Yep, i think everyone would agree that one single candidate who captured a majority of votes would win.

K.

And i think the difference matters because i think progressives have, 2 elections in a row now, overestimated the breadth and depth of discontent with Frey.

It feels like we're not really responding to the same thing? The exact language used, which i quibbled with, was "most people can't stand" Frey. I think that's a mischaracterization in the face of an election where at least a small majority of voters used their votes to say they find him acceptable.

We need to stop treating it as self-evident that Frey is a disaster of a mayor. There's not some unicorn candidate who could have tapped into this silent majority of anti-Frey guys because that silent majority doesn't exist in any coherent way.

Her point seems to be that people's hatred of Frey is so strong that it would have been an easy win with a "better" candidate. My point is, i think the votes show, sadly, that anti-Frey sentiment isn't as strong as some believed.

Yeah, fair. I do think people are quick to fall back on "established" wisdom in the face of upsetting results.

Like what?

9-3 & 9-4

I think we need to be honest that the bias faced by the Somali/Somali-American community in MN may overlap but is not the same as that faced by the African-American community. Willingness to vote for Davis in no way suggests a lack of racial/ethnic bias against Fateh.

Which only goes to show the meaninglessness of that kind of polling; funny place to hang your hat in the face of electoral numbers that show clearly how many voters are ok w/ Frey.

Where do you get the idea that most "can't stand" Frey? Feels fundamentally like a misdiagnosis... the majority of voters showed through ranking him that they CAN stand him. That's the actual problem to confront.

Exactly. As if the Left prevented moderates from rallying around a candidate more aligned with their values. People are desperate to blame the Left to hide the fact that they could have had a different outcome and CHOSE this one.

2. Blaming the far-left for rallying around a candidate who matched their values is dumb. It wasn’t like they didn’t support the slate.
3. The real blame might be folks a lot like Eric Roper, or me … center-lefties. We never recovered from Koski leaving to lift up Davis/Hampton. We had no juice.

Yes. There's a real laziness/fear on the Left around addressing this head on. Laziness in assuming one big happy family of marginalized people, and a fear of repercussion for tackling head on some very ugly biases that undermine big tent campaigns.

And if it's an argument in good faith with pro-worker interests at heart, then the correct conclusion is, "Let's hold union-busting men accountable, too!" rather than letting her off the hook.

Yeah, what are these? Suddenly they've taken over the exterior of my house...

It's gone. Sad.