Elections

What if Minneapolis just didn’t renew the 20-year contracts with Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy that are coming up at the end 2014?

Things heated up in the mayor’s race on Wednesday, April 3 at Solomon’s Porch, a nonprofit Christian center in South Minneapolis. There were two additions from the debate last week, when Don Samuels, Jackie Cherryhomes, Gary Schiff, Betsy Hodges and Mark Andrew debated at the Humphrey School, vying for the DFL endorsement. The April 3 debate, hosted by the League of Women Voters, included Cam Winton, a conservative candidate who’s running as an independent, and Jim Thomas, a Minneapolis Public Schools teacher. The candidates sat in comfy armchairs in the densely packed room (I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a code violation with how many people were crammed on the balcony) and got into the nitty gritty of where they differ on the issues.

I have a long-held belief that the Portlandia mayor is secretly based on R.T. Rybak. Okay, I know, I know, it’s probably more likely that Portlandia’s mayor is based on Sam Adams, who was mayor of Portland when the IFC show—a satire of contemporary hipster culture—first aired in 2011, and who made a cameo on the show. Still, you have to admit that Portlandia’s mayor has a bit of a Rybak-esque quality, or vice versa.