Sandy Colvin Roy, Brent Perry, Charley Underwood and Rick Nyhlen

In Minneapolis’ southeast corner, all candidates for the city council share concerns about saving small businesses and keeping big developers in check. But beyond this agreement, the three candidates vying for the seat now held by Sandy Colvin Roy offer distinct choices for Ward 12 voters.

Brent Perry is running with the backing of Socialist Action, “a nation-wide group of revolutionary socialists.”

“Capitalism has failed,” reads Perry’s campaign website. “You may be asking how much one city council member in one city can accomplish toward ending the global system of capitalism… [R]efusing to vote for the ruling class’s candidates, and instead voting for socialist candidates is a blow to the capitalist system.”

Perry says this election presents a good opportunity for a socialist. “Because of the economic recession, people are taking more of an interest in economic forms other than capitalism,” he tells the Minnesota Independent. “This election looked like a good opportunity to advance our politics.”

The advent of Instant Runoff Voting also prompted him to run. “The DFL often goes unchallenged in Minneapolis so I hope to use the opportunity of instant runoff voting to introduce people to a third party.”

But he also says that economic issues facing the people of the city are important, citing the high foreclosure and unemployment rates.

“Police brutality continues to be a problem,” adds Perry. “And I will seek justice for Fong Lee.” Fong Lee was shot to death by police on the city’s north side. Family members say he was unarmed at the time.

“To see that police corruption, one only has to look to the Metro Gang Strike Force,” he says.

Staunch capitalist Rick Nyhlen, running as an independent with the backings of the Republican Party and the Independence Party, offers a stark contrast.

He’s “concerned that Minneapolis is all for big business contractors, leaving the small businesses and citizens who care for our city with higher taxes and poorer services. Small business owners must be able to afford operating in our neighborhoods.”

He calls for transparency and an audit of city finances. “The questions, concerns and needs of Ward 12 residents are going unanswered. I will truly serve the people who get me elected,” he says.

As a general concern, Nyhlen says that the city cannot push road and bridge projects back in order to balance the budget. “These are basic public needs which need to be kept up,” he says. “Saving money now by not repairing them will cost us more later.”

He also says property taxes need to be kept low. “6.6 percent per year is too much without clear answers as to where it is going,” he says. “State cuts to Minneapolis, while not good for the city, are nowhere near 6.6 percent per year.”

Charley Underwood, a local peace activist who’s running as an unendorsed DFL candidate, also believes that the city budget needs some work.

“The city is broke,” he says, and the burden is shifting in the wrong direction, through tools like inspection fees and assessments.

“It’s driving local businesses out of business, and people are getting taxed out of their homes,” he says.

He also says the city is moving too far away from neighborhood control, and he opposes abolishing the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Park Board. He characterizes both issues as ways of hiding city problems from the public view.

“The shifting of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program out of neighborhoods is an example,” he says. “It’s designed to hide just how bad things are getting in our neighborhoods because it provides for less of a voice at the local level.”

He continues, “People at the city can make cuts and those consequences wouldn’t be immediately known.”

He decries the defunding of other neighborhood programs such as the McGruff houses and the Citizens Emergency Response Teams. “All of the things that would empower neighborhoods are going by the wayside and I am very concerned about that.”

He says city funds for stadiums and huge tax breaks for big developers are wrong for the city and that’s why he wants a seat on the council. “Somebody needs to be there to say, ‘Where are your priorities?’ Why are we giving money to big developers when our neighbors need help?”

Underwood praised Instant Runoff Voting. “I think it’s going to be very good not only for the city but also the state of Minnesota. I really hope it spreads.”

Plus, he hopes for more civil elections as a result: “It doesn’t pay to be nasty during campaigns with IRV.”

Incumbent DFLer Sandy Colvin Roy says property taxes are her number-one concern. She says she repeatedly hears from residents about their fear that continuing tax increases “will force them out of this city.”

A large portion of the city’s only light rail line runs through the heart of the ward, and upgrades are needed to handle vehicle traffic around the line, she says. “We do have a major problem with traffic crossing Hiawatha Avenue, due to signal changes for LRT that were not accompanied by the necessary investment in upgraded equipment when the LRT project was built.”

