The 2013 Minneapolis mayoral election was held on November 5, 2013 to elect the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

for a four-year term. This was the second mayoral election in the city's history to use

instant-runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the Un ...

, popularly known as ranked choice voting, first implemented in the city's

2009 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2009. * Electoral calendar 2009 * 2009 United Nations Security Council election Caribbean * 2009 Antiguan general election * 2009 Aruban general election * 2009 Caymanian constitutional referendu ...

. Municipal elections in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

are

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

, although candidates are able to identify with a political party on the ballot. After incumbent Mayor

R. T. Rybak Raymond Thomas Rybak Jr. (born November 12, 1955) is an American politician, journalist, businessman, and activist who served as the List of mayors of Minneapolis, 46th mayor of Minneapolis from 2002 to 2014. In the 2001 election Rybak defeated i ...

announced in late 2012 that he would not seek a fourth term, 35 candidates began campaigns to replace him. Many of these candidates sought the endorsement of the Minneapolis unit of the

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is the Minnesota affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party. As of 2022, it controls four of Minnesota's eight U.S. House seats, both of its U.S. Senate seats, the Minnesota House of Represen ...

(DFL), though the convention ultimately ended with no endorsement. Although she did not win enough votes to be victorious on the first ballot, DFLer

Betsy Hodges Elizabeth A. Hodges (born September 7, 1969) is an American politician who served as the 47th Mayor of Minneapolis from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), she represented Ward 13 on the Minneapolis Ci ...

held a "commanding" lead and was "poised" to be elected following completion of vote tabulations. Second-place finisher Mark Andrew effectively conceded on election night, saying that it was unlikely that he would overcome Hodges' lead. Hodges was elected in the 33rd round after two days of vote tabulations.

Background

Minneapolis'

were the first in the city's history to implement a system of ranked choice voting (RCV), whereby voters ranked up to their first three choices for an office instead of voting for just one. Turnout that year was, however, the city's lowest in decades with under 46,000 ballots being cast. Incumbent mayor

R.T. Rybak Raymond Thomas Rybak Jr. (born November 12, 1955) is an American politician, journalist, businessman, and activist who served as the 46th mayor of Minneapolis from 2002 to 2014. In the 2001 election Rybak defeated incumbent Sharon Sayles Belton ...

won over 33,000 of those votes on the first round of voting, surpassing 22,579 which was the threshold of 50% of ballots cast plus one that were necessary to win the election. A 2010 report prepared for the Minneapolis Elections Department by David Schultz and Kristi Rendahl of

Hamline University Hamline University is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1854, Hamline is known for its emphasis on experiential learning, service, and social justice. The university is named after Bishop Leonidas Lent Hamline o ...

determined that it was unclear whether the RCV system had met its stated goals of "increasing voter turnout, encouraging more candidates to run, ndpromoting more support for third party candidates." On December 27, 2012, Rybak, who had been in office since 2001, announced that he would not seek a fourth term as mayor.

Candidates

Candidate Filing sign, Minneapolis City Hall 2013

The official filing period with the City of Minneapolis for mayoral candidacy began on July 30 and lasted for two weeks, until August 13. Candidates had until August 15 to withdraw and have their names taken off of the ballot. In March 2013, City Council member

Cam Gordon Cameron A. Gordon (born 1955) is an American politician who was a Green Party of the United States, Green Party member of the Minneapolis City Council from 2006 to 2022. He was a co-founder of the Green Party of Minnesota and was called "the mos ...

proposed raising the fee to run for mayor to $500, a move intended to "discourag frivolous candidates" according to the ''Star Tribune''. However, the fee remained at $20 for the 2013 filing period. While the election is officially nonpartisan, there was a space on the affidavits of candidacy for candidates to declare their "Political Party or Principle". A total of 35 people declared their candidacy for mayor, a number that Minneapolis elections officials claimed hadn't been seen on the ballot since at least the 1980s, if not before. Hamline University's Schultz commented that the crowded race would make it difficult for candidates to get name recognition, " pecially for some of those candidates who fall further down on the list because they probably don't have a lot of money, and they probably aren't going to get invited to debates." An article in ''

MinnPost ''MinnPost'' is a nonprofit online newspaper in Minneapolis, founded in 2007, with a focus on Minnesota news. Funding ''MinnPosts initial funding of $850,000 came from four families: John and Sage Cowles, Lee Lynch and Terry Saario, Joel and ...

