Thank you Terry for another great and insightful interview to help motivate and inform our community on how we can make changes to our city council leadership and also change the trajectory of the city of Minneapolis in 2026. Please show up for caucus on April 8th, it's just that easy!
Wow, I learned a lot from this interview. I have to confess I'd never heard of this organization before. I think I had seen We Love Minneapolis mentioned in passing a couple of times without really understanding the group or their goals. Really insightful interview. Thank you.
P.s. Terry do you know if there's any social media presence for the group? I did a quick search to see if there was like a Facebook page or a Twitter account. Just kind of checking in to see if there's other ways to keep in touch with them. TIA
Thank you Terry, for interviewing Andrea. She is sensational and made crystal clear how important electing the right CC members is, and why we MUST attend caucuses to ensure reasonable people have a chance.
I would love to see the caucus system ended. But I think Andrea and others are still exaggerating the importance. Linea is going to easily win the endorsement in Ward 13, and easily win reelection. You can say the same for Vetaw, Rainville, Chughati, Chavez, and probably Wonsley. Strong candidates who fit their wards are very likely to win both the caucus and the actual election. All these folks get counted in the stat that "95% of endorsed candidates end up winning". In competitive wards or races, it's different. The endorsement matters much less, if at all. We will see this happen this cycle in Wards 7, 8, and possibly 5. When a candidate cleans up at caucus and wins 70, 80 or more of the vote, it shouldn't surprise anyone that they go onto win. If you're able to get that many people to attend a miserable process that almost everyone hates, it means you have a large base with volunteers who are going to knock doors, phone bank, etc. And it means any of your challengers still have a lot of work to do. If you're not able to get 40 or 50 people to show up for you, how much organizing have you really done? How many volunteers will your campaign attract? It's nice to see more people wanting to get into local politics, but it is cute to call others activist but not themselves when they are trying to do the same thing they are mad at others for successfully doing (get more people to show up to support their side to gain power). I'm also not sure why people like Andrea are getting so whipped up in outrage over Lyndale. Lyndale's right of way is huge. We're able to do a bike lane while preserving on street parking in a way that wasn't possible on Hennepin. She's suggesting there won't be parking on Lyndale, but there will be under the plans as they exist today. She also seems concerned that all commercial corridors will be under construction at the same time, which is also untrue. Hennepin will be done this year. Lyndale won't start until 2027. By the time Lyndale starts, Nicollet will be re-opened. 1st Ave will be reconstructed. There won't be any construction along Lake, Franklin, 26th or 28th. Traffic and construction impacts will be way different than what we experienced last summer. There's also a ton of conspiratorial thinking over how decisions are made concerning bike infrastructure. I've said it before, but it's all transparent. The city adopted complete streets in 2016. The entire council supported it. That's the policy that dictates how streets are reconstructed. Until and unless that policy is undone, we are going to get changes like Hennepin. The county doesn't have to follow it, but they do take it into account as a matter of respect. The bike lobby or caucus or whatever is not making decisions.
I’d end the caucus and endorsement process. You don’t need to replace it with anything. You’d just use the existing election system. We have RCV, which works great. I think it would make our local politics better.
Thank you Terry for another great and insightful interview to help motivate and inform our community on how we can make changes to our city council leadership and also change the trajectory of the city of Minneapolis in 2026. Please show up for caucus on April 8th, it's just that easy!
Wow, I learned a lot from this interview. I have to confess I'd never heard of this organization before. I think I had seen We Love Minneapolis mentioned in passing a couple of times without really understanding the group or their goals. Really insightful interview. Thank you.
P.s. Terry do you know if there's any social media presence for the group? I did a quick search to see if there was like a Facebook page or a Twitter account. Just kind of checking in to see if there's other ways to keep in touch with them. TIA
They are on Instagram at "welovempls"
Thank you Terry. I'm not on Instagram personally, but glad to hear they're somewhere
Here is their website: https://www.welovempls.org
Spread the word!
Good question, Paul!
Thank you Terry, for interviewing Andrea. She is sensational and made crystal clear how important electing the right CC members is, and why we MUST attend caucuses to ensure reasonable people have a chance.
Fantastic job!!
I would love to see the caucus system ended. But I think Andrea and others are still exaggerating the importance. Linea is going to easily win the endorsement in Ward 13, and easily win reelection. You can say the same for Vetaw, Rainville, Chughati, Chavez, and probably Wonsley. Strong candidates who fit their wards are very likely to win both the caucus and the actual election. All these folks get counted in the stat that "95% of endorsed candidates end up winning". In competitive wards or races, it's different. The endorsement matters much less, if at all. We will see this happen this cycle in Wards 7, 8, and possibly 5. When a candidate cleans up at caucus and wins 70, 80 or more of the vote, it shouldn't surprise anyone that they go onto win. If you're able to get that many people to attend a miserable process that almost everyone hates, it means you have a large base with volunteers who are going to knock doors, phone bank, etc. And it means any of your challengers still have a lot of work to do. If you're not able to get 40 or 50 people to show up for you, how much organizing have you really done? How many volunteers will your campaign attract? It's nice to see more people wanting to get into local politics, but it is cute to call others activist but not themselves when they are trying to do the same thing they are mad at others for successfully doing (get more people to show up to support their side to gain power). I'm also not sure why people like Andrea are getting so whipped up in outrage over Lyndale. Lyndale's right of way is huge. We're able to do a bike lane while preserving on street parking in a way that wasn't possible on Hennepin. She's suggesting there won't be parking on Lyndale, but there will be under the plans as they exist today. She also seems concerned that all commercial corridors will be under construction at the same time, which is also untrue. Hennepin will be done this year. Lyndale won't start until 2027. By the time Lyndale starts, Nicollet will be re-opened. 1st Ave will be reconstructed. There won't be any construction along Lake, Franklin, 26th or 28th. Traffic and construction impacts will be way different than what we experienced last summer. There's also a ton of conspiratorial thinking over how decisions are made concerning bike infrastructure. I've said it before, but it's all transparent. The city adopted complete streets in 2016. The entire council supported it. That's the policy that dictates how streets are reconstructed. Until and unless that policy is undone, we are going to get changes like Hennepin. The county doesn't have to follow it, but they do take it into account as a matter of respect. The bike lobby or caucus or whatever is not making decisions.
Hi Adam, thank you for your insights. I'm wondering why you would like to see the caucus system end? and what would you replace it with?
I’d end the caucus and endorsement process. You don’t need to replace it with anything. You’d just use the existing election system. We have RCV, which works great. I think it would make our local politics better.