And, as other candidates have mentioned, development in the ward is a key issue. “Development, when the economy returns, must be managed to fit the community’s vision of itself as well as the property owners’ goals,” says Colvin Roy.

Colvin Roy says that voters should return her to the council because of her experience with the budget and her plans to create more jobs.

“My experience with the budget, both how to put it together to match our community’s values and then how to stick with the plan during the many decisions that are made week after week, will be crucial to bringing down taxes,” she says.

Employment is another issue for Colvin Roy “I am also committed to creating more jobs in the city,” she says. “Two methods are tying jobs for local residents to city assistance for development, something already done successfully several times, and matching local job training to emerging green-energy technologies.”

She says she has been working to educate constituents on Instant Runoff Voting so voters will know what to expect and that electoral success under the new system is the same as the old. “[It] still rests primarily on communication with voters through months of door-knocking and conversations, on door steps and at community events.”

Colvin Roy leads the money race, having raised $11,170 by the pre-primary deadline. Perry raised $288.21 and Nyhlen, $273.05. Underwood hadn’t raise anything, but had $4,657.32 on hand.

This is the twelfth in a 13-part series on Minneapolis City Council races.

The full series:

Ward One: Five seek open seat in northeast Minneapolis
Ward Two: Gordon, Aigbogun and … no DFLer
Ward Three: Hofstede tries to hold off four challengers
Ward Four: Trio of challengers take on political dynasty
Ward Five: Crime and economic development dominate North Side race
Ward Six: South Minneapolis contest draws crowded field of contenders
Ward Seven: Despite full campaign coffers, lawsuit clouds Goodman’s prospects
Ward Eight: Glidden faces four rivals in south Minneapolis
Ward Nine: Schiff, Bicking vie again
Ward Ten: Four candidates vie for Uptown council seat
Ward Eleven: Three vie for Benson’s South Minneapolis seat
Ward Twelve: Colvin Roy faces three challengers
Ward Thirteen: The independent ward could see fireworks in November

Minneapolis City Hall. Photo: Hennepin Co. Library

Although Minneapolis held no primary election this year, candidates for city office still had to file “pre-primary” campaign-finance reports under a new ordinance passed this summer. Yet for two weeks after the Sept. 8 deadline, confusion and other delays kept dozens of candidate and political committee reports from reaching the public.

The city’s adoption of instant-runoff voting (IRV) did away with the separate primary election in early September, long the traditional time for pre-primary finance reports that provide the public with its first peek into candidates’ campaign coffers.

So after the state Legislature took no action to resolve the matter, the Minneapolis City Council set a primary date of Sept. 15 for the sole purpose of triggering the pre-primary financial-report requirement.

The problem: In the meantime, candidates had been told there would be no financial filings until just before the Nov. 3 general election. Notices went out from both the city and Hennepin County election offices to alert candidates to the change.

Of the nearly 100 candidates who had filed for office, about a third are not registered with the county — a requirement only once a candidate raises or spends $100 — and don’t need to file financials. Most of the rest filed pre-primary reports more or less on time.

But as of Tuesday, two weeks after the deadline, the Minnesota Independent found that the county’s online records were missing pre-primary reports for at least a dozen Minneapolis campaign committees and a dozen more political-action committees (PACs). The financial wherewithal of incumbents like City Council Vice President Robert Lillegren and Park Board President Tom Nordyke remained a mystery.

Snafus and confusion

It turned out that a technical snafu had kept some reports out of the public eye. Filings by park board commissioners Bob Fine, Carol Kummer and Annie Young had been received, just not posted.

But the pre-primary deadline without an actual primary election proved a source of confusion for others.

Nordyke’s treasurer told MnIndy she’d mistakenly thought the deadline was Sept. 15, the date of the sham primary, and then tried to email her report. Veteran candidate Marcus Harcus, one of 10 three challengers to Mayor R.T. Rybak Council President Barb Johnson, also tried the not-yet-accepted method of filing electronically.

Others filed early and potentially incomplete reports. The Becker Volunteer Committee, working to re-elect Board of Estimate and Taxation Vice President Carol Becker, promptly completed and returned a report form that the county sent as a reminder in mid-August — well before Sept. 1, the final day of the reporting period.