'' suggested that the majority of candidates' campaigns would not have a lot of funding with which to work, nor would they be well organized. Gregg A. Iverson was the first of six candidates to submit their affidavits of candidacy on July 30, the first day of filing. Meanwhile, three candidates waited until August 13, the final day of the filing period, to submit their affidavits, including Cyd Gorman who was the last to file. No candidates who registered with the Elections Department took advantage of the ability to withdraw their candidacies. In 2014, as a result of the high number of candidates, city voters approved an amendment to the city charter that raised filing requirements to either $500 or 500 signatures.

Declared

:''A candidate's self-identified political party does not indicate endorsement by that party. Political party endorsements are listed in the "Political party endorsements" section below.'' * Mark V. Anderson, Simplify Government * Merrill Anderson, Jobs & Justice * Mark Andrew, DFLFive DFLers
Mark Andrew
Gary Schiff an

(an Independent ) were featured in the ''Star Tribune'' article: "'

''".Eight candidates were mentioned in Curtis Gilbert's August 13th 2013 report for MPR News, "'
35 candidates queue up in Minneapolis mayor's race
''": "''...Don Samuels and Betsy Hodges, former council members Jackie Cherryhomes and Dan Cohen, former Hennepin County commissioner Mark Andrew, Park Board Commissioner Bob Fine, business executive Stephanie Woodruff and attorney Cam Winton. ...''" * Neal Baxter,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

* Troy Benjegerdes, Local Energy/Food * Alicia K. Bennett, DFL * Edmund Bernard Bruyere, Legacy-Next Generation * Bob "Again" Carney, Jr., Demand Transit Revolution * Jackie Cherryhomes, DFL * Christopher Clark,

Libertarian Party of Minnesota The Libertarian Party of Minnesota is a state affiliate of the United States Libertarian Party The Libertarian Party (LP) is a political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, ''laissez-faire'' capi ...

* Dan Cohen, Jobs Downtown Casino * James Everett,

Green Party of Minnesota The Green Party of Minnesota is a green political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States. History The Minnesota Greens Confederation, founded 1990–91, fostered the development of local ...

* Bob Fine, DFL * Cyd Gorman, Police Reform * Mike Gould, DFL * Kurtis W. Hanna,

Minnesota Pirate Party The United States Pirate Party (USPP) is an American political party founded in 2006 by Brent Allison and Alex English.Milchman, El"The Pirates Hold a Party" ''Wired Magazine'', 2006-06-20. Retrieved on 2009-02-20, The party's platform is aligned ...

* John Leslie Hartwig,

, DFL * Gregg A. Iverson, DFL * Bill Kahn, Last Minneapolis Mayor * Jaymie Kelly, Stop Foreclosures Now * Tony Lane, Socialist Workers Party * Doug Mann,

* Abdul M. Rahaman "The Rock", We the people... * Joshua Rea, End Homelessness Now *

Don Samuels Don Samuels (born 1948/1949) is an American politician and activist, who served as a member of the Minneapolis City Council from 2003 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, Samuels came to national attention as a candidate for the DFL nomina ...

, DFL * Ole Savior,

Republican Party of Minnesota The Republican Party of Minnesota is the oldest active political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The Minnesota Republican Party’s platform is relatively moderate. The party’s main issues are economic growth, education, healthcare, civi ...

* Captain Jack Sparrow, Count All Rankings * James "Jimmy" L. Stroud, Jr., The people's choice * Jeffrey Alan Wagner, DFL * John Charles Wilson, Lauraist

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

* Cam Winton, independent responsible inclusive * Stephanie Woodruff, DFL * Rahn V. Workcuff,

Independence Party of Minnesota The Independence Party of Minnesota (often abbreviated IPM, MNIP or IP), formerly the Reform Party of Minnesota, is a political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was the party of former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura (1999–2003). ...

