Marcus Harcus, AKA "Bendele Hama Mbenge," Drops Out Of State Rep Race Against Joe Mullery, AKA "JOSEPH" Mullery, Like My Blog Wasn't Going To Find THAT Out...

Photo from Marcus Harcus campaign website but the truth is I swiped it from the North by Northside blog rather than go looking for it, blog post by John Hoff

WHAT IS STATE REP "JOE" MULLERY HIDING?

I did some digging and I'm pretty sure his full name is "JOSEPH."

But seriously, folks...

Marcus Harcus was running for State Rep against "Joe" Mullery until Harcus recently dropped out, barely bothering to disseminate word to voters and so Jeff Skrenes of North by Northside blog stepped to the forefront to inform the public, to the extent the public cares.

Reading the statement released by Harcus (as quoted on North by Northside) I was surprised by its tone. It was the kind of apologetic, taking-time-for-family, cryptically worded bunch of bullcrap you'd expect from some serious and promising political candidate who was caught behind the scenes bopping an intern, not a Facebook statement released by a second rate, wannabe candidate who never had a chance against Mullery, who was barely noticed IN the race and won't be missed much OUT of the race.

So what's the POINT of releasing a statement like this rending your political garments and putting ashes on your forehead?

Or is this what Harcus thinks you're SUPPOSED to say when you drop out of a political race? If so, Marcus would do well to use the "not a scandal behind the scenes, just never really had a chance" script instead of the "I hope my opponent keeps his promise not to make this torrid affair public" script.

North by Northside had mostly kind words for Marcus. This blog, however, is more known for frankness than kindness. To Marcus Harcus, who said he "felt like a loser" in this race, Johnny Northside replies...

Foreclosure Prevention Outreach: Not just for the Community, but WITH the Community

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from www.hudsonriverhousing.org

Earlier today, I received an uplifting message from Dave Snyder of Jewish Community Action about the foreclosure prevention outreach being done by NCRC. That's the Northside Community Reinvestment Coalition. Not only has NCRC been doing groundbreaking work on foreclosure prevention outreach, but the group (of which Hawthorne is a founding member) has also been lobbying Senators Klobuchar and Franken on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency bills going through Congress. We need to reach out to those at risk of losing their homes but also work with our elected officials to ensure that such a crisis never happens again.

Dave Snyder and Marcus Harcus have been doing a top-notch job of coordinating the outreach and lobbying, and today Dave told this story...

..."WE ARE STOPPING FORECLOSURES!

"Several months ago, when our volunteers knocked on Ms. Dorette B.’s door to talk with her about foreclosure prevention counseling, she told them that she had the situation firmly in hand, and didn’t need help. At the time, Dorette had negotiated a loan modification with GMAC to allow her and her daughter, who lives with autism, to stay in her home of 13 years. She called us back, however, when GMAC refused to make her modification permanent, citing a single missing signature on her application. With only a few days before her sheriff’s sale date, we connected Dorette to a counselor at Habitat for Humanity, and they were able to get her sale postponed until August 2, buying her some time to plan and negotiate further. Her case is still unresolved and JCA and other partners may still need to push for help for Dorette.

"But the point of this story is not that Dorette is getting help because of volunteer doorknockers like YOU. The point is that shortly after receiving assistance, Dorette was out with our team in north Minneapolis, wading through knee-deep snowbanks to knock on doors herself, to reach fellow residents who could use some help. The point is that the core leaders of our campaign—who have knocked on doors, traveled to Washington DC to represent us, and lobbied elected officials for fair lending reforms, are residents who have struggled against foreclosure themselves, and have decided to stand up for their neighbors.

"Since 2006, there have been more than 2,600 foreclosure sales in near North Minneapolis, out of 9,291 total households--a financial tsunami that wiped out millions of dollars of community wealth and uprooted thousands of families.

"In 2006-07, 49% of all home loans made to northside residents were subprime, higher-cost loans, compared to just 13.5% of Twin Cities loans overall. Subprime loans can easily cost you $50,000-$100,000 more for your home over the course of a 30 year mortgage than you would with a conventional, prime rate loan. That’s long-term, generational wealth that could have sent a kid to college or secured a small business on solid footing. Multiply that by 100, or 500, or 2,600, and then try to think of what impact that community wealth could have had for the Northside."

NCRC has two important dates coming up: On Tuesday, May 25, we will meet at the Urban League, 2100 Plymouth Ave N, at 6 p.m. to plan next steps and do foreclosure prevention outreach. And on Wednesday, June 9th at 5 p.m. we will hold an NCRC Community press event with John Taylor, President of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and local elected officials. If you can't make it to either event but still want to help, there are always opportunities. Contact Dave Snyder at david@jewishcommunityaction.org.

Hawkman Post-Election Analysis

Guest post by the Hawthorne Hawkman. Contributed photo.

Now that all but the last few park board seats have been officially declared, it's time to examine what happened in the 2009 city elections. I hate to get all legalistic, but it's gotta be done: The following commentary is attributed to Jeff Skrenes, private citizen, not John Hoff or any other organization that cannot weigh in on political candidates. (Click here for John's "gloves are off" post-election analysis.)

