my soul!  One night after canvassing for several hours (walking, door knocking, talking to numerous strangers, mostly on my feet, with dozens of brochures in hand, writing notes on a clip board, blah, blah, blah), it took me an hour to walk home.  I worked that day before canvassing and went home to be with my family… 

Fortunately a couple of friends recently helped me out by borrowing me their bikes until November 3^rd.  Now I’m mostly biking to the different Ward 4 neighborhoods to meet the neighbors.

This campaign is a profound part of my overall life journey.  My spiritual cup is overflowing from all of the love I’m receiving from so many Northsiders.  I do encounter many indifferent, discouraging, apathetic, pessimistic, cynical and sometimes mean very people, but the vast majority of Northsiders are open and supportive.  I’m powerfully encouraged by people of all ages: young children, teenagers, my youthful young adult peers, and by my elders - all of y’all middle aged and senior people; people from all so-called “racial groups” and income levels are open and supportive.  That’s what’s up!  Most days or evenings that I’m door knocking I wear a T-shirt that reads, “Got Humanity?” ‡  The Northside has got an abundance of great humanity and this campaign is both teaching me a lot more about the community and causing my love for the Northside to massively swell! 

I’ll soon begin transcribing the surveys we’ve completed on the campaign trail and will I post them anonymously @ www.marcusharcus.org.  We’ve surveyed nearly 600 Northsiders to date.  We have also met hundreds of others at their homes who were either preparing to leave, or too busy / tired to survey. 

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‡ note to potential Intellectual Property thieves: I’ve got it protected and know an I.P. attorney!)

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While canvassing about a month ago, I heard shooting right around the corner from where I was at and in the direction I was headed.  8-9 shots were fired.  The house that I had just left before the gunfire erupted belongs to a good man who grew up over North; he’s been raising his family here, and has worked hard - 7 days a week since 2000.  He told me how his house had once been shot up before without provocation and how his son had been shot in an unrelated incident in Brooklyn Center / Park because he resisted being jacked at 3:00am.  Getting all of the illegal guns off the street was part of this Northsiders’ vision for the community.  I can dig it!  Shortly after I heard the bullets flying, the gunman and his accomplice turned the corner and ran straight towards me.  I was thinking, damn, “Leave no witnesses.”  I stepped out of their way beside / behind a tree on the boulevard and watched this kid, about 20 years old, openly carrying a huge gun and laughing about his crime as he fled the scene.  They ran through a yard near me to get to the alley.  I was deeply disturbed by the recklessness, mourned for the neighbors who are exposed to such violence and I feared finding someone laid out bleeding in the street.  I’ve grown up over North and have heard gunfire before, and twice as a teen I recall driving past fresh murder victims.  Oh, the inhumanity!  Becoming numb to wild violence won’t happen to me. 

In this particular neighborhood, which I won’t identify, I listened to many complaints from the neighbors about shooting being a common problem there.  One woman said it was an everyday problem!  Many people expressed fear, saying they weren’t comfortable leaving their homes.  Too many Northsiders have told me they are afraid to allow their kids to play outside of their yards.  That is unacceptable! 

Even if crime statistics are down everything happens in trends - there is way too much crime nonetheless.  There are effective policing measures, infrastructure design methods and community actions that can effectively deter crime, but we’ve got to face the fact that crime is but a symptom of various socio-economic factors that must be addressed comprehensively if real crime prevention measures are to be employed, effectively.  What does a lower crime rate mean to recent victims of crime, to neighborhoods with frequent gunfire this summer? 

When I walked around the corner towards the shooting scene I saw that my friend’s family van had a couple of bullets in the back, along with a flat tire.  Police were there.  I told the first cop on the scene who spoke to me that I saw the shooter.  He asked me if I had called the police and when I told him that I didn’t he sarcastically said, “of course not,” and subsequently ignored me.  Would you call the police in the presence of the shooter, with the hot gun in hand?  This was negligent investigative work because the shooting happened less than 10 minutes before.  Several minutes later a female officer arrived and she actually listened to me, but because time is of the essence I don’t think the suspect was pursued promptly enough to be apprehended. 

