It’s been a rough handful of years, Minneapolis. And if recent events in our nation’s capital have you doubting how much longer we’ll still have a country, I understand. It makes for yet another city election year during troubled times.
It was eight years ago during the chaotic and traumatic first year of a Trump presidency that we elected what was, at that point, the most progressive and diverse City Council in our history. That same year we elected a young and energetic new mayor, Jacob Frey, who’d spent one term as a council member.
That 2017 campaign in was flavored by a reaction to the threat posed by Trump. It was an outlet for pent up political energy. Council incumbent Kevin Reich spoke of “accelerated national concerns” and dismissed the local political mood as activists mindlessly pursuing “change for change’s sake.” Lisa Goodman, facing a serious challenger for the first time after 20 years in office, called it a “twisted purification ritual” to spend “time, energy and money” running a campaign in a safe DFL district like hers.
Aside from the Trump factor, there’s another parallel with eight years ago. Former Mayor Betsy Hodges was an incumbent dogged by police and public safety issues, just like Frey. Frey tagged Hodges with “Minneapolis is in the headlines for the wrong reasons” and “that’s the mayor’s job.”
We should expect mayoral challengers this year to spend a lot of time ticking off Frey’s two terms of bad headlines.*
What’s different this year? Progressives already have a majority on the council — they’re just looking to defend or increase it. Another difference: we now have an outside group, “All of Mpls,” able to raise and spend multiple millions of dollars boosting Frey and his allied council candidates — and attacking their opponents.
One way to suss out the themes of the coming campaign is from the emails you get from Frey’s millionaire supporters at All of Mpls. At the bottom of their weekly messages they frequently include a roster of the “radical,” “extreme” and “DSA-aligned” council majority.
Emily Koski — a candidate they endorsed twice(!) — is included at the top of the list of scary radicals, despite her fairly tame voting record. Note, they only began talking about Koski as an extremist when it looked like she’d run against Frey.
. . .
It’s been a rough seven years under Mayor Frey. It’s hard to feel good about four more. If Frey & Co can’t make you feel good about him, they will scare you about the alternatives. That’s why I think policing and homelessness may loom largest — they’re such personal and emotional issues.
On homelessness, we will continue to be told the city council wants to legalize encampments. But there is no effort to legalize encampments. What’s true is that encampments are currently illegal — always have been — and Frey is the strong mayor in charge of enforcing the city’s ordinances. If the current approach (shuffling camps from one block to another) isn’t working, shouldn’t he have to answer for that? Will he answer for his 2017 promise to end homelessness in five years?
There were a couple of times last year when Frey showed up to press conferences at the site of a deadly encampment shooting. He spoke with great indignation about his displeasure with the people who aren’t taking as hard a line as he is, who fail to see how unacceptable and dangerous it is to tolerate encampments. And it made me wonder, does he know he’s the guy in charge of enforcing the law against the thing he’s real mad about?
On policing, Frey and All of Mpls will summon the ghosts of 2021. The council will be labeled radical left defunders. People will shout, “support the chief!”
But keep in mind, the police budget has increased by $50 million since 2022, Chief O’Hara’s first year in the job. Do you remember the historically large pay raises given to MPD in 2024, making them the envy of departments across the region? The city council approved both of those things.
What we’re really arguing about when it comes to police is no longer money or staffing levels, it’s attitude and tone. If you express skepticism towards the police, a desire for more scrutiny, or just disloyalty to Jacob Frey — you risk being labeled a dangerous radical. This election may be a test of whether we can get past a culture war that was so successful for Frey and All of Mpls in 2021 mayor/council election — but fell flat in the council-only election of 2023.
Another big question: Do voters want a mayor who can work well with the city council? Blame him for it or not, that doesn’t describe Jacob Frey. Frey’s three opponents, DeWayne Davis, Emily Koski, and Omar Fateh — come from across the spectrum of DFL politics, but they’re all promising some version of a fresh start and a commitment to collaboration.
*Headlines for the Wrong Reasons: 2022-2024
- MPD killing Amir Locke in a no-knock raid a month into Frey’s second term; this was after Frey had campaigned the previous year on claims he had already banned the practice
- Frey hired the clownish TV commentator Cedric Alexander to be the city’s first Commissioner of Community Safety, despite checkered work history; Alexander got into a twitter fight for which he was reprimanded, appeared unprepared during interviews, and flamed out in less than a year
- Frey had one of his policy aides and an MPHA appointee convicted in the Feeding our Future scam;
- “Before sitting down with state officials last year to discuss a meals program that is now under federal investigation for fraud, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was provided with a list of talking points that came from the woman at the heart of the alleged conspiracy…”
- Top leadership of the team that developed the frequently touted Behavioral Crisis Response teams left the city with settlements after claiming a hostile work environment
- 65 city staff made similar claims about a “toxic and racist” culture in the city coordinator’s office
- Several key officials left the city under an ethical cloud
- MPD failed to arrest a violent man with warrants despite months of complaints to police that he was repeatedly threatening his neighbor, Davis Moturi, who was eventually shot. When Frey was criticized by a council member for the failure, he called the criticism “gross.”
This is not an exhaustive list. It’s just off the top of my head. Sometimes bad things happen to good people — but I think Mayor Frey may be a poor judge of character, a bad leader, or just hiring people for all the wrong reasons.