DFL

It's that time again: Minneapolis has citywide elections (official site) every four years in the election "off-year." This year's election on November 3rd will have two new twists: the most dramatic change is the shift to Ranked Choice Voting or Instant Runoff Voting for city offices (promoted by FairVote MN); also, the Board of Estimates and Taxation may get dissolved by referendum, consolidating more power with the Mayor and City Council. [More: "The auditor would report to the audited"]

The official outreach website for the City's IRV is at VoteMinneapolis.org and they are tabling local events until Election Day. Find your precinct and sample ballot here. Multi-lingual election info is available en Español (Spanish), Hmoob (Hmong) and Soomaaliga (Somali) - call 311 or 612-673-3000 for language help. Public awareness of how it works, especially among disadvantaged communities, looks really bad right now.

What's on the ballot? Mayor, City Council wards, the 2 at-large members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and the Park and Recreation Board (3 At-Large & 6 District Commissioners). The vote is expected to take several weeks to completely count everything (one reason the city cites for not calling it "instant" runoff).

Will Ranked Choice Voting mix up Minneapolis' dull & entrenched political establishment? Probably, for one reason in particular: The word from inside the RT Rybak for "Mayor" campaign is that the highly paid consultants running everything are "lollygagging" around waiting for the 2010 governor's race to start, but they don't really care about the city races.

Below the fold, all the candidates and links for mayor... Going deeper: 2009 Minneapolis election rundown: City Council, our favorite shady local deals & more!

From the open publishing wire: Mayor Rybak and Peter Wagenius testified under oath that Mayor Rybak and Councilman Gordon had made a deal in mid 2008 to help each other and the they would indeed endorse each other. This should be most important to the membership of the Green Party as well as to Councilman Gordon's constituents in Ward Two. You see, Cam Gordon had been asked at the 5th District Green Party endorsing convention on May 9th, 2009 very directly if he in fact supported or endorsed Mayor Rybak. Cam had responded with an emphatic no, that he did not.

Originally published by Michael Cavlan at tcdailyplanet.net/freespeechzone

NOTE: This administrative hearing to ascertain whether Rybak would face criminal charges was recorded. Tune in to KFAI Radio's CATALYST: Politics & Culture, Friday, July 24 at 11am to hear quotes from this hearing and an interview with Michael Cavlan. KFAI is at 90.3fm Minneapolis and 106.7fm St. Paul or live-streaming/archived at http://www.kfai.org/catalyst.

UPDATE: Wednesday, Dec 10 - 11 AM - KFAI will feature "Clearing the Courts... and Our Consciences" hosted by Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelson, talking with lawyers and defendants. With attorneys Larry Leventhal and Gena Bergland, Michael Friedman from the National Lawyers Guild and Legal Rights Center. Tune in FM 90.3 (Mpls) or 106.7 (St. Paul) or streaming live @ KFAI.

Last night's rally and dance party outside RNC felony prosecutor Susan Gaertner's gubernatorial fundraiser in downtown Minneapolis was a smashing success from the perspective of protest organizers. At 4:00, the RNC 8 held a press conference satirically endorsing Gaertner's run for Governor, and presenting a giant check for "Eight dollars and zero sense." Soon thereafter a banner was dropped from a nearby parking ramp, and the crowd for the CRASS-organized rally swelled to about 100. A large police presence of nearly two dozen MPD officers with a booking van and flexicuffs was also on the scene, but the crowd avoided arrests and ended the party at about 6:30, chanting "We'll be back!"

Meanwhile, the number of cases dismissed by St. Paul City Attorney John Choi this week is at 30 according to CRASS, all but three of which were scheduled for trial on December 15. Many of the cases are from the Shepherd Road and 7th/Jackson parking lot mass arrests. A minimum of 63 misdemeanor/gross misdemeanor cases have now been dismissed and a dozen others declined for prosecution.

Press Statement from the RNC 8 | CRASS | Petition to Susan Gaertner: Drop the Charges | "your felonies, your fault!" | Photos by kostyaissoli | (did you take photos or videos of the rally? publish or link to them on TC Indymedia and we'll add them here!)