“The notice was somewhat confusing to me,” treasurer Ted Becker wrote in an email to MnIndy. “I did not expect any [financial] activity between August 20 and September 1. However, I was mistaken.” The report from Ward 6 council candidate Michael Tupper’s campaign also appears to have been filed prematurely.

As of Wednesday, pre-primary financial reports remained missing online for at least four city candidates: Dick Franson, who is running for mayor; Charley Underwood, a Ward 12 council candidate; David Wheeler, a Board of Estimate and Taxation candidate; and Don Samuels, the Ward 5 council incumbent. County officials were double-checking records to ensure that all documents they have received are uploaded to the Web.

Late filers can face fines of $50 per day, up to $500, beginning four days after the deadline, according to Deb Bohler of the Hennepin County. Unexpected personal emergencies usually lead to waivers, whereas chronic tardiness increases the likelihood of a fine.

Of 26 PACs registered with the county as current in Minneapolis, pre-primary reports for only 14 are posted online. All are required to file, even if their bank accounts are empty or they’ve been inactive this year.

Unlike candidates’ campaigns, PACs aren’t sent information about filing rules in the first place, so they didn’t receive notice about the newly imposed pre-primary requirement. But they can keep up to date via the county website, Bohler said.

Not interested in making that kind of statement

State law also requires candidates for office in a “metropolitan governmental unit” to reveal financial details of a more personal nature, including occupation, employer, compensation, securities held, property owned, and money owed. But two people running for election in Minneapolis have so far refused to file a “Statement of Economic Interest,” according to the city clerk’s office.

James R. Everett, a Social Entrepreneurship mayoral candidate, tells MnIndy he doesn’t trust the police and other city powers-that-be with that information. “For my safety, I’m not playing by the rules,” Everett said.

Michael Cavlan, who is running as an Open Progressive candidate for city council in Ward 8, didn’t return a call from MnIndy told MnIndy he’d received an email threatening a $1,000 fine and was planning to visit City Hall on Friday, where he’d either settle up or take a principled stand against completing the form.

Gary Goldsmith, executive director of the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, said cities or counties can report local candidates who don’t fill out an economic-interest statement to the board, which may impose a fine of as much as $1,000. Once elected, officeholders who don’t comply risk removal from office, he said.

Photo: Chris Steller

Gov. Pawlenty isn’t the only one feeling a chill at the one-year anniversary of events around the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The RNC cast a few odd shadows at a forum for candidates seeking to replace Pawlenty in Minneapolis this morning.

First there was the little clutch of protesters huddling in the rain under an awning outside Mercado Central, where Minneapolis City Council Member Gary Schiff (Ward 9) hosted seven DFL candidates or could-be candidates at his regular “Breakfast with Gary” meeting.

A big banner reading “Dissent is not a crime/RNC8″ was hoisted merely on word that Ramsey County Attorney (and DFL gubernatorial candidate) Susan Gaertner had been invited to the event. (Protesters angered by her prosecution of RNC protesters have dogged her at public appearances as far away as Chicago.)

She didn’t show, but they stayed anyway. Were they transferring their protest to St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman? Not really, said one, even though he’s not their “best bud.”

As the event wound down, Schiff read the last submitted question and called for final statements from Coleman and the other gubernatorial aspirants: Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, state Sen. John Marty, state House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, state Sen. Tom Bakk, and former state Rep. Matt Entenza.

That brought howls of protest from Ward 12 Minneapolis City Council candidate Charley Underwood and Michelle Gross, a founder of Communities United Against Police Brutality, that no questions about law enforcement had been allowed. “Please respect the process,” Schiff repeated into the microphone.

Last, in his closing remarks, Coleman compared himself favorably with the previous administration in St. Paul with words that seemed to conjure up (unintentionally) images of the days during the RNC when much of Coleman’s city was fenced off to his own constituents:

My predecessor put tens of thousands of dollars of security equipment to lock the community out of his office.

Four years ago, the same candidate-training program did the trick for three other council hopefuls who went on to win election later that year. The best-known graduates of Camp Wellstone’s January 2005 session are U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, now in his second term representing Minnesota’s First District, and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who has gained a national profile during the recent U.S. Senate election recount.

But it’s the local victories by three members the Camp Wellstone Class of 2005 — Minneapolis City Council members Ralph Remington, Diane Hofstede and Elizabeth Glidden — that offer the most direct inspiration to council aspirants from this year’s camp: Charley Underwood, Doron Clark and Kenya McKnight.

