Rash: Minneapolis DFL convention mess reflects poorly on our great city

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The relative mayoral merits of two-term incumbent Jacob Frey, top challenger state Sen. Omar Fateh, and candidates Jazz Hampton, the Rev. DeWayne Davis and Brenda Short will be judged by Minneapolis voters this fall.

It’s not too early, however, to render a verdict on Saturday’s Minneapolis DFL endorsement convention: The process was not worthy of a great city.

Held on a precious summer Saturday and lasting from morning until a mandated cutoff time of 10 p.m., delegates convened in the Target Center since organizers were somehow unable to procure a reasonably priced venue for the more than 1,000 activists. So instead of an accessible and affordable site befitting a gathering of Democrats and democratic socialists, some halal and kosher food options cost up to $70, campaigns were charged $1,100 to set up folding tables, and mayoral candidates were asked to spend $5,000 on two suites, a table and advertisement.

Hardly optimal optics for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Most consequentially, challenges and changes to the voting system marked, and marred, the confab. First, a planned (and panned, by many delegates) electronic process wasn’t successful. That led to a push by Frey supporters for paper ballots. But in the end, a late, successful motion from Fateh backers prevailed, allowing the remaining delegates (many backing Frey had left the convention) to vote by waving their convention badges.

Minneapolitans — and Minnesotans more broadly — may rightfully ask, as candidates campaign on how they’re the best choice to run the city, why their party couldn’t even run a successful convention.

The answer matters. Not just to those within the city limits and state borders, but nationally and, indeed, internationally, given Minneapolis’ many multinational firms.

In branding that cannot be bested, Minneapolis has long been seen as a beautiful urban oasis — “The City of Lakes.” But like most other big cities in America, Minneapolis is contending with crises in crime, cost and other challenges. The city’s citizens deserve effective, efficient solutions. And more broadly, Minnesotans need a stronger central city, too, since Minneapolis is the engine of Minnesota’s economic locomotive.

That’s because of the economic impact of the residents of the state’s most populous city, of course. But also because it’s the state’s business capital with individual commuters and even whole communities in multiple suburbs dependent on its success, which radiates into the exurbs and rural areas of this state as well.

It’s also home to some of the few entities that actually do make us “One Minnesota,” like the Lynx, Timberwolves, Vikings, Twins, the Minnesota Orchestra, Guthrie Theater, Walker Art Center and myriad museums and other cultural institutions, the University of Minnesota and other colleges, as well as other entities that manage to unite us even in these divided times.

Yet convincing those within and beyond city borders, let alone those nationwide and beyond, to have confidence in orderly governance — when the convention intended to choose leaders entrusted to deliver it can’t be held without chaos — won’t be easy.