Candidate Debate
I’m preparing for a 4th Ward City Council candidate debate this upcoming Tuesday, September 22nd – 6:00pm – at Salem Lutheran church, 4150 North Dupont Avenue. The League of Women Voters will moderate. I’m excited! If you’re reading this blog in time, please show up to support me!
The Victory Neighborhood Association recently invited me to another candidate debate on Thursday October 15th at Loring Elementary, so save the date and stay tuned!
It would be great if more community organizations would step up to organize additional candidate debates, at least one in each of the 7 residential neighborhoods in our ward. Two debates are not enough and I’ll be certain to make this point on Tuesday, questioning the community members present if they agree and urging them to demand it. Candidates canvassing, door knocking, lit dropping, and hand-shaking at community events does not give residents enough opportunities to see the candidates present their cases in direct competition with their challengers. If we’re competing for votes, I believe voters should have numerous opportunities to make comparisons with us all present. Blog readers – please show up to support me!
A Prayer
A couple weeks ago I was meeting with a great church woman, whose name I won’t disclose… When she learned that I was running for City Council in Ward 4, and campaigning to unseat BJ, she immediately grabbed my hand and started praying. It was deep. There is such widespread discontent with the incumbent, and I’m talking about people from throughout the Northside and all across the Twin Cities metro area – that all it takes is for the disaffected to get organized, and that’s what I’m doing, as well as reaching out to those voters who may be confused and satisfied with the status quo. I’m glad all of the challengers of the incumbent are mobilizing Northside residents who are ready for new blood on the City Council which has proven to be undemocratic and irresponsible too many times during the past 12 years. Please pray for me and join this campaign for Northside Change!
Sign Wars
My campaign signs are finally proliferating now. I’ve still got a couple hundred in my garage. Many of my supporters don’t host political signs in their yards, which confirms my belief that while the signs are useful marketing tools to generate candidate name recognition (branding, damn it, branding), yard signs are not the decisive factor in determining the winner of electoral races. Signs most definitely don’t indicate the best candidate. Moreover, addressing issues doesn’t indicate one’s ability to do anything about it other than vote a particular way on City Council Actions.
Thank God and my parents. I’ve got the most memorable name by far and believe this is an advantage that will benefit me in the ballot boxes with undecided voters, so the quantity isn’t too important so long as the visibility of the signs is sufficient and more importantly, as long as enough community members are connected to the movement.
Call or email me for a campaign sign or to volunteer:
o (612) 600.0155 or
A woman called me a month ago and initially asked my wife for a Troy Parker sign. The woman sounded confused and asked if my daughter went to Jenny Lind, which she does. The phone was passed to me and after I explained who I was the caller asked me to deliver a campaign sign. A day or two later I planted it in her yard. When I canvassed her block a week later and arrived at her home this woman met me at the front door. She told me that she had received the wrong sign because she had already met Troy Parker and promised him her vote. I told her about the new Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) system and how she can vote for up to three candidates, in order of her preference. She told me that I could get her second ranked vote and that I could keep my sign in her yard as long as I called TP and asked him to deliver one of his signs to her. Two days thereafter I called TP and left a message, describing the situation as I’ve written it here. TP never called me back, but a week or so later I found my sign removed from the woman’s yard and placed outside of my front door. I don’t believe TP was honest with the woman. My sign was also scratched up and the rods were unnecessarily removed. I reconstructed it and posted it in a supporter’s yard, directly across the street from TP’s house (lol).
When I recently asked someone to place a campaign sign in his yard I was informed that TP had posted two signs on the fence without permission. I was granted permission to post mine as long as I removed TP’s, which I did. I’ll soon return them to his front door, as a courtesy. TP is campaigning tenaciously in terms of lit dropping and sign-raising, but I think he’s going too far. Yesterday I witnessed one yard with at least 4 signs on the fence and early this summer I saw a sign on the parkway, although it was quickly removed (illegal).
Campaign Finance Reports
BJ has an entrenched incumbent’s campaign bank account: She’s raised $39,319.17 this year and spent $31,055.23. I noticed some big money names listed as donors on her campaign revenue statement, like Bill McGuirre (former United Health CEO) and Pohlad family members. It seemed like many, if not most of them lived outside of the Northside or Minneapolis alltogether. Yes, there’s no competing with her with fundraising, but I can do much more with much less!
If everyone who is truly ready for change in our community’s representation in the 4th Ward City Council office would contribute the minimum amount you can invest, we will do so much more than the incumbent with so much less because I’m running this race in a hardcore grassroots manner that resonates widely and deeply with the majority of Northsiders I meet, from all backgrounds.
Please donate what and when you can. If you can’t, please remember that volunteering is priceless because money won’t win this race – organizing will!
TP has raised less money than I have, $2,631.68, but his personal loan to his campaign of $4,958.37 has provided him with more than twice the amount of money I’ve raised, $3,111. At the time of the report his remaining campaign cash balance was $301 and mine was $469. I suspected he’d mostly self-financed his campaign since he ran for this office in 1997, shortly after moving to the Northside. That was the same year BJ first ran for the seat vacated by her retiring mother, the late Alice Rainville, the first woman Council president and previous CM since 1975. BJ began this campaign year 2009 with $13,017.19 and she has a remaining balance of $21,281.13. She’s spent literally 10 times the amount of money that I’ve raised - $31,000, but she’s not door knocking and although her base of supporters are organized, they are far outnumbered. These campaign finance numbers were submitted by our campaigns to the Hennepin County Campaign Finance Office in the 2009 Pre-Primary Campaign Finance Reports due on September 8th. Don’t be confused or disillusioned because all of that money won’t be enough. The incumbent can’t afford to buy a re-election. The 4th Ward tells me that 3 terms is enough for her!
A great supporter recently motivated me and helped to organize a fundraiser at my home on September 17th. Thank you AG! I was reluctant to do this in my home, but we had an amazing potluck, good music, good conversation, a masseuse and good weather. I was pleased to meet and get to know several neighbors that day! Thanks to my wife and her sister from New Orleans; your support is appreciated! (She told me, “you’re welcome.”) It was a great event and we raised $1,350, including donations from people who couldn’t attend. Prior to the event I had only $103 because it’s easy to spend money when you don’t have much. What a difference a day makes!
Even if YOU cannot afford to give a dollar, please consider raising modest amounts of money from your network to make a collective contribution / host a house party?
Ward 4 in North Minneapolis needs, and the vast majority of people want a new face, with a youthful voice, high intelligence and a compassionate spirit representing them. Northsiders want a Northside native who deeply cares about the community and will faithfully serve the community’s best interests. I will work on the City Council with the community to improve the quality of residential living, champion sustainable economic development, foster opportunities and save taxpayer’s money. I’ll work harder and smarter with a coalition of community members to demonstrate the kind of collaborative, visionary, equitable, engaging and progressive political leadership that the City of Minneapolis needs.