Minneapolis voters ousted at least two incumbent council members Tuesday in an election that largely hinged on the future of policing after the murder of George Floyd and how best to address rising violent crime in the city.
[image_credit]LaTrisha Vetaw for Ward 4[/image_credit][image_caption]LaTrisha Vetaw[/image_caption]
LaTrisha Vetaw, a member of the Minneapolis Parks Board, defeated Council Member Phillipe Cunningham, winning nearly 61 percent of first-choice votes in the Northside’s Ward 4. Emily Koski won 58 percent of first place votes to Council Member Jeremy Schroeder’s 30 percent in the south Minneapolis Ward 11.
Both Vetaw and Koski opposed the public safety charter amendment, while Cunningham and Schroeder both supported it. “The main issue, and the only issue, was safety,” Vetaw said about her council race Tuesday. “We all felt like we were silenced when council members got up on the stage in Powderhorn and said they were going to defund and dismantle police,” she added, referencing the June 2020 rally where nine members of the city council pledged to “end policing as we know it.”
In Ward 3, which includes part of downtown and Northeast Minneapolis, incumbent Steve Fletcher trailed Michael Rainville 45 percent to 39 percent in first place votes, which was not enough to secure a victory for Rainville after the first round of balloting. Fletcher supported the public safety amendment while Rainville opposed it. Under Minneapolis’ ranked-choice voting system, candidates win outright if they get more than 50 percent of first-choice votes.
In Ward 5 on the Northside, Jeremiah Ellison, a supporter of the policing ballot question, had 32 percent of first-round votes as of Tuesday night and led opponents Kristel Porter and Victor Martinez, both of whom opposed the policing ballot measure. Porter and Martinez each got just under 25 percent of first-round votes, meaning the final outcome is still in question.
[image_credit]Emily Koski for Minneapolis[/image_credit][image_caption]Emily Koski[/image_caption]
In the Northeast’s Ward 1, incumbent Kevin Reich opposed the public safety charter amendment. But as of late Tuesday night, he was trailing Elliott Payne 48 percent to 43 percent. Payne, a consultant who formerly worked in the city’s Office of Performance and Innovation, criticized Reich for not pledging to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.
Jason Chavez, a Democratic Socialist candidate in Ward 9, where Floyd was killed and where many of the businesses damaged in the aftermath of his death are located, won by a wide margin over Mickey Moore. Chavez, a Minnesota House aide, supported the policing ballot measure while Moore did not. Chavez will replace Alondra Cano, who did not seek re-election.
Chavez said Tuesday night he plans in office to focus on people without stable housing and to create a “public safety system that centers people, reduces the gun violence in our ward and makes sure that we stop both community violence and police violence that impacts our community members here in our ward.”
Despite the public safety measure being voted down, Chavez said there was a “decisive victory” in Ward 9 — which also includes where police killed Dolal Idd in December of 2020 — for changing policing and investing more in alternative methods of public safety and gun violence prevention.
[image_credit]Jason Chavez for Ward 9[/image_credit][image_caption]Jason Chavez[/image_caption]
In another notable race, the second-longest tenured council member, Green Party candidate Cam Gordon, was in third place in the first round of votes, garnering just 26 percent of the vote. DFLer Yusra Arab was in second with 28 percent of top votes while DFLer and Democratic Socialist Robin Wonsley Worlobah led the field with 29 percent of votes. Gordon and Worlobah supported the public-safety question while Arab opposed it. The outcome of that race will be determined Wednesday. If Gordon loses his Ward 2 seat, the area will have a new council representative for the first time since 2006.
Some incumbents win on first round votes
The last two Minneapolis city elections — in 2013 and 2017 — brought sweeping changes to the council as progressive candidates won open seats or ousted more moderate incumbents. There were seven new council members in 2013, and another five in 2017.
It’s too soon to get a full picture of the next council because ranked-choice votes are still being tabulated. Full results won’t be available until Wednesday in several wards, such as Ward 5, which Ellison currently represents.
Despite the shift against some incumbents, other current members breezed to re-election. The council’s longest tenured member, Lisa Goodman, won re-election in Ward 7 with 62 percent of the vote on the first ballot. In Ward 8, incumbent Andrea Jenkins won re-election with 85 percent of the first ballot vote, defeating challenger Bob Sullentrop.
[image_caption]Council member Linea Palmisano[/image_caption]
In Ward 6, Jamal Osman — who won a half term during a special election last year — won with 60 percent of the first-ballot vote to hold off challenger Abdirizak Bihi.
