Andrew Johnson doesn’t always vote the way I wish he would, though we agree on a lot. He doesn’t stick his neck out to lead like the other south Minneapolis white guy I endorsed yesterday (which explains the peril Jeremy Schroeder finds himself in). But you can talk to him and you can tell that he cares about being seen as someone who engages and explains his positions in an intellectually honest way. He makes a solid case for the public safety charter amendment, which I recommend you read. Andrew Johnson is a fine council member.
We don’t really need to talk about Andrew Johnson though. His opponent is the kind of person I feel bad writing about, because she probably has a family who cares about her. I’m told Ward 12 has their share of Nancy Ford yard signs. Let’s hope the truism holds and these yard signs don’t vote.
Nancy Ford has conventionally conservative views on housing (NIMBY) and renter protections. She says she wants to have a “celebratory burning of the 2040 plan” on her first day in office. She doesn’t like the government setting a minimum wage. She thinks Minneapolis is “running out of space” to build more housing. Thinks we need to find some place in the county for people who make the “personal choice” to be homeless — presumably that place would be not in Minneapolis. When asked what police should do differently during traffic stops, the only thing she could come up with, besides recounting her own experience of being pulled over by the police, was to suggest passengers shouldn’t make any “unnecessary sudden movements.” And there’s this bizarre 2013 story about Nancy Ford spending “10 to 15 hours a week” shadowing and antagonizing panhandlers.
Don’t vote for Nancy Ford.