Read our profile of Betsy Hodges.
Website: betsyhodges.org
Party: DFL
Occupation: Minneapolis City Council Member since 2005, currently serving as chair of the city's budget committee. Formerly worked at the Minnesota Justice Foundation, Progressive Minnesota (now TakeAction MN) and the office of Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman.
Education:
- Hodges has proposed a so-called "Cradle-to-K" plan to target children from before birth until they reach about 4 years of age. It involves, among other things, expanding the city's Healthy Start program, which aids low-income parents before and after childbirth.
- She said in a recent press conference that too much of the debate over improving Minneapolis schools is focused on adult issues, such as teacher staffing levels, charter schools and education standards.
Development:
- Hodges aims to grow the city's population to 500,000 people (Rybak has set a timeline of 2025 to accomplish this).
- She has noted that objections to density often directed at the density of cars, a concern that is alleviated by having better transit. She added that transit helps spread development "all across the city" and ease pressure on neighborhoods.
- Hodges voted against a recent development moratorium proposal for Dinkytown, which was spurred by neighborhood objections to dense apartment projects. She did, however, successfuly pass a development moratorium for her own neighborhood of Linden Hills in 2012 after a similar neighborhood uprising (Finance and Commerce).
Transit:
- Hodges is a proponent of streetcars, having voted for a plan to redirect $60 million in property taxes from existing development projects to help fund a $200 million, 3.2-mile "starter" streetcar line along Nicollet Avenue.
- She says as mayor she would also push for "state-of-the-art" bus improvements in the urban core, a streetcar along West Broadway in North Minneapolis and a high-quality bus station at Lake Street and 35W and the Bottineau light rail line (StreetsMN).
Public Safety:
- Hodges has called for police officers to wear body cameras, though the police department says is not yet ready to move forward with the technology.
- The firefighters union considers her an enemy at City Hall, largely because of department cuts in recent years. She took the department to task in 2011 over data showing that firefighters were calling in sick more often on summer weekends.
- She has said that the "early intervention" system for catching bad cops needs to be improved.
Taxes:
- Hodges has been budget chair since 2009, overseeing several property tax increases. In 2014, the mayor and city council will deliver the first property tax decrease in recent history.
- She frequently mentions her work on pension reform, which averted potential property tax increases by giving the city more time to pay its obligations.
Other:
- Hodges cut her teeth in public life by serving on a citizen commission tasked with outlining a private financing plan for the Twins ballpark in 2001. She voted against the Vikings stadium deal in 2012, but served on the stadium's implementation committee.
- She is married to Gary Cunningham, a member of the Metropolitan Council.
- She owns a cat named "Nakatomi" after a building in the film "Die Hard."
- She wrote an unpublished young adult novel based on Jane Austen's "Persuasion."
Key endorsements: SEIU, womenwinning, EMILY's List, Sen. Scott Dibble. See full list.
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