In the council races, some candidates also split over the other two charter amendments: one that would allow the council to pass a rent control measure; and another that would implement a “strong mayor”-type system of government, taking some control over city functions from the council. Voters approved both.
But the debate over policing was a major influence in most races. The eventual outcome of the council races and the charter amendments will determine the direction of city policy for the next two years, when all members are up again for reelection because of redistricting after the 2020 Census.
Nine members of the council stood on stage at Powderhorn Park last year to pledge support for dismantling police: Cunningham, Bender, Fletcher, Schroeder, Ellison, Johnson, Gordon, Cano and Jenkins. It takes nine council members to override a mayoral veto.
Cano and Jenkins, however, have since backed away from that position and tend to be swing votes along with Osman when it comes to policing issues, such as staff and funding levels. This contingent sometimes joins the group that consistently votes in opposition to shrinking the police force or budget, and who did not join the Powderhorn nine: Reich, Palmisano and Goodman.
[image_caption]Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins[/image_caption]
“What I think we’re hearing across the city is that they want to make sure that we are doing multiple things at the same time,” said Koski, who is the daughter of former mayor Al Hofstede. “We are reforming our police department, but we’re also supporting our communities with efforts beyond just policing … it’s not choosing between just having mental health support or a police department.”
Correction: This post has been updated to reflect that Andrew Johnson won in Ward 12, not Ward 11.
And with that, along with the defeat of the ballot measure, nothing will be accomplished. The death warrant for countless more young black men has been signed. Fear prevails again, over justice, locally, and nationally it seems. Congratulations centrists, incrementalists, your desire for comfort has doomed us all.
Those opposing the amendment included many Black Men–Rev McAfee, Chief Arradondo, Don Samuels, much of north Minneapolis. You can accomplish the same reforms without the charter. In fact the county already had social workers and mental health workers assisting the city–the council put one of those units on hold to reinvent the wheel with another agency. In fact the charter was heavily funded by white people–Vermont, come on. You can’t support democracy and then throw mud and inaccurate information because it did not go your way. Listen to Arradondo when he listed the policy changes. It is easier to sit on the sidelines criticizing than it is to be in the middle of it doing the work.
Please revisit this commentary in 6 months, a year, 2 years etc… Perhaps some will come to recognize the folly of believing in people who’ve never done the things you expect, but I don’t know if it will be admitted. This vote was simply the embodiment of the wishes of those who thought “this’ll blow over, why would we ever change” having their worldview validated. They’ve succeeded in blunting the momentum of change, now more horrors must occur to restart it.
No, they have blunted the momentum of nonsense. They have blunted the momentum of fantasies about what a vague, poorly written ballot measure would accomplish.
How many of the 79 (last count I saw) murders in Minneapolis were young black men? Don’t you care about them? Do they not deserve justice? Do only the people murdered by the police deserve attention? What about all of the people who have been shot, carjacked or been robbed at gun point – don’t they deserve justice?
Fear. You’ve given in to it, and now the supporters of the status quo, that which has created (along with a pandemic), the very situation you describe, will use it to ensure that nothing changes, at all.
So first, your position is that having police officers causes crime, which is interesting in and of itself. I’m sure you have data that backs up that assessment.
Second, people against this amendment aren’t saying that they are for the status quo. People saw an amendment with absolutely zero plan on how to implement it (nevermind having to do so in 30 days) and thought that there are better ways of achieving change that works not just for the people who are discriminated against by the MPD, but also the victims of crime, many who are the young black people you purport to care about.
Yes, I’m aware of the “company line” of those against the amendment, you all REALLY want reform, just not any reform that actually you know, changes anything. The simple message is that I at the bare minimum, (as I can’t read thoughts), but also I suspect many others, just don’t believe you. The ball is in the court of all the supposed “reformers” now. Will you act on your stated desires, or as is the expectation, talk a lot about how much you really “care”, while in reality, DO nothing?
“The death warrant for countless more young black men has been signed.”
Yup, over 50 shot and killed so far this year and counting.
Yep, the status quo of desperation that conservatives prefer. I do wonder why (well not really) you express concern over the death of those whom in life you hold in utmost contempt.
You really have a distorted perspective of people who don’t agree with you. To say that “I do wonder why (well not really) you express concern over the death of those whom in life you hold in utmost contempt” is to create a fictitious enemy only visible to yourself.
Actually, the nothing was the ballot measure itself. What was accomplished- in addition to a safer city – was not handing the Republicans an electoral gift. This was a victory for facts over lies. Reason over nonsense. Reality over fantasy. Listening to black people who live in Minneapolis instead of white people who don’t.
