General Discussion

All four of the top-ranked candidates are Democrats, so there was never a chance we'd get a GOP mayor. The competition was just among the variations of Democrats. I thought the comparison of Fateh to Mamdani in NY was kind of weak, since what they had in common - being Muslims and "Democratic socialists," whatever that is, didn't hold up to a comparison of the cities or the circumstances. Fateh lacks Mamdani's charisma and positivity; he often seemed angry and argumentative, and he didn't have a clearly focused campaign like Mamdani's, which would have been hard to do considering that he was competing with other Democrats. The screw-up with the endorsement and following un-endorsement didn't help him, but Mamdani had another advantage Fateh didn't have - he was competing with sleazebag Cuomo and MAGA Sliwa. In Minneapolis we never had to deal with such a situation, we'd get a Democrat regardless. In my opinion the larger problem has been some of the dingbats on the city council who think a resolution condemning Israel's actions in Gaza was something more useful for a middle-sized Midwestern city government to do than managing the police department and fixing the streets. I hope the three or four new people on the council have more sense.