2009 Minneapolis election rundown: City Council, shady local deals & more!

Besides the 2009 Mayoral race, anything else interesting happening? Depends on your enthusiasm about electoralism; three open seats at least means an open field in some places. The professional media hasn't really feigned much interest, except for MPR, the Daily Planet and the Minnesota Independent. It's almost like the political-media complex doesn't like to advertise the risky end of traditional elections in the city. At least, here's links to everyone!

Ward 1 (Open): Open for the first time in a dozen years, Kevin Reich is DFL endorsed. Longtime DFLer Susan Howitz Hanna is in, "Independent DFLer" Larry Ranallo just got the "Police Officer Fedration" [sic] endorsement. Mark Fox (Equity Advocacy Responsibility) is a local graphic/web designer (with a more than decent site); Tom Alessi (Ron Paul Conservative) is a manager at Hard Rock Café. (MnIndy article)

Previous: Election rundown: 2009 Mayoral race

Ward 2: Incumbent Cam Gordon (Green Party) makes nice noises sometimes but got busted in July making a sleazy deal with Rybak. Evidently Rybak followed through in preventing any DFL-endorsed opponent from challenging Gordon, which Ward 9 Green candidate Dave Bicking challenged. Gordon's opponent, Allen Aigbogun, is an Independent African-American attorney pitching a business-friendly line. (Interesting how the Greens have no mayoral candidate, a depressing example of how minor parties become pawns...) (MnIndy article)

Ward 3: DFL incumbent Diane Hofstede (married to an ex-mayor's brother) has a lot of challengers. Friend of the community Melissa Hill is running under the Civil Disobedience ticket, criticizing the giant sums of tax money squandered by the Minneapolis Police Department in their numerous illegal activities. DFL challenger Allen Kathir has worked on the city civil rights panel. Republican Jeffrey Cobia is concerned about crime. (MnIndy article)

Ward 4: DFL incumbent Barb Johnson wasn't even challenged last time; her family has controlled the seat since 1975. Marcus Harcus is in for the Green Party; DFL challenger Troy Parker has been active in the party a long time. Grant Cermak (Independent) is a software engineer and Ron Paul fan who grew up on the Iron Range and ran as a Republican against stodgy DFL Rep. Joe Mullery last year. (MnIndy article)

Ward 5: With Ranked Choice Voting debates, candidates have been asked to suggest 'second choices' to themselves. MPR reported incumbent Don Samuels (DFL) from Northside's Ward 5 found this 'self-defeating' but his likely strongest opponent, former council member Natalie Johnson Lee (DFL), recommended Kenya McKnight (DFL challenger) who helps develop local businesses. Lennie Chism, local businessman, is also running, and Roger Smithrud (Independence Party) has worked union jobs at the Star Tribune. (MnIndy article)

Ward 6: By 46 votes, DFL incumbent Robert Lilligren beat Dean Zimmerman (Green Party) as the FBI took him out (third parties make awesome corruption sting targets for prosecutor hacks!), and now has a lot on his hands with Laura Jean (Progressive), Andy Exley (Green Party) and Michael Tupper (Independence Party) "joining forces" for voting. Mahamed Cali is the president of the Somali American Community Association. Even with the feds on his case, Zimmerman barely lost to Lilligren, so expect Lilligren to go down. (MnIndy article / SW Journal forum)

Ward 7: DFL incumbent Lisa Goodman dominates the downtown developer & Lowry Hill scene, and has a ton of money, as her City Pages cover story highlighted. Her autocratic conduct with well-lawyered developers, as well as her involvement with the widely hated Midtown burner project (a close friend/roommate was launching the project), has now put a lot of taxpayer money in lawsuit jeopardy. Mike Katch has GOP and Independence Party endorsements; Jeffrey Wagner handles luggage at the airport. (MnIndy article)

Ward 8: DFL incumbent Elizabeth Glidden, a civil rights attorney, is facing Michael Cavlan (Open Progressive), who was motivated in part to run by the RNC and civil rights abuses therein, Jeanine Estime (Green Party), Gregory McDonald (Independent), and David Regan (GOP). (MnIndy article)

Ward 9: DFL incumbent Gary Schiff seems to have satisfied local DFLers but always seems to side with the cops & various nasty ordinance proposals. Dave Bicking (Green Party) is a friendly face known to many activists, claims credit for fighting the Midtown burner and tax money for stadiums, even better known now since his daughter Monica is one of the RNC8; he's also on the Civilian Police Review Authority. Todd Eberhardy (Independence Party) has a sign company. Schiff beat Bicking 59-30 in 2005.

Ward 10 (Open): Meg Tuthill (DFL endorsed) is almost certainly going to win; her Balloon Emporium on Hennepin Avenue has been around forever. Ralph Remington retired. Kim Vlaisavljevich is an independent. Musician and chef Dan Alvin is a Green Party activist with the support of the Independence Party. DFLer Matt Dowgwillo scored an endorsement from Remington. (MnIndy article)

Ward 11 (Open): John Quincy is DFL endorsed after Scott Benson retired. Quincy talks about airport noise and social justice. Gregg Iverson (DFL) is also running and criticized police lawsuits in MnIndy. Cab driver David Alvarado is also running as a conservative and opposes regulating trans fats. (MnIndy article)

Ward 12: Incumbent DFLer Sandy Colvin Roy is up against DFL peace activist Charley Underwood. Brent Perry (Socialist Action) says a vote for him is a "blow to the capitalist system" and he will seek justice for Fong Lee. Rick Nyhlen is running with GOP and Independence support in favor of small businesses and transparency. (MnIndy article)

Ward 13: DFLer Betsy Hodges faces Kris Broberg, a Ron Paul supporter backed by Greens, and DFLer Joseph Henry. (MnIndy article)

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A grab bag of city politics, money flows and shady business: A bunch of pieces have come up over the last year on a level not generally covered by TC Indymedia but certainly relevant to city elections...