I voted against the measure because I thought it was, to put it charitably, poorly thought out. The ideas it was proposing weren’t bad ones, but I think they required a level of detail that does not work well in a ballot measure.
I am somewhat optimistic that the City Council and Mayor will not take the defeat of the measure as an excuse to let the issue go away without doing anything about it.
You should be optimistic that they will at least try. Because Frey and the members opposing this have always wanted changes. The yes campaign just lied about their position.
we’re talking about the same Mayor Frey who last year (AFTER Floyd’s murder) aided Chief Arradondo in altering the MPD policy book to make it easier to NOT meaningfully discipline officers for misconduct?
Forgive me if I scoff at the idea that Frey supports real change
minnesotareformer.com/2021/10/28/mayor-chief-quietly-codified-change-to-discipline-policy-in-police-manual/
That doesn’t seem great, but it wasn’t a change so much codifying what was already happening. Not everything needs to result in discipline, but there should be more oversight of the coaching.
“codifying what was already happening” is tacit approval of the utter lack of discipline that is the institutional culture of MPD when faced with misconduct allegations
If your idea of “reform” is “more oversight” over officers sometimes getting a mild talking-to that isn’t true discipline for a personnel file, then I don’t think what you want is actual reform
It depends on what the misconduct is. I’m an attorney and I take the concept of due process very seriously. People make mistakes. Not all of them require discipline.
I’ve been all out of optimism most of my adult life. I haven’t been proven to be mistaken yet.
Matt Haas your mud slinging is turning in to grasping at straws. This defund amendment was yet another example of white people trying to tell people of color what is best for them. This amendment failed in both wards on the Northside. It failed in Phillips. And Phillipe Cunningham got smoked for supporting it. Check your facts before you call the opposition conservative. Maybe try actually listening to people of color for change. Thats what I did and I voted No when I realized they didn’t want it.
Conservative? Not at all, the conservatives prefer mass incarceration of minorities, and always have. The folks speaking here, like you, are in some ways worse, some ways better. What YOU propose to black folks concerned about police violence is lying to their face, promising “reform” that you have no intention of implementing, while using other minority voices, hand-picked to echo your views, as cover. About the only benefit to your approach vs that of conservatives is that you don’t OVERTLY support police violence against minorities, as much as that can be called a benefit I guess.
Brian wasn’t talking about proposing anything. He was talking about listening to black people.
Looking at the results, it looks like the new council will be a lot more reality based.
Actually, they got a couple of brand new goofballs too. We’ll see.
Let’s just be clear about a couple things. First, yes the public safety amendment was defeated, but let’s not pretend that the 44% of voters who supported it were, are, or will be irrelevant. This isn’t a football game, it’s not a simple matter of “winning”. These candidates that won must now deliver substantial police reform and NONE of them have even attempted to describe in any serious detail how they intend do that.
And let’s be clear about the vote itself… this was NOT a vote for one plan over the other. You can complain about the vague nature of the public safety plan if you want, but opponents never offered any detailed alternative, they just attacked the public safety proposal. This wouldn’t be the fist time conservative Democrats ran against something without giving voters something to vote FOR, while it obviously succeeded in this instance we now have an outcome wherein the least likely Democrats to deliver results have won the election.
We’ve known the election results for several days now. The issue isn’t who won or lost, the issue remains how the MPLS police force is going to be reformed into a something that doesn’t represent a hazard to the people it’s supposed to be protecting and serving. Instead of confirming the election results ad nauseum maybe some journalists around here could be asking these new council members and Frey what EXACTLY they intend to do about public safety now the ball is in their court. Simply defeating the public safety measure isn’t even a start.
Come now Paul, that’s YESTERDAY’S news. There’s far too many breathless stories about the coming liberal apocalypse and in- depths with psychotic school board protestors, explaining why their overt racism is acceptable now, to pen. I mean, how is the police violence crisis supposed to blow over if you keep TALKING about it?
I hate liberal apocalypses. Conservative apocalypses are so much more dignified.
Just a couple points before this falls off the radar… about these conservative Democrats who joined forces with Republicans to monger fear and spook people into voting “no”… these guys are now claiming to be the true voice of Black voters in MPLS? That claim in-and-of itself probably reveals a hint of racism or at least an attempt to use race as weapon of credibility. How bout we just let black people speak for themselves and not pretend that we’re speaking for them, or that we’re in solidarity with Black’s in the city when promote the Law and Order regime that been oppressing POC for decades.