* Christopher Robin Zimmerman,

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

Political party endorsements

Gallery

Merrill Anderson 2013.jpg, Merrill Anderson Mark Andrew, 2013 DFL convention cropped.jpg, Mark Andrew Troy Benjegerdes Photo.jpg, Troy Benjegerdes Jackie Cherryhomes, 2013 DFL convention.jpg, Jackie Cherryhomes Dan Cohen Mayor.png, Dan Cohen Bob Fine mayoral forum October 2013.jpg, Bob Fine Kurtis W. Hanna 2012.png , Kurtis W. Hanna Betsy Hodges, 2013 DFL convention.jpg, Betsy Hodges Gregg A Iverson 2013.jpg, Gregg A. Iverson BillKahnLastMplsMayor.jpg, Bill Kahn Don Samuels, 2013 DFL convention.jpg, Don Samuels OleSavior.jpg, Ole Savior Captain Jack Sparrow, Minneapolis 2013.jpg , Captain Jack Sparrow John.wilson.photo.jpg, John Charles Wilson Cam Winton portrait 2012.jpg, Cam Winton Stephanie Woodruff October 2013.jpg, Stephanie Woodruff Christopher Robin Zimmerman from CRZ 226 YouTube.png, Christopher Robin Zimmerman *Not pictured: Mark V. Anderson, Neal Baxter, Alicia K. Bennett, Edmund Bernard Bruyere, Bob Carney, Jr., Christopher Clark, James Everett, Cyd Gorman, Mike Gould, John Leslie Hartwig, Jaymie Kelly, Tony Lane, Doug Mann, Abdun M. Rahaman, Joshua Rea, James L. Stroud, Jr., Jeffrey Alan Wagner, Rahn V. Workcuff

Withdrawn

* On June 19, DFL City Council member

Gary Schiff Gary Schiff (born February 3, 1972, as Gary J. Schiffhauer) is an American politician and activist who represented Ward 9 on the Minneapolis City Council. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), he was first elected in 2001 ...

announced an end to his campaign and backed Hodges. * Jim Thomas announced his departure from the race on August 12 and put his support behind Andrew.

Declined

Tina Smith announcing Farmers Market Week cropped

* John Erwin, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Commissioner *

Jim Graves James Joseph Graves (born September 27, 1953) is an American businessman and founder of the nationwide AmericInn hotel franchise. He was the Democratic Party nominee for the United States House of Representatives in Minnesota's 6th congressional d ...

, businessman and Democratic nominee for the 6th congressional district in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

* Tom Hoch, President and CEO of the Hennepin Theatre Trust *

, incumbent mayor *

Hussein Samatar Hussein Samatar ( so, Xuseen Samatar, ar, حسين ساماتار) (1964 – 25 August 2013) was a Somali American politician, banker and community organizer. He established the African Development Center in 2004, which provided microloans and ...

, Minneapolis School Board member (died August 25, 2013) *

Tina Smith Christine Elizabeth Smith (née Flint, born March 4, 1958) is an American politician, retired Democratic political consultant, and former businesswoman serving as the junior United States senator from Minnesota since 2018. She is a member of the ...

, chief of staff for Governor

Mark Dayton Mark Brandt Dayton (born January 26, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Minnesota from 2011 to 2019. He was a United States Senator for Minnesota from 2001 to 2007, and the Minnesota State Auditor from 1991 to 1 ...

Campaigns

Announcements

Almost a month before Rybak announced that he intended to leave office, DFL

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

member

of Minneapolis' thirteenth ward declared that she would run for mayor. Her plans, however, were contingent upon whether Rybak would elect to run for a fourth time. When Rybak made his announcement in December 2012, Hodges formally proclaimed her candidacy. The ''

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'' reported in early December 2012 that former DFL City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes was also considering a bid for the mayor's office. Cherryhomes last held office in 2001, but remained involved at the

Minneapolis City Hall Minneapolis City Hall and Hennepin County Courthouse (also known as the Municipal Building), designed by Long and Kees in 1888, is the main building used by the city government of Minneapolis, as well as by Hennepin County, in the U.S. state of Mi ...

as a lobbyist. Like Hodges, she only intended to run if Rybak opted not to and, like Hodges, she announced that she would run promptly after Rybak declared he would not, on December 27. DFL City Council member

from Minneapolis' ninth ward was also mulling a mayoral run in mid-December when he filed paperwork to form a committee that could support his potential candidacy. Unlike Hodges and Cherryhomes, Schiff stated that whether he would run or not would probably not be contingent upon what Rybak decided to do. On January 29, Schiff announced that he would seek the mayor's seat. Fifth ward City Council member

, another DFLer, was considering running for the office shortly after Rybak announced that he wouldn't run again. Samuels had served on the City Council for a decade at that time and had most recently run but dropped out of a race for

Hennepin County Hennepin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapol ...