All three find themselves in crowded fields: Underwood in Ward 12, the last to send a Republican to the council; Clark in Ward 1, where the retirement of DFL incumbent Paul Ostrow is creating one of three open council seats this year; and McKnight in Ward 5, where a number of others are also said to be mulling efforts to oust DFL incumbent Don Samuels.

Two others attended the recent candidate camp with the Minneapolis City Council in mind. Charles Carlson just announced that he has dropped out of contention for the DFL endorsement in Ward 2 for the seat now held by the council’s lone Green Party member, Cam Gordon. And Peter Eichten said last month he was still considering whether to enter the Ward 9 race as the second Green Party challenger (after Dave Bicking) to Gary Schiff, the DFL incumbent.

Carlson had been looking to get farther than Bill Svrluga, a 2005 Camp Wellstone grad who vied for but didn’t win the DFL endorsement in Ward 2 that year. Svrluga’s fellow camper Kevin McDonald took his race all the way to the November 2005 general election, when he drew nearly 40 percent of the votes in the city’s 12th ward, losing to DFL incumbent Sandy Colvin Roy.

This year Colvin Roy faces another newly minted Camp Wellstone grad in Underwood, who tells the Minnesota Independent he’s now been through all three tracks the camp has to offer. He completed the campaign-staffer track while working on Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer‘s 2006 bid for Congress, and later the track for citizen activists.

That’s the role Underwood says comes most naturally. This is his first time running as a candidate himself since he lost the race for Macalester College student body president in 1968 to Tim O’Brien, now a well-known author.

But three days of role-playing over the last weekend in January primed Underwood for tasks like phoning for campaign donations. That chore got easier for Underwood with this Camp Wellstone advice: “Ask for a certain amount of money, then pick up your coffee cup. Let the silence be there. Don’t bargain them down.”

McKnight concurs: “I enjoyed the hands-on learning, which helped me become much more comfortable with my approach talking with people, my 90-second speech. … It was a great start for me.”

For weeks leading up to the March 3 precinct caucuses, candidates spend evening after evening dialing not only for dollars but also for the support of prospective delegates. Once elected on Caucus Night, DFL Party delegates will choose candidates at ward conventions held later this month, with contenders for citywide offices (including mayor and at-large park commissioners) selected at the city convention in the spring.

The Green and Republican parties conduct parallel processes, though they’re conducted in a much more compact manner than those of the DFL.

Camp Wellstone is part of the St. Paul-based organization Wellstone Action (named for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and his wife, Sheila), which offers eight training programs in all. Communications Director Elana Wolowitz says the camps are held throughout the year and across the country, often at the request of local groups. Since 2006, more than 300 Camp Wellstone alums have won elective office.

Wolowitz says most participants are progressive-minded, and the organization describes itself as progressive — but also nonpartisan and non-ideological, with at least one Independence Party candidate on its graduation rolls.

Might wound-licking Republicans now flock to Camp Wellstone for tips? Wolowitz is dubious, since conservatives have their own institutes — on which Camp Wellstone is modeled in part.

Graduates are more likely to run into each other in places like Minneapolis where the two-party system means DFLers and Greens. Underwood, a DFLer who counts many Greens among his circle of friends and fellow activists, says it’s only by chance that no city council race this year pits two Camp Wellstone grads against each other.

Watching the president’s speech tonight is a lot like watching a Greek tragedy.  You know that the ending will be unspeakably sad, but there is a morbid fascination in watching it all unfold.

more insideThe details:

First, I have done the research and the president just committed an impeachable offense on live television.  According to the 1973 War Powers Resolution, Section 4(a)(3), it is against the law for the president to substantially enlarge the US Armed Forces in foreign combat, barring a formal declaration of war or specific act of Congress.  You can read the details yourself at http://www.policyalmanac.org/world/archive/war_powers_resolution.shtml and, yes, it’s an impeachable offense.

Second, an escalation of 20,000 additional troops will result in more American deaths.  The president himself promised it in his address.

Third, an escalation will also result in increased Iraqi deaths.  The president also promised that.

Fourth, the changed rules of engagement (which the president referred to as a “green light