“Announcement: Deceitful and dishonest campaign tactics have no place in Minneapolis elections. My campaign will never engage in these tactics. Nor will we condone them when carried out by others, even those who think they are helping us by indulging in smear tactics.
Thus, we condemn a fake website purporting to belong to Becka Thompson, and also a ‘carpetbagger’ flyer, accusing Ms. Thompson of conduct no different than our own in 2023. However much they wish to help us win in 2025, we ask all of our supporters to maintain the highest standards of fairness and honesty. Our campaign will do no less.”
Aurin, as far as anyone can tell, you still have not issued a statement along the lines of this one, in spite of many requests to do so. With the passage of several weeks now, we can only assume that you condone a fake website and a grossly misleading flyer, even if your campaign is not responsible for them.
It’s hard to say one was worse than the other. But the “carpetbagger” flyer deserves special scorn for its over-the-top hypocrisy, in light of your own nomadic and opportunistic residential history.
There are two examples you can look to, which offer a clear choice as to how an elected official should conduct her affairs. One involves Becka herself. One of her own campaign statements included some language that was ill-considered to say the least. Becka immediately, sincerely, and emotionally apologized. Some thought her apology was even excessive, but that’s a matter of taste.
The other was in August, 2023, when CM Wonsley accused Mayor Frey of threatening to withhold city services from her ward. Ms. Wonsley offered no evidence for her accusation. Nor did she retract it. Nor did she apologize for it. She has done none of those things almost two years later. Anyone claiming to be of good character would have done at least one of those things immediately. (As Becka did.)
Which example are you going to follow? Are you, through silence, going to let the impression linger that you think a false website and a deceitful poster are okay? Or are you going to make a statement that while political campaigns are rough-and-tumble by their very nature, deceit and dishonesty are not okay with you?
It would cost you nothing to issue a statement denouncing deceit and dishonesty in campaigning. It might even help you politically, to let voters see that you do, after all, stand for doing the right thing.
Thank you for writing this. I know a number of people who have reached out to CM Chowdhury to ask her to address this situation, concerning these specific activities intended to do significant damage to her one and only challenger. As far as I know, Chowdhury has not responded to any of them.
Weeks later, we are now left with the impression/ the conclusion, that our sitting CM in Ward 12, a representative for the entire City, has either encouraged all of these activities, and there are a couple more not listed, OR she simply does not want to close any of it down, or, at the minimum, call out the group that is responsible, because she believes that it all may help her more than hurt her at the polls.
I really hope folks remember THIS, and Chowdhury’s previous DSA endorsement, along with her proud stance as a “Abolish the Police” proponent, (all present in her social media history, that she has tried to scrub clean,) AND her continuing alignment with the Wonsley voting block, when folks bubble in their ballot in the fall. Our City deserves better, much better.