Minneapolis municipal elections, 2009

The 2009 Minneapolis municipal elections in the U.S. state of Minnesota held a scheduled general election on November 3. Because city voters approved a city charter change by referendum in the 2006 election to use a ranked choice voting system ^[1], Minneapolis did not hold a primary election on September 8, the 2009 date for primaries in Minnesota.

There was a lawsuit in court to prevent the voting change; it lost by summary judgment in the first court, was appealed directly to the Minnesota Supreme Court, where it also lost. One person active in the lawsuit has filed as a candidate but is not campaigning; allegedly this is to give him legal standing to sue after the election.

Voters in the city elected:

• 1 mayor
• 13 city council members, elected by ward
• 2 at-large members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and
• 3 at-large and 6 elected by district members of the Park and Recreation Board

Party Endorsements

Conventions of the Minneapolis DFL^[2], Green^[3], Independence^[4], and Republican^[5] parties have respectively endorsed the following candidates. Several candidates were endorsed by both the Independence and Republican parties; in the table below, these candidates' names span both parties' columns.

Seats		DFL endorsed	Green endorsed	IP endorsed	Republican endorsed
Mayor		RT Rybak, incumbent		John Kolstad[6]
City Council	Ward 1	Kevin Reich			Thomas Alessi
	Ward 2		Cam Gordon, incumbent	Allen Aigbogun
	Ward 3	Diane Hofstede, incumbent			Jeffrey Cobia
	Ward 4	Barb Johnson, incumbent	Marcus Harcus [7]	Grant Cermak [8]
	Ward 5	Don Samuels, incumbent		Roger Smithrud
	Ward 6	Robert Lilligren, incumbent	Andy Exley [9]	Mike Tupper [10]
	Ward 7	Lisa Goodman, incumbent		Michael Katch
	Ward 8	Elizabeth Glidden, incumbent	Jeanine Estime	Greg McDonald
	Ward 9	Gary Schiff, incumbent	Dave Bicking [11]	Todd Eberhardy
	Ward 10	Meg Tuthill[12]		Dan Alvin	Kim Vlaisavljevich[13]
	Ward 11	John Quincy
	Ward 12	Sandy Colvin Roy, incumbent		Rick Nyhlen [14]
	Ward 13	Betsy Hodges, incumbent		Kris Broberg [15]
Board of Estimate and Taxation	2 Seats	Carol Becker, incumbent		Michael Martens [16]
Parks and Recreation Board	3 At large Seats	Mary Merrill Anderson, incumbent John Erwin, former Board member Tom Nordyke, incumbent	Annie Young, incumbent	Dave Wahlstedt [17]
Parks & Recreation Board	District 1	Liz Weilinski
	District 2
	District 3	Scott Vreeland
	District 4	Anita Tabb
	District 5
	District 6	Brad Bourn

Candidates

There were 95 candidates total:

11 candidates for Mayor,

Dick Franson: Democratic-Farmer-Labor

John Charles Wilson: Edgertonite National Party

Tom Fiske: Socialist Workers Party

R. T. Rybak: Democratic-Farmer-Labor

Joey Lombard: Lombard's candidacy was essentially a prank – he initially ran because his girlfriend said he didn't do enough for the community, but ended up terminating the relationship once he ran. Surprisingly, despite his lack of real campaigning, he finished in sixth place, and now plans to run for governor.^[18]

Bob Carney Jr.: Moderate Progressive Censored

Al Flowers: Democratic-Farmer-Labor

Papa John Kolstad: Independent Civic Leader

James R. Everett: Social Entrepreneurship

Bill McGaughey: New Dignity Party

Christopher Clark: Libertarian ^[19]

2-6 for each City Council Ward,

6 for the 2 Board of Estimate & Taxation seats,

8 for the 3 Park Board at-large seats,

1-5 for each Park Board District seat.

Previously mentioned as possible candidates for Mayor were Bob Miller, the director of the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP), Minneapolis City Council members Gary Schiff and Ralph Remington, Minneapolis Park Board President Tom Nordyke, former City Council president Jackie Cherryhomes, and Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin; none of them ended up running.

General Election Results

DFL candidates won 23 of the 25 seats, with Green party candidates winning the other two. No Republican or Independence Party candidates were elected.

Mayor

RT Rybak

City Council:

Ward 1 Kevin Reich

Ward 2 Cam Gordon (Green Party)

Ward 3 Diane Hofstede

Ward 4 Barb Johnson

Ward 5 Don Samuels

Ward 6 Robert Lilligren

Ward 7 Lisa Goodman

Ward 8 Elizabeth Glidden

Ward 9 Gary Schiff

Ward 10 Meg Tuthill

Ward 11 John Quincy

Ward 12 Sandy Colvin Roy

Ward 13 Betsy Hodges

Board of Estimate and Taxation

Carol Becker

David Wheeler

Parks and Recreation Board

At large Seats

Bob Fine

John Erwin

Annie Young (Green Party)

District Seats

District 1 Liz Weilinski

District 2 Jon Olson

District 3 Scott Vreeland

District 4 Anita Tabb

District 5 Carol Kummer

District 6 Brad Bourn

See also

Minneapolis municipal elections, 2005

References

1. ^ http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/elections/elections-works.asp
2. ^ http://scc.net/~t-bonham/MPLS2009DFLENDO.HTM
3. ^ http://www.mngreens.org/2009candidates
4. ^ http://www.independenceminnesota.org/local-parties/minneapolis
5. ^ http://minneapolisrepublicans.org/
6. ^ http://www.papajohnkolstad.com/
7. ^ http://www.marcusharcus.org/marcusforcouncil.htm
8. ^ http://www.grantcermak.com/about_grant/about_grant.html
9. ^ http://andyexley.org/
10. ^ http://www.michaeltupper.com/links.html
11. ^ http://davebicking.org/
12. ^ http://www.megtuthill.com/
13. ^ http://voteforkimv.com/
14. ^ http://ricknyhlen.com/
15. ^ http://www.krisbroberg.org/
16. ^ http://martens4bet.com/
17. ^ www.daveforparks.org/
18. ^ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joey-Lombard/199345185293?ref=nf
19. ^ http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/elections/candidate-filings.asp

External links

• Minneapolis candidate links from E-Democracy.Org