Cam Gordon

Minneapolis’ first try at instant-runoff voting went well, judging by a low number of spoiled ballots. But the number of ballots cast was also low, spoiling the system’s otherwise successful debut.

The Minneapolis City Council’s lone Green Party member, Cam Gordon, is used to anything-might-happen electoral outcomes in Ward Two, which straddles the Mississippi River and includes the University of Minnesota campus. But in this year’s race, one thing’s for sure: He isn’t going to finish within 150 votes of a DFL Party candidate, as he has twice before. For the first time in memory (and probably in DFL Party history) no Democrat is on the ballot for city council in a ward that launched the careers of DFL Party titans like Hubert Humphrey and Don Fraser.

The 2010 gubernatorial contest will not be a two-party affair. With no clear favorites on either the Democratic or Republican side of the aisle, the political climate is potentially ripe for a third-party candidate to gain a toehold in the race.

When Republican Tom Conlon leaves the St. Paul School Board this summer, he’ll also be leaving Minneapolis and St. Paul with only two elected city officials not from the DFL Party.

Charles Carlson, whose campaign for Minneapolis City Council disintegrated after an exposé by the Minnesota Daily, apologized last weekend for lying to supporters and the media about his life and educational background. In an interview with KSTP on Thursday evening, Carlson said the campaign will return the $1,700 he took from supporters.
The previous night, a [...]

When locals gather to choose delegates at DFL precinct caucuses Tuesday, three Minneapolis City Council candidates will be looking for the first signs of success from skills they picked up at a recent weekend at Camp Wellstone.

The one Minneapolis City Council seat in the clutches of the Green Party is likely to stay that way, unless a credible DFL candidate comes forward to take the place of Charles Carlson, the newly departed — and truly incredible — challenger to incumbent Cam Gordon. The Green stalwart, who won by 141 votes in 2005 after losing by only 106 votes in 2001, tells the Minnesota Independent he plans to campaign for re-election as usual but won’t be surprised if the DFL decides to endorse no one to oppose him.

UPDATED Mayor R.T. Rybak announced this afternoon that Minneapolis would conduct a series of reviews into the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) actions in Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention, including a standard “after-action report” that will look into related security measures and the development of new policies for dealing with the media. A city council member who has urged a blue-ribbon, multi-jurisdictional review said the mayor’s statement was “good” but appeared to fall short of “a public, independent, transparent process.”

Reports of media suppression by local law enforcement have activists concerned that their message might not get heard — and that a free press at the Republican National Convention will be trumped as police throw homeland security in front of the cameras.

Thursday’s vanishing post on a Minneapolis City Council member’s blog highlights the hazards of online ruminations within a face-to-face City Hall culture that hasn’t yet adapted to the ways of the Web. On Tuesday, Council Member Cam Gordon’s aide, Robin Garwood, posted a five-graf gripe on Gordon’s 2nd Ward blog that questioned the progressiveness of [...]