The big money fueling Minneapolis mayor and council races

In the fundraising battle in the Minneapolis election, Mayor Jacob Frey and the biggest groups supporting him and his allies have amassed more than twice as much money as those of his main rival, state Sen. Omar Fateh.

While money can be a barometer for support and a powerful asset in messaging, it doesn’t necessarily equal votes. Two years ago, a faction of progressive candidates faced a wider funding gap and still wrested control of the City Council from comparatively moderate Democrats aligned with Frey.

Voters will decide Tuesday whether to stick with the two-term mayor, or elect a more progressive candidate like Fateh, a democratic socialist, or two other Democrats: DeWayne Davis and Jazz Hampton. Fateh, Davis and Hampton have formed an alliance in which they want voters to pick all three of them in the ranked-choice election, in the hope one of them will topple Frey. All 13 seats on the Minneapolis City Council are also on the ballot.

Here’s where the money game stands:

The top three PACs aligned with Frey and his allies on the City Council have raised about $1.6 million, according to their most recent campaign finance reports, which reflect donations through Oct. 20. That’s in addition to the almost $1 million Frey has raised for his campaign.

All of Mpls, We Love Minneapolis and Thrive Mpls, which promote Frey-aligned candidates, are raising money from overlapping big business interests, including the Downtown Council, the Minnesota Multi Housing Association, property managers, landlords and developers.

All of Minneapolis — a PAC fueled by donations from several developers, center-left labor unions, the Minneapolis Regional Chamber and rideshare company Lyft — has raised $1.2 million to try to sway city races.

Radinovich is now involved with an offshoot group called Thrive MPLS that’s focused on engaging voters. The group received $130,000 from All of Minneapolis to promote Frey and moderates in key council races.

Mpls for the Many Chair Chelsea McFarren said her side doesn’t have the money but they’ve raised enough “to be in the conversation.”

All of Mpls Executive Director Jacob Hill said most of his PAC’s donors are from people, businesses, civic organizations and labor unions based in Minneapolis and neighboring communities.

The PAC has been criticized for taking money from Republicans, but Hill said their donors are disproportionately Democrat.

“This is a nonpartisan municipal election in the center of a giant metropolitan area where Democrats and Republicans live. I think that our donors are extremely representative of that,” Hill said.

Mpls for the Many, a PAC created to compete with All of Mpls and promote progressive candidates, has raised nearly $352,000.

They received $70,000 from Movement Voter Project, a Massachusetts-based organization that sends money to support local progressives, mostly in swing states. Local progressive group TakeAction also donated $52,500 to the PAC.

A new PAC called the Working Peoples Project popped up recently to support Fateh, and has attracted $278,000 in donations from around the country. All but one of the donations are from out of state.

The Working Peoples Project has mailed fliers supporting Fateh, saying he’ll “deliver real police reform” and make Minneapolis more affordable.

Two of the biggest donors hail from a Silicon Valley tech giant that tried to buy TikTok: Omer Hasan, who is listed as “retired” in campaign finance documents but previously served as vice president of operations for marketing platform AppLovin, donated $100,000. And Mohammad Javed, AppLovin’s former director of engineering, donated $40,000, state campaign finance records show. The Minnesota Star Tribune was unable to reach them for comment.

His brother, Minneapolis developer Hamoudi Sabri, has been dueling with the city over a homeless encampment he allowed on his Lake Street property until it was shut down by the city after a mass shooting.