It’s particularly bizarre for so many people who have sat by and admired the systemic racism and police violence that’s been inflicted on POC nationwide and in MPLS; to now pretend they’re voting for continued oppression- in order to make a stand against racism. I guess we need to remind some people that racism is a BAD thing.
You can already see in many of the comments here, just days after the election, conservative Democrats (mostly white) falling back into their comfort zones wherein we never really had a big problem to begin with… because cops after all are just doing their jobs. We’re seeing the same “bad apple” claims and being told that the single example Chauvin proves that the system works so we can all go back to tending our lawns now and forget about serious police reform. Just remember… these people who are so comfortable with the status quo ignored this violence and systemic racism until it blew up in flames on our streets, they are the cause, not the solution to this problem… but hey… if you don’t believe there is a problem it’s sallright eh?
So let’s not forget Mnnpost and other journalists on the beat here… the issue isn’t and never was this vote, the vote was a vote… the issue is our streets on fire and and cops who think that their badge is a license to kill. The question is whether or not the folks who just “won” the election are going to deal with the real issue, or if they’ll return to station wait for the next George Floyd to blow up our streets again?
Paul, I know you don’t live in MPLS (I think you’ve mentioned SLP in the past) so maybe you in lived here once and know lots of people in the city. And I realize the hyperbole in your comment is meant to get people excited but I really have to know how you come up with these notions (“ It’s particularly bizarre for so many people who have sat by and admired the systemic racism and police violence that’s been inflicted on POC nationwide and in MPLS; to now pretend they’re voting for continued oppression- in order to make a stand against racism”). I live here, and have for a while. I know quite a few people from all sides of the political spectrum. I haven’t talked with anyone happy with police behavior—and not just in the last 18 months but for the last 40 years. Police here have been banging heads for a long time—and we’ve been paying out settlements for a long time—for the most obvious incidents. Meaning, we’ve only heard about a small percentage of the issues. I know of a lawyer who’s made a career out of suing this city over the police and winning. Should this have been effectively addressed earlier? Of course and we’re all responsible for that. But we should have addressed climate change, accepting the LGBTQ community, and women’s equality earlier too. Events galvanize people and George Floyd’s death is certainly one of those. If a path forward (not necessarily change but a roadmap on how we’re going to get there) is not obvious in 6 months then point fingers at those who voted no. Give us a chance to make an effective plan for change.
But we don’t believe you. Why is that so hard to understand. All we have as collateral for your declarations of intent is the 40 years of inaction you cite. I’m sorry, but the whole point of this exercise is that the “word” of supposed reformers is no good, and hasn’t been for generations. The whole point was to take the power out of your hands, and try something else, because you can’t be trusted to act.
And then there’s this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/opinion/minneapolis-police-defund.html
“I really have to know how you come up with these notions (“ It’s particularly bizarre for so many people who have sat by and admired the systemic racism and police violence that’s been inflicted on POC nationwide and in MPLS; to now pretend they’re voting for continued oppression- in order to make a stand against racism”).”
This isn’t a notion, it’s documented history. We’ve gone from beating Black in the dark of night (Rodney King) to murdering them in broad daylight in front of witnesses. You may be “outraged” but your outrage is no substitute for action, decades of inaction have promoted oppression and inequality. So what ACTION are you now demanding in lieu of a new public safety department? So maybe you didn’t like the public safety plan, that’s fine… but unless you take some kind of alternative action that resolves the crises you voted for continued oppression.
Ha! Nice try. ‘Conservative democrats joining forces with republicans…’ That’s some great tin foil hat entertainment.
I’m a lefty, but it doesn’t mean I can’t find fault in the left. A very large problem with the left, which I am a part of, is telling people of color what is best for them. The police defunded themselves from my neighborhood decades ago. This amendment was not for me or ever about me. It was designed for the POC community. The only problem was (check all the election data) the POC community was once again not invited to the design process.
While ignoring the election data, you are coming up with some highly entertaining theories about a fear mongering conspiracy. Do you really think that people on the Northside were checking in with ‘conservative democrats’ in Linden Hills (not my neighborhood) to find out how they should vote??? Thats absurd. Give the people on the Northside and in Phillips some credit. They should have a voice on this.
Yeah I’m sure their voice will be heard loud and clear now they there is literally nothing that listening to it will accomplish. Come on now, you don’t seem like someone who is that dense. You surely understand how this game is gonna be played? It’s not discounting the voice of POC to point out that the exact same script, that has led to decades of inaction, is being followed again. Is THAT what you think folks on the Northside were asking for? Why are you so unable to comprehend what a massive blow to real change this ballot defeat is?