Now that we've dispensed with the formalities, here are a few post-election musings...

1. People are, by and large, satisfied with the direction NoMi is headed. All incumbents (including a park board rep not endorsed by this blog) in NoMi were returned to office. This is not to say that even the JNS-endorsed (and DFL-endorsed) incumbents are perfect, but that voters see the improvements in our neighborhood that are happening DESPITE an economic downturn of historic proportions, and credit much of these improvements to our elected officials.

It's been said that low voter turnout was an indictment against the status quo, and I heartily disagree. The number one indicator of voter turnout is how competitive the race at the top of the ticket is. That race was the Minneapolis mayoral race, and it was not in the least competitive. When the highest-profile race IS competitive, then you've got two key factors: A public that gets excited about and invested in the voting process, and not one but two campaigns running a wide GOTV effort. Without that in place, people wind up far less likely to get out and vote.

Anyone who says, "Oh, only 20% of voters got out and voted, so that means such-and-such a candidate that was reelected didn't REALLY have public support...well his or her opponents got EVEN LESS SUPPORT.

2. IRV/RCV is not a game-changer. For better or worse, Minneapolis is pretty much a DFL city, and incumbents who both want to keep their jobs and receive the DFL endorsement still have a major head start over challengers. I have my own reasons for feeling buyer's remorse over IRV (I was a supporter when it was introduced but now feel it's worse than what we had before), but at least this time around, it didn't change much. Candidates still needed to run good campaigns, and those who did not failed to garner votes. Several examples:

- Lennie Chism receiving less votes than Roger Smithrud. It is my opinion that Lennie, Natalie, and Kenya acted in concert, with Natalie and Kenya, and the deal was that he would be the pit bull to make Natalie and/or Kenya appear more moderate, and if either of them won then they'd return the favor later. I could be wrong about this of course, but my impression was that Lennie's only role was to attack Don as viciously as possible. Frankly, if I AM wrong then this is an even more damning indictment about the voters' response to Lennie's message.

- Kenya's challenges to the DFL endorsement were fruitless and exposed a campaign unprepared to navigate the minor arcana of the political process. Upon hearing the complaints raised by her campaign, I was left with the impression that the only basis for those complaints was, "No fair! They understood the rules and we didn't!" At best, I thought the challenge was made so that they could run a media blitz and try to de-legitimize the 5th Ward DFL endorsement. They didn't even do THAT much. But spending that much time and energy on the challenge wasted valuable resources and ultimately favored the incumbent. There's no way around it; this was a bad idea.

IRV may even have HELPED incumbents. To the degree that there was voter dissatisfaction in the 4th and 5th Wards, the lack of a primary meant that fringe candidates like Lennie Chism, Roger Smithrud, Marcus Harcus, and Grant Cemak were around to siphon off votes. (And as much as I like Marcus and recognize Cemak gained the Republican endorsement, the numbers show that those two WERE fringe candidates.) Under our primary system, voters would have had to choose between Samuels/NJL and Johnson/Parker. Those may have been much closer elections.

Along those lines, this blog was the first to declare winners in the 4th and 5th Wards, but I expect when the math plays out similarly in future IRV elections, other media will begin to feel more comfortable making similarly-timed predictions.

3. One thing that's very important is......TIMING!

I can't help but think of how different the elections would have been if Allan Kathir and Natalie Johnson Lee had gotten in the game earlier. While I have my doubts about whether either one would have affected the winning outcome, the races themselves would have been drastically different. I'd bet Kenya McKnight wouldn't have even run (certainly not past the DFL primary) if NJL was in the race from the start. Natalie might have had a chance to rally enough of the anti-Don Samuels voters to make a more serious run if she'd been in the race earlier. Kathir could have also made a stronger push if he'd been actively campaigning early enough to challenge Hofstede for the DFL endorsement.

The bottom line is this: If you don't have a core of volunteers ready to do the grunt work by the time precinct caucuses roll around, your chances of unseating an incumbent who IS prepared in that manner are very slim.

4. Rules matter.

Whether it was Kenya's ill-fated challenge to the DFL endorsement, her reported attempts to campaign at polling places on election day, or Marcus Harcus' Revere-like ride through NoMi (biking around and yelling through a bullhorn about voting, until someone called the police for disturbing the peace), or even RT's $26,000 penalty for campaign finance issues, rules were enforced. Seeing order upheld kept my faith in local democracy strong.

Regarding Harcus, I have to admire the political theater involved in his actions, even if they were ill-advised. He's someone I hope will continue to remain active in our community.

On a final note, I've heard people who associated with Flowers, NJL, and others go on about how they got to know these candidates personally, and they're such great people. Well when you're hanging out on Hillside Ave and you see Don Samuels stand up to gangbangers IN HIS SOCKS, you get to know him personally too. JNS readers who supported Samuels, Johnson, and Hofstede have worked side-by-side with these incumbents for years and know that these three are personally invested in our communities too. Thanks, and it's looking like the next four years will be even better in NoMi!