Minneapolis voters to decide on steeper candidate fees

Depending on who is talking, Minneapolis' $20 filing fee for candidates running for mayor, City Council or other offices is either a reasonably low barrier that ensures nearly anyone can participate in politics — or an outdated standard that can turn municipal elections into a mess.

Minneapolis voters will decide Tuesday whether the rule will stand or whether the threshold should increase for the 2017 city elections. Ballot question No. 1 asks whether the city should amend its charter to increase the fee to $500 for mayoral candidates, $250 for council and $100 for the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Park and Recreation Board.

Rather than coming up with the money, potential candidates could instead gather the signatures of registered voters: either 500 or a number equal to 5 percent of the total votes cast in the previous election for the office.

Interest in increasing the fee, which has been at the same level since 1967, peaked after last year's mayoral election. The race drew 35 candidates, ended with a lengthy vote-counting process and contributed to pushing the cost of the city elections more than $400,000 over the approved $1.3 million budget.

A City Council proposal to increase filing fees failed this year when it didn't win the unanimous support required to alter the charter. The Charter Commission later took up the issue and voted to send it to the November ballot.

Council Member Blong Yang, who cast one of two votes against the higher fees — the other was Cam Gordon — said his position hasn't changed.

Yang said the proposed changes are "anti-democratic" and "restrictive" measures aimed at ensuring that a large number of people don't run for office, as was the case in the mayor's race.

In Minneapolis, city elections operate without a primary, allowing all candidates to be on the final ballot. Voters list their top three choices for each office.

But supporters say higher fees would bring Minneapolis in line with other cities such as St. Paul, where mayoral candidates pay $500 and council candidates $250, and point out that people can avoid paying any fee by gathering the required signatures.

"You don't need to pay a single dime, and you can petition and get signatures instead," Council Member Jacob Frey said. "In most wards, if you look at it, all you need is 300 signatures. That's two days of door knocking. And if you can't get the 300 or 500 signatures of people that don't even necessarily support you but are OK with you running, you're going to get beat badly in the election anyway."

Frey said races with a high number of candidates tend to hurt the prospects for newcomers to win a seat from an incumbent because voters have to sift through more choices, making it harder to sort out the differences between contenders.

Jeanne Massey, executive director of FairVote Minnesota, said her group supports higher fees in part because it could help keep out candidates who run as a joke, which she believes happened in the previous city election.

Some former candidates aren't convinced.

Bob Carney, one of the 2013 mayoral candidates — and now a campaign aide to Captain Jack Sparrow, another former mayoral candidate now running for a seat on the Hennepin County Board — said higher fees would amount to a "suppression of the candidates who don't have money."

Had the fees been higher, he said, many candidates would have been unable to join the race for mayor and bring various viewpoints and issues into campaign conversations. He worries that the higher fees could lead to many races having a single candidate running for some positions. With the $20 fee or the $50 fee Sparrow paid to run for the county seat, Carney said the field can be larger.

"We'd be having elections like in Russia if it wasn't for someone like Captain Jack plopping down $50," he said.