Political Speeches at Lowry Bridge Opening

Post and videos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

Every so often, I find myself turning into the north Minneapolis version of C-SPAN.  We have these great events, like the opening of the Lowry Bridge, and of course a parade of politicians have to have their say.  Most of the time, what's said is predictable (thanks to the community and the workers and the fellow politicians and the businesses and the children, etc.), although even in this set of speeches we have a few surprises.

In any case, these are our community leaders, and what they have to say at an event like this should be recorded and readily available.  That's where this blog comes in.

Several of our speakers touted the new bike lanes, and there was that surprise...

Marcus Harcus Suspends Campaign

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from Marcus Harcus' campaign website.

On July 2 Marcus Harcus, the only DFL candidate on the ballot against incumbent Joe Mullery announced on his Facebook page that he was suspending his campaign.  He posted:

[Marcus Harcus'] name will remain on the ballot, but I have suspended my campaign for State Representative due to a lack of support, financial and management-wise. Yes, there were a few dozen people who committed to volunteering, but I can't manage the campaign and be the candidate at once, at least not without enough money to get the messages out to my community. Many people tell me to keep running... next time, but I'm done. My window of opportunity is closing in 2012. This was a bad year to run due to my personal finance, health and related challenges, but it was now or never for me.

Going forward, I'm focusing almost exclusively on raising my kids, completing my academic goals and integrating into full-time entrepreneurship. I deeply appreciate everyone who made a contribution of time and money. When most people didn't respond to my calls for help, it makes me appreciate everyone who did even more! I often felt like a loser during this campaign, but I'm good because there is success in trying to be the change I wanted to see versus simply engaging in empty complaining about politicians and government. I'll post my final campaign blog tonight or tomorrow @ www.marcusharcus.org

Peace and blessings!

mh

I have been waiting to see if Mr. Harcus would post something more formal on either his campaign website or campaign Facebook page, but no new information has appeared there as of the time of this posting.  Given the importance of knowing who is and is not campaigning for office in north Minneapolis, I elected to wait a reasonable amount of time and then share the announcement.

Although I have supported Joe Mullery in this race, I was surprised and impressed with how well Harcus had run his campaign.  His last push for elected office was not a serious attempt, and even he admitted so.  However, it's pretty rare for someone to make a transition from a political also-ran to a legitimate contender.  I believe Harcus did exactly that.  While he has stated that--win or lose--this would be the last time he runs for public office, I hope that he changes his mind in the future.

Harcus' departure almost certainly clears the way for Mullery to be re-elected.  A suspended campaign isn't the same as completely bowing out, but I don't see how Marcus can get more votes if he's not actively campaigning against a long-term incumbent.  Another possibility is that one of the other handful of challengers could revive their campaign.  But since the filing deadline has passed, they would have to run while asking people to write in their name on the ballot.  Given that all other candidates were eliminated from the DFL endorsement on the first ballot at the convention, I doubt they have the support needed to succeed in such an endeavor.

The least likely but scariest prospect is that the Republican challenger Cindy Lilly could beat out Joe Mullery.  However unlikely that is, he's still got a campaign to run.

Joe Mullery - "Why I Voted Against the Stadium"

Post and photo from Rep. Joe Mullery's email newsletter.

This week Joe Mullery sent out a very detailed explanation about his vote on the Vikings' Stadium bill, and his vote against it.  The letter affirmed my support for him and served as a reminder that I need Mullery lawn signs for my new house.  Mullery's words appear after the jump and are unedited.

How to Have a Stadium Referendum in North Minneapolis

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Top document from the city of Minneapolis, bottom image from the Daily Norseman blog.

The Vikings Stadium bill is moving along in the state legislature, and morphing too often and too quickly to keep up with on this blog.  But one key provision that our mayor and seven council members have turned their back on is the fact that the Minneapolis city charter specifically calls for a citywide referendum on any stadium funding greater than $10 million.  At the city council meeting that produced a 7-6 vote in favor of the stadium (Rybak calls that strong support), the city's chief financial officer was asked what the total cost to the city of Minneapolis through 2046 would be for this stadium proposal.

$675 million.

Now I might not be as smart as these people, so I pulled out my calculator to double-check a few things.  And just to be sure I didn't get mixed up with all these newfangled smartphone calculators, I used one that's fifteen years old and only goes up to eight digits.  $67,500,000 minus $10,000,000 equals $57,500,000.  I know I'm missing a zero in there somewhere, but I'm not too good at math and can't figure out where to put it.  Anyway, as best as I can figure, we're allocating far more than ten million in city resources under this proposal, and yet eight of our Minneapolis elected officials are ignoring the referendum requirement.