Commissioner. A day after Schiff made his candidacy official, Samuels entered the race as well, becoming the third sitting member of City Council to do so. Mark Andrew, formerly a Hennepin County Commissioner and the chair of the DFL from 1995 until 1997, expressed in early January that he was "very interested" in potentially vying for the position of mayor. Since leaving public office, Andrew had begun GreenMark, an environmental marketing firm. He officially declared his candidacy on February 7, 2013, acknowledging his late entrance into the race relative to some of his opponents. Running as an independent, attorney Cam Winton is mentioned in a ''Star Tribune'' article dated March 20, 2013. Winton, a Republican, stated that he did not intend to seek the DFL endorsement, making him the only candidate declared at the time to do so. Dan Cohen, a Republican former City Council member, said on May 28 that he would run for mayor if the DFL failed to agree on an endorsement. Cohen, who sits on Minneapolis' Charter and Planning Commissions, was a Council member in the 1960s He last ran for mayor in 1969, losing to

Charles Stenvig Charles A. Stenvig (January 16, 1928 – February 22, 2010) served as mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota for two two-year terms from 1969 to 1973 and a third term from 1976 to 1978. He was a police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department befo ...

. Cohen formally declared his candidacy on June 18.

Pre-convention debates

The first debate between mayoral candidates took place on March 27 at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Humphrey School of Public Affairs The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a public policy and planning school at the University of Minnesota, a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is named after Hubert H ...

. Moderated by professor of political science Larry Jacobs, as well as some of his students, the debate included Andrew, Hodges, Schiff, Cherryhomes, and Samuels, noted by Jacobs as being the "leading DFL candidates". Winton observed the debate from the audience but was not invited to participate as he was not seeking the DFL endorsement. Candidates fielded questions on the new Vikings stadium (responding anywhere from heavily in favor of the project to staunchly against it), property taxes (no candidate accepted a pledge from Jacobs not to raise them), how to revitalize North Minneapolis, and their qualifications for the job of mayor.

DFL endorsement convention

An endorsement convention was held by the DFL on June 15, 2013, at the

Minneapolis Convention Center The Minneapolis Convention Center is a large convention center located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota that opened in 1990. It is located one block away from Nicollet Mall Nicollet Mall is a twelve-block portion of Nicollet Avenue running ...

. All candidates then declared with the exception of Winton (Andrew, Cherryhomes, Hodges, Samuels, Schiff, and Thomas) sought the nomination and were present at the event. Sixty percent of delegate votes were required to receive the endorsement. During the first round of voting, Jim Thomas, Cheryhomes, and Samuels were eliminated as each failed to secure the ten percent of the vote required to move on to the second round. Schiff was eliminated after the second ballot, leaving Andrew and Hodges. Andrew came first in every round of voting but never reached the 60 percent threshold. Hodges invited her delegates outside of the Convention Center to eat pizza. Their absence meant that a

quorum A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

was not present at the convention and so, on the fifth ballot, the convention ended with no endorsement.

General election

Polling

Results

None of the candidates passed the threshold to be elected in the first round, necessitating several rounds of vote transfers.

was elected in the 33rd round.

Notes

References

''
Election News
from '' The Journal''
Election News
from the ''

Southwest Journal The ''Southwest Journal'' was an American, English language free community paper covering 21 neighborhoods in Southwest Minneapolis. It was family owned and was founded in 1990. It covered the following neighborhoods: * Bryn Mawr * Lowry Hill * ...

''
Election Minneapolis mayor
from the ''

Twin Cities Daily Planet The ''Twin Cities Daily Planet'', in operation from 2006 until 2019, was an independent website specializing in news events in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metropolitan area. The ''Twin Cities Daily Planet'' was a community-edited news sour ...

''
Minneapolis mayor's race
from ''

Minnesota Public Radio Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), is a public radio network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, YourClassical MPR and The Current, MPR operates a 46-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest. MPR ha ...

''
Minneapolis Mayor's Race
from ''

''
Minneapolis Mayor's Race 2013
from ''

The UpTake The UpTake is a Minnesota-based citizen journalist organization. It was founded in July 2007 and has provided online news coverage on a low budget since. Because of its role as a provider of citizen journalism, the UpTake is a not-for-profit org ...

'' {{2013 United States elections 2013 Minnesota elections

Local elections in Minnesota