Around four weeks ago we decided that as a media outlet that is part of the political, economic and social environment of the Twin Cities, we needed to demonstrate a larger political participation and endorse candidates in the September 13th primaries. We also decided to make endorsements so we could help our readers make what can be a very difficult decision: who to vote for in hotly contested races in Minneapolis. At the same time we wanted to draw attention from Minneapolis politicians to issues that affect our community. We decided to make endorsements in two wards in South Minneapolis that are very competitive and that have two of the largest concentrations of Latinos in the city: wards eight and ten.
Ward eight covers from Lake Street to 50th Street and from Lyndale Avenue to Cedar Avenue and it has the one of the largest Latino populations in Minneapolis. Ward ten has a smaller Latino population than ward eight and it covers the uptown area, including part of Lake Street from Second Avenue to Lake Calhoon and forty second Street to Franklin. Both wards have grown a lot in Hispanic population in the past ten years, and they will continue to grow much more in the next ten.
The job was harder than we expected since there were no incumbents in these races, and we had never heard before of most of the candidates (fourteen total candidates). But it was an interesting process to go through and we hope we can help in your decision on who to vote for. In Ward 8 six of the eight candidates we sent questionnaires to answered our questions and in ward ten, three of the six candidates responded.
We asked the candidates seven questions that we decided covered the most important issues that our community faces. We asked what they would do to increase diversity in the City of Minneapolis decision-making, if they would support that Minneapolis residents be allowed to get a drivers license regardless of immigration status, what they would do help reduce the learning gap between white and minority students in Minneapolis, what they would do to help reduce gangs and crime in the city, what they would do to improve the chances for home ownership in the city, how they would help to improve the environment for small businesses in Minneapolis, and how to improve the job climate for thousands of immigrants that will move to the city in the next few years.
In ward 8 we decided to endorse Jeff Hayden. We were very impressed with his pervious experience, which included time as assistant to Gary Schiff a member of the city council who has done a lot to support the Latino Community and who endorsed Hayden. We were impressed by his answers to our questions, and his knowledge about the Latino community. Hayden who is African American would add to the much-needed ethnic diversity needed in the city council. Very close to Hayden was Elizabeth Glidden who impressed us with her answers, and demonstrated a very good understanding about issues that confront immigrant communities. Glidden was the candidate that seemed to put the most effort into answering our questions. We feel that either candidate would represent our community well.
Donald Bellsfield impressed us with most of his answers. It was refreshing to listen to a candidate that doesn’t sound like most Minneapolis politicians, and that understands that most jobs are created by small business owners, and that high taxes discourage immigrants from buying homes and investing in businesses in the city. He also talked about the need to hire more cops and about how democrats must stop taking minority voters for granted.
Unfortunately Bellfield is opposed to letting Minneapolis residents obtain a drivers license regardless of immigration status. He also made a bad impression with our editorial board who worked so hard in this endorsement process, by insinuating that we had pre selected the endorsed candidates before sending the questionnaires. Bellfield would add to desperately needed ethnic and ideological diversity in the city council by being African American and a Republican.
Terry Yzaguirre the only latina in the race, and who is running as an independent, impressed us with her energy and passion to improve her community. But we feel she needs more experience in politics before we can endorse her as a candidate. We also noticed that she supports putting visa expiration dates in drivers licenses, which was proposed and passed by governor Pawlenty right after he got elected, and has caused many deportations of immigrants in Minnesota. Dennis Tiff, has some good ideas and initiatives. He would to a fairly good job in representing our community, but he didn’t demonstrate as much knowledge of problems in the Latino community.
We were very disappointed that we didn’t hear from Mary Houser. She is the candidate in the ward with the most labor endorsements, and according to analysts, is one of the candidates with the most chances of winning the primary. We hope that we just had some form of miscommunication with her and that she didn’t choose to ignore our community.
There are also two Green Party candidates in the race. There is a good opportunity that a republican or green candidate will survive the primary, because there are currently five candidates that are splitting the DFL vote. Doug Mann made a very good effort in answering our questions, and even answered on of our e-mails in very good Spanish, which was greatly appreciated by our editorial committee (hint for future candidates for endorsement). One of the members of our editorial committee was completely won over by Mann. Unfortunately the rest of the editorial committee, found his answers a bit extreme and unrealistic. The other green candidate, Reggi Berts, was endorsed by the Minneapolis Green Party, and he didn’t respond to our questionnaire.
In ward 10 we decided to endorse Scott Persons. He impressed us by his extensive knowledge of issues that affect the Latino Community and our neighborhoods, and he had the best score out of all nine candidates that responded to our survey. Scott doesn’t seem to have received many significant endorsements so far, although he received an endorsement from the Teamsters and the Firefighters union, and he received a positive mention in the Star Tribune editorial on this race. He seems to be very well prepared to represent his ward and very well informed on our community. Ralph Remington also impressed us very much and it was very difficult to choose among him and Parsons. Remington who is African American, would also increase needed diversity in the city council, and would represent the Latino Community well, but Parsons impressed us a bit more.
We were a little disappointed by Allan Bernard. Someone with as extensive political experience as he has should be better informed about issues that are important to the Latino Community. He was the only candidate that answered that he didn’t know enough about the issue of granting drivers licenses to Minneapolis residents regardless of immigration status. Even if we disagreed with Bellfield and Yzaguirre on this issue, at least they had an opinion. The rest of the candidates that offered responses agreed with granting drivers licenses regardless of immigration status. None of the other three candidates responded to our questions. Gay Noble has been endorsed by well-known state representative Karen Clark and we don’t know anything about Harry Savage or Tom Moore, the other two candidates.
The September 13th primaries will be your only chance to vote for all the available candidates since in the general election you will only have the option to vote for the two top vote getters in the primary. If you want to know who the candidates are in your neighborhood go to www.startribune.com/politics/ enter your zip code under myVote and you will find information about the candidates in your neighborhood and where to vote.