| Some news from the streets of Minneapolis yesterday...
The night before the election Councilmember Robert Lilligren's campaign did a lit drop of the entire ward. The next day Mayor Rybak and Councilmember Lilligren went out doorknocking and found that the lit was all gone in some neighborhoods.
At this point Minneapolis developer Basim Sabri, recently in the news for getting out of prison after serving time for bribery, shows up on the scene. He starts telling R.T. about why he shouldn't be supporting Lilligren. R.T. explains why he's for Lilligren and then notices something in Sabri's car.
Turns out Sabri had stolen all Lilligren's lit. Something that is, by the way, illegal. I have also heard but not been able to confirm that Sabri violated parole with his activities.
I asked Lilligren about it last night and he said he had stayed focused on offering a positive choice to Ward 6 and winning the election. He said his victory on the first ballot was a vindication of this strategy and that with Ranked Choice Voting if you try to go negative and play dirty politics you lose. He said he will evaluate legal options in the coming days.
But that wasn't the only thing dirty politics going on on election day. Troy Parker, the main challenger to Councilmember Barb Johnson who forced the race into a runoff, was seen at DFL Coordinated Campaign staging locations in both Wards 4 and 5 talking to DFL volunteers as they came in and out and trying to persuade them not to go out canvassing for Johnson. While nothing legally prevents him from doing that, as far as I know, that is a very interesting campaign strategy.
Just a few incidents in this years Minneapolis elections. |
