Minneapolis school board candidate Ira Jourdain wants to move away from ‘rigid mandating and testing’

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Among the candidates running for school board this election is American Indian candidate Ira Jourdain, who lives in East Phillips and is employed at the Father Project, part at the Division of Indian Work. He works with Native fathers and their families on issues such as employment, housing and transportation. A parent who will have four children in Minneapolis Public Schools next year, Jourdain hopes to build better communication in the district, and wants to shift the direction of the schools away from testing. He believes that having kids in the district (only two of the seven candidates do) makes him better attuned to what’s really happening in the schools. Jourdain holds concerns “about the direction the district is going with our kids in terms of testing and a lack of communication between the administration, teachers and parents,” he said, which led him to decide to run for the office. Continue Reading

Orthodox Republicanism after Eric Cantor

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David Brat’s defeat of Eric Cantor should comfort neither establishment Republicans nor Democrats. His victory portends threats to both parties. For Republicans, it suggests a continued ideological divide, for Democrats, a vital threat in 2014 to the electoral prospects. Continue Reading

Meet an Election Judge: Erica Mauter

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Since beginning graduate school, blogger Erica Mauter has gotten more involved in the political process by volunteering for different campaigns, but now she’s ready to take her civic engagement to the next level by becoming an election judge. We talked to Mauter about her reasons for making the decision, and what she expects. Is this your first time being an election judge?Erica Mauter: Yes, it will be the first time.What made you make this decision?I have spent the last couple years in grad school as a full time student, which has afforded me some free time. Part of how I spent that free time was to volunteer for a few political campaigns. So I spent a lot of time on the Minnesotans United campaign and spent a lot of time last year volunteering on the Betsy Hodges for Mayor campaign. Continue Reading

Handicapping the 2014 Minnesota Republican chances

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The 2014 Minnesota election season has officially begun. The legislative session is over, the candidate filing period has begun, and the Green and Independence parties have already had their nominating conventions and the Republicans just selected Mike McFadden and Jeff Johnson to challenge AL Franken and Mark Dayton for senator and governor respectively. The GOP convention also touched off the effort by the Republicans to reclaim the House of Representatives. Let’s consider some possibilities affecting the Republicans’ prospects this fall. Two factors will be considered: The political math and the narrative. Continue Reading

Minnesota GOP Convention results, Friday and Saturday

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For the Senate, Mike McFadden won endorsement on the 10th ballot. That’s rather remarkable, for somebody who announced that he wouldn’t abide by the endorsement if it didn’t go to him. It’s unclear, whether there will be a real primary challenge. Based on all that I’ve seen, there are likely some very unhappy and disgusted right-wing GOPers, Tea Partiers and Paulbots and so forth, right now, and they would like a chance to take this guy out on Aug. 12. It seems less than 50-50 at this time that he will be challenged, though. I believe that potential challengers, like Jim Abeler, only have a day or two to make up their minds. And I’m also pretty sure that his main competition for the endorsement, Chris Dahlberg and Julianne Ortman, have said they’re done. Continue Reading