my vote card for Minneapolis 2025

The one downside to instant-runoff voting is that you need to identify 3 candidates that you want to give your vote, instead of just 1. It takes longer to make such a list. On the plus side, though, it seems to mean a lot more choices for political offices, since everyone has a better chance at gaining attention. Sample ballots for your street address are always available at this Minnesota Secretary Of State website.

Click to read about some Minneapolis candidates and my choices...

There are a lot of new political parties represented in the Mayor's race, for instance. Some are serious candidacies, while some... are not.

• For example, peruse this expletive-laden page from the Momunist candidate.
• I do appreciate the cleverness behind the Nobody's Party candidate ("Red and Blue don't care about you, but everybody knows that Nobody cares!", "Antifa", and "Burn flags not books!"), but I need a page that describes an actual policy platform rather than just slogans.
• That same lack-of-specifics applies to the Socialist Workers Party candidate, even though I'm normally in favor of anti-capitalism slogans.
• I also give a warm shout-out to the Protecting Tomorrow's Dreams candidate. They have not only a Babylon 5 reference in their website name, but they're the only candidate of the whole lot that I saw advocate for flattening the pay scale in city government. Kudos. As I've said a few times before about Minnesota politics, "That's my kind of crazy." If I had 4 slots to vote, you'd definitely get that final slot.

In making my decisions, I did appreciate this list of endorsements from a progressive PAC. I started there, to make sure I still liked the candidates they recommended. There are still a lot of offices and candidates, though, so next I relied on these review pages from the reputable Naomi Kritzer. Each race is hyperlinked to a detailed review of candidates, although the mayoral race focused only on the "likely" candidates.

I don't mind writing up my choices here, so I have it handy for use on Tuesday.

• Mayor: 1) Davis, 2) Hampton, and 3) Fateh
  I originally planned to put Fauki in the 3rd slot, but Naomi's review of Fateh's controversies convinced me to accept Fateh as the last choice on my list.
• Ward 5: 1) Burnett, 2) Young, 3) none of the others.
  I really wanted to give Ward a second chance, but my thoughts twist into knots trying to justify such a choice to the victims from 15 years ago. I'm willing to give taxpayer money to people trying to turn their lives around, but I'm less willing to give them authority over other people's lives. I'm leaving this 3rd slot blank instead.
• Board of Estimate and Taxation: 1) Bernstein, and 2) Brandt (incumbent).
• Park and Recreation Commissioner At Large: 1) Schneider (endorsed by both Green party and DSA!), 2) Olsen (incumbent), and 3) Wilson (also DSA and even Stonewall endorsed!).
• Park and Recreation Commissioner District 2: 1) Rucker (unopposed).

So, for an "off year", it's still a busy list of people that voters need to sort through. I'm ready for Tuesday!