The Empowerment Zone nonprofit-grant industrial complex: A great 2008 series in the TC Daily Planet on the circular nature of grant awards to non-profits is just one of the interesting cash flows around town to check out. This is an excellent example of how 'soft capitalism' works! Charges of cronyism, race issues, failing to create promised jobs, and of course the proposed grant for the Midtown Burner.

Neighborhood Revitalization Project takeover: The mayor's office has been after the Neighborhood Revitalization Project NRP money and decisionmaking powers. This motivated DFLer Bob Miller to run against Rybak in November 2008, but he dropped out. Miller's run the NRP since 1992.

Police predictive modeling for juveniles and permanent secret intelligence files: "Lists" are so 1970s; now we have all kinds of new State tracking systems that are more based on interlocking databases. Rybak has claimed that predictive modeling has enabled the police to intercede in criminal juvenile networks and drive down repeat offenses; this approach has been touted nationwide. Next up: loading the bad kids into associative database modeling to predict who will cause trouble. We're a generation stuffed into databases, but will the nature of these systems ever get exposed via the City Council?

CIBRS, the Comprehensive Incident Based Reporting System, and ICEFISHX, are two key elements of the State's data modeling system. The Department of Public Safety attempted to legalize permanent secret intelligence files (i.e. without any criminal basis for investigation) on all Minnesotans at the Legislature but the legislation was narrowly blocked by civil liberties advocates. Expect them to try again -- if permanent CIBRS "control files" spread to local police statewide and in the city, you're going on there one way or another, part of the broader agenda to use "intelligence" files to dominate society. Credit citizen privacy advocate Rich Neumeister for saving us last year, but don't bet on it again.

Elected officials can't get the real deal about what's going down: 51 years ago, Minnesota DFL Senator and former mayor Hubert Humphrey attacked the Soviet Union for shooting down an EC-130 surveillance plane in Armenia. The NSA and Pentagon kept the EC-130's true mission, dangerous flights over the Soviet border, secret from Congress, making Humphrey the chump. Today, legislators and City Council members are unlikely to get the truth about police (including intelligence) operations.

In the Rosemary Williams situation this year, it's been clear City Council member Elizabeth Glidden carries no weight with the police, who only answer to the Mayor; Council member Gary Schiff couldn't get real information from them about the huge, expensive operation they mounted to tail the "Tour de Fletcher" bike ride in March. They have very weak power as a check on the growing (and usually pricey) abuses of police and other executive officials, and very little ability to pry out many important facts and documents, even if they want to. No Minneapolis City Council member would be able to stop Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek's "Facebook police," a duo that make house calls on activists rather than real work.

Susan Gaertner won't touch Ramsey County mortgage fraud: Interestingly we heard that Ramsey County Attorney and DFL gubernatorial candidate Susan Gaertner was given basically ready-to-go mortgage fraud cases from the state Attorney General's office and refused to take them -- she's stayed the hell away from confronting mortgage fraud. Why?! No idea...

The police chief's family is in some drug conspiracy: One interesting pattern is how the immediate families of key law enforcement officials get tied into discreet drug trafficking conspiracies. In the west metro there is another key official whose daughter is controlled via addiction by a meth lord, making it far more difficult for that official to tackle the hierarchy involved. Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan's brother got picked up trafficking drugs at the St. Paul Post Office (ask the Chief about this in front of his minions, it's fun!) so it seems a bit more difficult for MPD to go after those guys. The "failed" Hudson dog track may be another site of covert activity: Clinton-friendly attorney Richard Ben-Veniste, linked to various shady dealings in Arkansas, was involved, as noted by author Daniel Hopsicker, and is patrolled aggressively to this day.

While the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis conceals more drug money: The Federal Reserve System is set up to compartmentalize drug money flows from outside oversight, while they also handle shuffling money between banks. The main "protected" un-audited circuit for settling these flows seems to be the Inter Bank Settlement Fund. Try asking the Minneapolis Police if they can touch money laundering bankers or mortgage fraud (which is ripping communities to pieces).

Drug money through interbank loans helped prevent total collapse last fall: In January, the top UN crime watchdog Antonio Maria Costa admitted that "interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities," but this isn't going to get any press.

The police, without fail, pass the buck to the FBI, which in turn can't touch Big Drug Money, foreign espionage or even solve many bank robberies. The biggest criminal enterprise in the city is the Federal Reserve and if the police cared about the law they would sack it, but they can't! Have fun grabbing ounces of coke while the real millions flow through the Fed computers, Boys in Blue... All these Patriot Act regulations haven't produced a stream of busted bankers, and this is certainly by design!

Candidates for Council by Ward

Ward 1 Council Member Candidates

Ward 2 Council Member Candidates

Ward 3 Council Member Candidates

Ward 4 Council Member Candidates

Ward 5 Council Member Candidates

Ward 6 Council Member Candidates

Ward 7 Council Member Candidates

Ward 8 Council Member Candidates

Ward 9 Council Member Candidates

Ward 10 Council Member Candidates

Ward 11 Council Member Candidates

Ward 12 Council Member Candidates

Ward 13 Council Member Candidates

Candidates for Board of Estimate and Taxation – two at-large

Candidates for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board – three at-large

Candidates for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board – District 1

Candidates for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board - District 2

Candidates for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board - District 3

Candidates for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board - District 4

Candidates for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board - District 5

Candidates for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board - District 6

Well that should be enough to make your eyes bleed. My arm hurts and I need a drink!

--Dex@riseup.net - Twin Cities Indymedia contributor