Minneapolis DFL seeks to restore Omar Fateh’s endorsement for mayor

The Minneapolis DFL is seeking to restore its endorsement of state Sen. Omar Fateh for mayor after the state DFL rescinded it last month.

The Minnesota DFL voided Fatah’s nomination, placed the city unit on probation for two years and barred it from endorsing another mayoral candidate in this year’s election, citing issues with the voting process during the Minneapolis DFL convention in July.

John Maraist, chair of the Minneapolis DFL, called the state party’s sanctions an “unprecedented” move to disregard the will of city delegates, and alleged “profound conflicts of interest” among several members of the party’s rules committee, who “irreparably tainted” the fact-finding process.

“With a clear choice between the incumbent mayor and a challenger, the delegates representing Minneapolis caucus-goers overwhelmingly chose Sen. Omar Fateh as the DFL’s candidate for a new mayor,” Maraist said in a news release. “The CRBC has disenfranchised the Minneapolis delegates, mischaracterized their process, and imposed an undemocratic decision of their own on our city.”

The appeal is the latest development in the race for mayor pitting Fateh, a state senator and democratic socialist, against two-term incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey and several other candidates.

Neither the Frey nor Fateh campaign addressed the substance of the appeal when asked for comment.

“The mayor is focused on doing his job, not on insider party politics,” said Frey campaign spokesperson Darwin Forsyth. “It is telling that Senator Fateh’s allies clearly don’t believe he can win without excluding other candidates from DFL Party resources.”

The Minneapolis Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsed Fateh at its citywide convention on July 19. At the time, Minneapolis DFL leaders celebrated the endorsement as a historic show of party unity following many years of failing to endorse any candidate for mayor. The convention was a 14-hour process belabored by technical difficulties with the balloting system and numerous challenges to the rules.

Supporters of Frey’s campaign, which would have benefited from a no-endorsement result, subsequently filed complaints with the state DFL’s Constitution, Rules, and Bylaws Committee (CRBC). The challengers accused the Minneapolis DFL of miscounting votes, improperly accrediting delegates and taking votes without quorum. They also argued the vote that cinched the endorsement — conducted in the final minutes of the convention with a show of badges after the Frey campaign called for its delegates to leave en masse — should not have been allowed.

The CRBC issued a decision on Aug. 22, voiding the mayoral endorsement but upholding all Park Board endorsements. Its report concluded that the first round of voting should not have eliminated another mayoral candidate, the Rev. DeWayne Davis — a mistake that the Minneapolis DFL has acknowledged.

Before the CRBC’s findings, Minneapolis DFL volunteers retabulated the raw data from the convention’s first mayoral ballot by hand and acknowledged Davis was improperly dropped, having actually met the threshold — 20% of votes — to stay in the running for the endorsement. The recount also found reduced support for Frey, who got 30% of the votes, and increased support for Fateh, who won 44%.

However, if Davis had remained in consideration, it’s unknown if the convention would have resulted in an endorsement or no endorsement by the end of the night. A candidate needs to reach 60% of votes to win the endorsement.

It argues that the state DFL’s rules committee adopted challengers’ allegations as fact without “any evidence entered into the record,” to which Minneapolis DFL leaders could respond. The appeal denies as erroneous the CRBC’s findings that an entire ward’s delegate credentials book was lost, that the master check-in sheet at registration was not properly secured and that campaigns had improper access to attendance sheets.

“Widespread distrust and feelings of betrayal have emerged among many party members, not least in the urban core of Minneapolis,” said Maraist.