This couple whose van was shot, and their kids, are very good people who don’t cause harm to anyone.  These are good neighbors and the kind of righteous young family that the Northside needs more of.  While it was fortunate that there was no shooting victim, the people in the neighborhood who witness or hear about shootings suffer with fear and frustration, even when no one is shot.  As I spoke with my friends there I learned that one of their sons was temporarily living with his grandmother because he could not sleep peacefully at his parents’ home.  They are currently looking for a home to buy and preparing to move out of the rental home that their van was parked in front of and shot up.  Their son’s insomnia is a result of his consistently fearing the neighborhood violence, the loud arguing from neighbors across the street and the damn gunfire.  How tragic is this?!  Fortunately, this good family is committed to remaining over North, but drastic measures must be taken to try to prevent violence as much as possible.  The damaging impact on the neighbors is massive; immeasurably. 

Northsiders want the troubled areas cleaned up, but we don’t do much good if we simply sweep crime from one area to another and if we don’t rehabilitate offenders and medically treat drug addicts and people who are severely mentally ill.  Did I mention that the unemployment rate over North is probably at least double the national average?

While there, I also thought of another old friend whose mother coincidentally lives across the street from this shooting scene, a little further down the block.  One of her two sons, an innocent 17 year old, was fatally shot several years ago near her previous house.  Imagine the trauma!  After that loss she couldn’t bear living there anymore (memories).  As I type these words now, I recall my last memory of the kid years ago when he was much younger.  His older brother was a high school friend of mine and I spent the night once as a teenager… I can picture his brother wiggling as their mom led the family prayer.  His older brother cannot bear living over North anymore because of his brother’s killing, but the mother remains committed to the Northside and works to build community and prevent youth violence.  (As I think if it, I also have a couple of 1^st cousins that live on this street) 

The Northside is a good place to live on most blocks, but there are too many areas where crime and violence thrive, most alarmingly amongst the youth.  Someone in this neighborhood told me he wants a City Council member to represent the Ward as if he lived on the worst block, and I intend to take the job that serious.  I will partner with the community to try to alleviate problems by doing more of what works!  I intend to engage at-risk youth in our community on a consistent basis when I’m in office, seeking their help in reducing crime and preventing violence, encouraging healthy living and fostering hope, referring them to opportunities, facilitating cultural consciousness development and demanding academic achievement and the closing of gaps, or disparities.  Youth development is one of my most passionate interests and I’m encouraged that people on every block I’ve canvassed speak of the youth!

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Community Events

As a candidate for City Council I have been urged by my friends to attend every neighborhood organization’s committee meetings, neighborhood ice cream socials, outdoor movies in the parks, various festivals, parades, etc., during the campaign.  I love community events, especially with good weather, but I cannot attend them all.  I have to work and actively participate in the lives of my family and friends.  When I attend community events, I am rather laid back and I don’t care to aggressively circulate throughout the crowds trying to touch everyone to get them to look at me, listen to me and remember my name.  I am a world class hand shaker, but I cannot shake every hand!  That seems fake to me, especially since I’m shy (nobody believes it, but its true).  I’m not afraid to speak in public, and I admit that I often like to do it, but most of the time I am quiet.  I want to be a great and powerful public servant, but I don’t believe I’m more important than the next man, woman or child and I don’t get excited by the sound of my own voice, or seeing media stories and pictures of me.  Rest assured that I will not be an egomaniac on the City Council!  As anyone who knows me knows, I deeply value humility.  Greatness requires it.

When I’m elected, it will be my responsibility to attend as many community meetings and entertaining community events as I possibly can (work and family schedules permitting), and I’ll gladly fulfill the role of representative, but I’m not planning to be a hyper-glad-handed elected official once I’m in office.  I love people deeply, appreciate crowds and believe in treating all people respectfully and kindly, regardless who, what or how they are, but I’m going to consistently be myself, or in other words, “do me.”  During this campaign I’ve marched in a couple parades, enjoyed the Victory ice cream social, Northside Art Flow on Broadway Ave, National Night Out in Lind-Bohanon (my ‘hood), Live on the Drive concert, etc.  I’ve made presentations to seniors and am planning to engage the youth once school starts (soon!).  I’m sure I’ll attend several other community events before November 3^rd and after.  When I hold a series of forums this fall I’ll invite the entire Ward, including my political opponents!  We’ll have many more community meetings when I am in office, and I will be much more accessible and responsive than the incumbent.  Holla!

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