Omar Fateh is a Democrat and self-declared socialist. He represents District 62 (parts of south Minneapolis) in the Minnesota Senate. He has challenged two-term incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey for the DFL mayoral nomination. In convention assembled at Target Center yesterday, the DFL appears to have gone with the ideologically fetid Fateh.
Fateh is like New York City’s Zohran Mamdani. He owns Mamdani’s odious views, but without the personal charisma. Fateh is the man Minneapolis needs — the man Minneapolis needs to keep it in the course of decline and make the decline irreversible.
There is some controversy over the mechanics underlying Fateh’s victory over Frey. Frey has not given up the ship. He may seek recourse from the state party (good luck with that, Mayor Frey) and should appear on the November ballot in any event.
The DFL endorsement requires the support of 60 percent of the delegates. The Star Tribune reports some of the “confusion” underlying the mechanics of Fateh’s victory? Dare I use the word “fetid” again? Here it is:
Confusion and distrust over electronic balloting snarled much of the Minneapolis Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s mayoral endorsement process, with voting slowly taking place over several hours.
By 7:45 p.m., only the first round of voting had been completed, leaving just Fateh and Frey left in the race for an endorsement. Fateh was in the lead with 43.85% of delegate votes. Frey followed up with 31.54%.
Frey campaign spokesperson Darwin Forsyth made a motion to void the results of the first ballot, saying he wanted it redone with paper ballots, but that proposal failed.
Subsequent ballots for the mayoral endorsement were to be paper ballots, party officials announced at one point. It took nearly two hours to get results from the first ballot using the electronic process. According to party officials, this was partially because the technical consultant in charge of tallying experienced a medical emergency and had to leave the convention.
Frey supporters made proposals to suspend the rules and adjourn the convention without a mayoral endorsement, but were voted down.
Around 9 p.m., with just one hour left before the convention had to end according to its contract with the Target Center, Minneapolis City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai made a successful motion for delegates to vote on the mayoral endorsement by raising their badges. Chughtai is a Fateh supporter.
The Star Tribune reports: “Fateh won by a clear visual vote of delegates holding up their badges.”
Can we get a recount? The DFL couldn’t manage anything as laborious as an actual count of the delegate vote.
This is Minneapolis. To borrow a thought from my take on the massive Feeding Our Future fraud, it’s what you get when you cross a Third-World tribal culture with an urban Democratic establishment.
The Star Tribune story concludes with a “can you top this?” moment that ended the convention:
With minutes to go before the end of the convention, the remaining delegates approved two resolutions: To oppose any city or Park Board contracts with entities “complicit in the occupation and genocide of Gaza,” and to oppose the use of laser light projections by any city agencies or concert venues along the river, in order to protect migrating birds
Well, can you top that?
