Add former Hennepin County commissioner and DFL party chair Mark Andrew to the list of candidates vying for the top spot at City Hall.
Andrew will hold a press conference on Thursday at Washburn High School outlining his campaign for mayor of Minneapolis. The president of an environmental marketing firm, Andrew served on the Hennepin County board for 16 years before leaving in 1999.
The announcement marks the fourth candidate to official announce a bid for mayor, though several others are expected to make their campaigns official in the coming weeks.
In an interview, Andrew said his priorities are rekindling a "more aggressive" economic development program, making Minneapolis the greenest city in America and closing the achievement gap between white and non-white students.
"I think I'm uniquely qualified for this job because I have a long history of public-private partnerships, coalition building with other levels of government," Andrew said.
"And that's in effect what the mayor's job is today, is having somebody with the ability to reach across the political aisle, to reach across political boundaries, to reach across [the] public and private sector to develop and execute programs that are in the best interest of the city."
He acknowledged that he's "a little late to the dance" compared to some other candidates who have already announced, but plans to ramp up efforts starting tomorrow.
Andrew's firm, GreenMark, is a marketing agency that specializes on upgrading the energy performance at large-scale buildings and telling "environmental branding stories on behalf of the companies that sell those products."
