Omar Fateh was endorsed by the Minneapolis DFL party last night at the end of a convention marred by technical difficulties with a new QR code electronic voting system. After struggling for hours to count the first vote, the final vote was conducted by a show of hands. We’ll be writing more in the coming days and weeks on the convention/caucus process, and whether it’s time for the city to move to a primary system.
Below are statements from each campaign issued last night:
Fateh statement on social media: I am incredibly honored to be the DFL endorsed candidate for Minneapolis Mayor. This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual. It’s a mandate to build a city that works for all of us.
Frey Campaign Manager Sam Schulenberg: “This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention. Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November.”
I think that the ‘moderates’ focussed here on the faults of the DSA (which exist) might be more usefully employed in helping the obviously incompetent volunteers operating the city’ DFL software to produce working systems for organising caucuses, conventions and particularly votes at conventions and caucuses. We have had one fiasco after another in that area: The caucus results and the votes at the convention were a particularly embarassing mess but there are other examples.
Why did we do so much better when everything was recorded on paper? We should either go back to that or get more
competent volunteers to help.
If the systems were more reliable, people could be more confident of the results and more time could be allotted to discussion, and hopefully the formation of acceptable compromises, on the major issues. In principle, good software
systems should also save money.
It is quite ironic, and rather alarming, that some of the people fumbling around with the software systems in the city DFL are DSA supporters. Democratic socialism, whether you like it or not, is succesfully practised in quite a few European countries. But it requires very good information systems because the government is organizing much more of the social processes than it does in more capitalist systems. Socialists need good programmers and the inability of DSA members to successfully manage the budget, the caucuses and conventions of the DFL is not an encouraging sign.
Woods Halley
The electronic first ballot was embarrassing for the Chief Teller. The other problem was that the Chief Teller was the single point of failure, so when she got sick, others didn’t know enough about the system she created. Many of the DSA people working on the convention – the Minneapolis DFL Officers, and the Convention Chairs and Parliamentarians were competent. Personally, I think the State DFL should take over the tech (Registration and balloting). I talked to Ken Martin about this prior to him becoming DNC Chair, and he was strongly opposed to doing this. This was consequence.
Congratulations Fateh!! Exciting news
Given the level of moral bancruptcy, it is becoming harder and harder to admit to being a Democrat in Mpls. Some of this would make even the MAGAs blush, the gaming and cheat, rounded out with the lies needed to justify the actions.
Way past time for a resounding clap back on November 4th, with the ONLY RANK FREY effort….🥳
Fateh Anointed: Convention Chair Decides DFL Endorsement | Minneapolis Times
https://minneapolistimes.com/fateh-anointed-convention-chair-decides-dfl-endorsement/
From a Strib “Readers Write” piece by Therkelsen this month.
https://www.startribune.com/readers-write-minneapolis-politics-trumps-budget-hot-tub-rentals/601367861?utm_source=email
Excerpt..
“It is not a matter of who is progressive and who is more progressive. It is that we have a Democratic Party, and we have a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) party. They are not the same. One is not just to the left of the other. The DSA, in its national platform, actually declares itself as opposed to both the Democratic and Republican parties and offers itself as an alternative to both.
The DSA favors complete defunding of police. Complete emptying out of jails and prisons. Complete dismantling of capitalism. Anyone can see this and its other positions just by googling its website.
However, it is smart politically, and where its members see they can win more seats by running as Democrats, that’s what they do
Getting out the VOTE this fall is critically important for Mpls, and part of that involves reading up to understand what is happening.
https://minneapolistimes.com/dual-dfl-dsa-endorsements-yes-or-no/
Excerpt…
“Conflicts between platform positions of the DFL and DSA.
The DFL and DSA platforms conflict on key issues, including public safety, economics, foreign policy. For example, the DSA website says: “Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit”. (The Democratic Party does not reject capitalism). DSA platform positions have included abolishing police, ending incarceration, replacing the US Constitution with one that instantiates socialism. (The Democratic Party does not take these positions.)
When a candidate is endorsed by political organizations which call for quite different ways to organize society, voters receive conflicting messages. They are unable to discern meaningful differences between candidates. Ending dual endorsement creates clarity, helps voters make more informed choices, where the outcome of an election more reliably reflects what voters actually want.
The TCDSA is hostile towards the DFL.
Like the national DSA, the TCDSA is openly contemptuous of the DFL and individuals who are DFL traditionalists. From the TCDSA blog, TCDSA leaders have said:
February 2022: “The DFL establishment is hostile to … workers and progressive movements … because corporate interests have considerable influence over these politicians through donations and personal connections…”
December 2022: “… Despite their victories in Minnesota and beyond, the Democratic Party’s corporate masters are quickly moving to the right. In Minnesota conservative Democrat Kari Dziedzic was quickly elected as the caucus leader in the State Senate…”
February 2023: “The DFL cloaks itself in progressive rhetoric and talk of equity and then steam rolls over the city’s working class.”
November 2024: “As socialists, we’ve long been critical of the Democratic Party for its connections to Wall Street and the billionaire class” and “By the end of her campaign, Harris had completely succumbed to a neoliberal, pro-corporate stance and was clearly unable to offer any respite to working Americans”
December 2024: “… Liberals, the nonprofits, the Democratic party, etc. have no plan, no ability to stop any of what is coming”
On June 12, 2025, a few days before the No Kings rallies, TCDSA sent an email to its members saying: “As we build this movement against Trump, we will not be promoting the Democratic Party … [Democrats] are contributing to economic inequality, wars, deportations, the climate crisis, etc.”
Resolution proponents argue that it makes no sense for a DFL-endorsed candidate to also be endorsed by an organization that is so openly hostile towards the DFL.”