The introduction of instant-runoff voting (IRV) added uncertainty to city council races in Minneapolis. But when all the votes are (finally) counted, it appears likely that every incumbent who ran for re-election will prevail.
Minneapolis City Council debates are generally polite, drowsy affairs. But Ward Five has a reputation for boisterous, even unruly, political discourse. That might explain why more than 100 people showed up at the Capri Theater on Tuesday night to watch five city council candidates debate the issues.
Don Samuels cites plunging crime rates and signs of economic progress on the North Side as evidence of his effectiveness at City Hall. His opponents paint him as aloof and out of touch with the concerns of most residents.
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.
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