Dai Thao wins Ward 1 city council seat in St. Paul

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Dai Thao was declared the winner in St. Paul’s Ward 1 city council race on November 11 — six days after the election. That’s when the Ranked Choice Voting count was finally conducted, running from early morning to late afternoon. Fred Melo (Pioneer Press) provided an entertaining Twitter feed, which may well have been the best place to follow the count. He announced that Dai Thao was the winner just before 4 p.m., with Thao garnering 1970 votes to runner-up Noel Nix’s 1722.For all of you (other) political junkies out there, that means that every single first-place vote-getter also won the RCV count in this year’s Minneapolis and St. Continue Reading

Minneapolis, St. Paul: A tale of two cities in Ranked Choice Voting

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The mayoral elections in Minneapolis and St Paul could not have been any different. One was loud and unscripted the other peaceful and predictable. Both spoke to the character of the two cities and what they mean for their futures. Minneapolis’ election was a generation changer preparing the city for the future while in St Paul it was an endorsement of the status quo holding the city in the past. But in both cases, ranked choice voting (RCV) successfully did its job. Continue Reading

COMMUNITY VOICES | Hmong North Minneapolis Soccer Players Cheer Coach Blong Yang Victory

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 Farview Soccer Shout-Out:  “Yeah Blong Yang!!”North Minneapolis Hmong soccer players have some special reasons to cheer  the election of Blong Yang as Minneapolis’ first Hmong councilmember:  not only is he their new alderman, he is also the founding league coach for their  Farview Park soccer team.As the van picked up  Farview soccer players Saturday for indoor soccer, they were asked what they thought of Blong Yang’s election.“I think Blong Yang will be a good councilmember, because he was a good coach,” says Ab Vue.Je Yang gives his thumbs up to Blong as councilmember “Because he is a Yang like me.”“Blong will have some new ideas,”, says Yeng Vang, “and he speaks Hmong, so he can talk with my parents.”Tou Wang Lee is proud that “Blong is the first Hmong elected in Minneapolis.”Coach Blong Yang with 2006 Farview Park 14u soccer teamIn 2006, Blong Yang coached the Farview Park 14u soccer team. This team literally came out of nowhere:  18 months before, all but one of the players were living in a Thai refugee camp.  The players were small and scrawny, and the players from the other teams towered over them:  But with Blong’s drive and guidance,  they won their first game 6-1, and went on to an undefeated regular season and league championship in the Minneapolis Parks Soccer League.  Coach Blong talks strategy with his soccer playersBlong coached Farview teams for three more years, and each year his team won the league championship. As their coach, Blong heard about the many problems his refugee players had in  their schools:  getting hit, lack of bilingual teachers, overcrowded classes.  And he also heard about criminal attacks suffered by the refugee families:  doors busted down while the families were inside, a robber pointing a gun at children  in their house and threatening to blow their heads off, assaults on the street,  thefts and car break-ins. Two  Farview soccer players were hit with stray bullets – both survived. Blong also knew that these refugee families spoke very limited English and would face challenges getting their voices heard.  Blong Helps refugee families explain to Minneapolis Public Schools officials that a 45 student classroom is too bigHe came to meetings and supported families when they said their 40+ student classes were overcrowded and needed to be cut. Continue Reading

Minneapolis’ new generation

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Much has been said about the upheaval in the Republican Party. But there may be just as much change happening in the Democratic Party, at least if the Minneapolis City Council election this year is representative of any trends. The generational turnover in the Council has dropped the average age from 52 to 41, by my reckoning, and increased the non-white membership from 1 to 3 of 13 – all of whom are foreign-born. Continue Reading

After days of counting, Hodges elected mayor of Minneapolis

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City Councilwoman Betsy Hodges was named the next mayor of Minneapolis Thursday, following days of city officials counting votes.Hodges will succeed three-term Mayor R.T. Rybak come January. She won with 38,870 votes after a 33-round elimination process in the city’s first mayoral race to test multiple rounds of the ranked-choice voting system, in which voters list their top three preferences.”On Jan. 2…it will be my job to live my gratitude by doing what I said I would do to work with you, to work with the community to build and grow Minneapolis,” Hodges said in a speech to supporters Wednesday night.Hodges’ nearest competitor, Mark Andrew, conceded from the race just hours after polls closed Tuesday. At that time, he trailed Hodges by more than 11 points.A winner was not declared on election night because none of the 35 mayoral candidates received the majority of first-choice votes. City officials spent nearly 50 hours tabulating election results, with each round of counting eliminating the least-popular candidate.After Andrew, mayoral candidates Don Samuels and Cam Winton placed third and fourth, respectively.Andrew’s campaign outraised Hodges’ by nearly $135,000. Continue Reading

The Maplewood race that could and did

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A small hard-working group of volunteers waited tensely for results to come in. Maplewood has a strong independent contrary streak, there is no certainty. Sidewalks are rare and sometimes the need for curbs are still questioned. Yet there are great parks and trails. Only a small number of people get involved in local city politics, so getting out the vote is really critical. Recent elections have been volatile. Continue Reading