As an aside, the city attorney has issued a verbal opinion, not a written one, and that this is okey-dokey because the state collects these taxes and gives them back to the city or lets us use them or converts them into unique monetary units that only the Vikings faithful can see, or something like that.  We don't really know, because this is a VERBAL opinion and not written out.  In my opinion, the mayor and city attorney are selling the gang of seven short.  I find it extraordinarily flimsy for a $675,000,000 decision to be made on verbal guidance alone.  If there were a written opinion, then the support that the seven CM's gave would have more weight at least.

So if there's going to be no referendum, what do we do in north Minneapolis?

Parliamentary Maneuvers in 59A Fail to Block Endorsement

Post and video by the Hawthorne Hawkman, video from a previous candidate forum, not from the senate district convention.

The parliamentary order used to run meetings as small as neighborhood or church council and as large as political conventions has two guiding principles that participants too often forget.  First, it's supposed to make sense.  Second, people with a superior knowledge of parliamentary procedure are not supposed to use that knowledge to manipulate the outcome of a meeting.  Think of David Carradine's character in Kung Fu - a Shaolin monk who was a master of martial arts but never really used that to fight anyone.  The meeting or convention that uses parliamentary order might have plenty of drama, but the application of Robert's Rules of Order should have all the excitement of two people exchanging business cards in slow motion after they've taken an Ambien.

Clearly this is not what happened in the DFL convention for the house seat in 59A.  Joe Mullery did get the endorsement, but only after a series of convoluted parliamentary maneuvers.  I was in the midst of the 59B stalemate, and only heard snippets of how things were proceeding.  Challengers David Younk, David Boyd, and (surprisingly for a sitting elected official) Jon Olson were eliminated from contention after the first ballot, leaving Marcus Harcus to either claim or block a DFL endorsement of the incumbent.  In an ironic twist of fate, Mullery was at one time a single vote short of the nomination.  Had I already moved into 59A, I would have cast that clinching vote.  On two other occasions, there were enough spoiled ballots (the delegate did not sign the back of the ballot as required - even an x, or line, or anything that could remotely be construed as a signature would have validated those votes) that would have given Mullery the endorsement before the drama of the last vote.

I heard several versions of what transpired while at the convention itself.  Later on North Talk and on his own Facebook page, Harcus posted his version of the events.  After speaking with several credible sources, here is what I believe to be a fairly accurate recounting...

Candidates Debate in 58A

Post and video by the Hawthorne Hawkman, video done on behalf of the Senate district 58 DFL.

Before diving into the candidate debates, two things should be made clear.  First, the way the videos are labeled on the District 58 DFL website is not entirely accurate.  I did the recording at this forum and know that the questions preceded the candidate "introductions."  Our moderator slipped up and forgot to give the candidates time to introduce themselves.  Since she jumped into the questions immediately, she suggested that the candidates be given two minutes' worth of closing statements instead of a one-minute introduction and a one-minute closing remark.  The candidates agreed to the change in format.

Second, unlike in 58B where I am still neutral, I do have a candidate I support:  the incumbent Joe Mullery.  I support Mullery because our district is already losing its seniority of a senator and one representative.  That seniority means something in terms of committee memberships, and I don't want to see NoMi have three freshmen legislators who are at the bottom rung when it comes to influence.  Second, no legislator knows more about the housing crisis and mortgage technicalities than Joe.  I believe we need that expertise.  Joe's been around a long time and the time will come when we should hand the reins over to someone new.  I don't think we're there yet.

In describing the debate, I'll try to be fair, but readers should know my bias and be able to take that into account.

The candidates in attendance were David Boyd, Marcus Harcus, Joe Mullery, Jon Olson, and David Younk.  The moderator led off her questions with one about...

Redistricting Holdups Won't Serve NoMi

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Top image from the redistricting court case, bottom image from the city of Minneapolis.

Here in NoMi, we're heading into somewhat uncertain territory.  With redistricting already facing legal hurdles, precinct caucuses for senate district 58 are scheduled for February 7.  Linda Higgins is stepping down from her seat as our state senator, and Bobby Joe Champion has announced his intention to run for that seat.  Raymond Dehn and Terra Cole have announced their candidacies for Champion's seat, but might not even live in the district depending on how lines are redrawn.  Joe Mullery is running for re-election as well.

(I'm covering known DFL candidates because they are the ones most likely to win election, but readers can inform each other about others who are running.)

So the conundrum as I see it is that we're holding our caucuses before we know for sure what the boundaries for legislative districts are.  Right now the best estimation of those boundaries is shown above.  Our senate district would include...