Copyright startribune
With just over a week to go, the Minneapolis mayoral race is getting real. Mayor Jacob Frey is “cautiously optimistic” about winning a third term, but the coalition opposed to him, anchored by challenger Sen. Omar Fateh, says not so fast. Both sides have polls to support their case. But a lot of caveats are in order: polling has been limited; the polls were done before PAC attacks began in earnest and voters were likely engaged; the city employs a tricky-to-handicap ranked-choice voting system; and voter turnout in a traditionally low-turnout municipal election could make the difference. The election will determine whether Frey gets a third 4-year term and whether City Hall will move farther left. Frey’s most prominent opponent, Fateh, is a democratic socialist, while two other serious challengers, DeWayne Davis and Jazz Hampton, are also more progressive than Frey. Frey’s campaign manager, Sam Schulenberg, said their internal polling, fundraising and field data show Frey ahead of where he was in 2021, and that Fateh is “our only viable challenger.” An August poll by a Frey-aligned political action committee All of Mpls found Frey had a 13-point lead over Fateh. The poll, which simulated the city’s ranked-choice voting system, had Frey leading in the first round with 41% of the vote, followed by Fateh at 28%, former pastor DeWayne Davis at 10%, Republican Laverne Turner at 9% and entrepreneur Jazz Hampton at 5%. The poll had a margin of error of 4%. Democrats Davis, Fateh and Hampton have formed an alliance in which they want voters to rank all three of them in the hope that when one is eliminated, their votes will transfer to the others, propelling one ahead of Frey.
