Candidates vying for Minneapolis' only open mayoral seat in two decades debated for the first time Wednesday afternoon, offering competing views on stadiums, taxes and government reform.
The packed debate at the University of Minnesota, the first of the 2013 campaign to replace outgoing Mayor R.T. Rybak, fell less than three weeks before candidates will vie for delegates at the city's DFL caucuses. The five candidates, all current or former members of local government, largely split their time between highlighting past achievements and criticizing the status quo at City Hall.
Minneapolis City Council Members Betsy Hodges, Don Samuels and Gary Schiff, as well as council president-turned-lobbyist Jackie Cherryhomes and marketing executive Mark Andrew, formerly a Hennepin County commissioner, took part. The other candidate in the race, independent candidate Cam Winton, was excluded because he is not vying for the DFL nomination.
Some of the sharpest contrasts between the candidates centered on the city's $309 million — or $675 million accounting for interest — subsidy of a new Minnesota Vikings stadium on the Metrodome site. Hodges and Schiff voted against diverting city sales taxes to the deal, while Samuels voted for it.
"We'll have the opportunity to elect a mayor this November who will speak up for the taxpayers of Minneapolis and make sure that Minneapolis gets a better deal," Schiff said. "To make sure that we find more progressive ways of funding a stadium."
Samuels noted that the stadium will be a job creator, and was going to be built regardless of the city's involvement. "Minneapolis was going to get run over or get on board," he said.
Hodges said given the failure of electronic pulltabs to generate expected revenue for the state's share, she worries that the city could be asked at some point to kick in more to bail out the stadium project. "When I'm mayor, the answer to that question will be no," she said.
Andrew said he opposed the stadium's Metrodome location and financing plan, particularly the use of gambling revenues. But he will embrace the facility because of the jobs. "As mayor, it would be lunacy to advocate presiding over a hole in the ground," he said.