Blog Archives

Like all newly elected politicians, the class of mayors being sworn in as the year begins has made many grand promises.

…

“It’s not news that there are Democrats being elected in major American cities,” says Dan McGrath, executive director of TakeAction Minnesota, a progressive social justice organization. “It is news that there’s a new brand of progressive Democrats being elected in these cities that are pushing a different agenda than we’ve seen in the past.”

…

All mayors have to collaborate, says McGrath, the TakeAction Minnesota director. The question is whom they choose to collaborate with.

He notes that Betsy Hodges, the new mayor of Minneapolis, has made a point to engage with people of color and immigrants who are “not considered traditional power players in City Hall.

“I’m absolutely heartened by the fact that there’s a lot more talk about the problem of wealth inequality in our world,” McGrath says. “I’m even more heartened that there are elected leaders like Betsy not just paying it lip service but creating and aligning grassroots movements to make change.”… Continue reading »

Dai Thao, St. Paul’s first Hmong city council member, vowed to represent all residents of Ward 1, one of the city’s most diverse.

Thao, an information technology manager and community organizer, was sworn in Thursday in front of a city council chamber crowd that reflected that diversity. Surrounded by his family, he gave an emotional speech about his struggles with poverty, his vision of St. Paul as a livable city and his determination to protect “the weak from the strong, the vulnerable from the powerful.”

And although he and the city leaders gathered to usher him onto the council spoke of his election as a historic moment for the Hmong community, Thao stressed he would look out for all constituents.

“I want to make it clear I am here for all communities,” he said, adding, “Our diversity is our strength.”

…

Thao, the father of three, has worked on the legislative election campaigns of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidates. He was also active with efforts to defeat the state’s voter-ID and marriage amendments. He has organized for TakeAction Minnesota, the liberal advocacy group, and ISAIAH, a faith-based social justice coalition.

Click here for the full article.… Continue reading »

The political and media elites obsessed only with Washington intrigue and the next presidential race thought New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s predictable re-election was the big story of the 2013 season. It wasn’t. The big story was a cross-country rejection of austerity and an endorsement of the progressive populism that Democrats must embrace if they hope to prevail in 2014. Bill de Blasio’s 73 percent landslide in the New York mayoral race, in which he ran on a platform of building a more inclusive city by addressing income inequality and taxing the wealthy, was just the topline measure of a national trend. The new public advocate of New York is Letitia James, a progressive populist first elected to the City Council on the labor-backed Working Families Party line. The City Council will have twenty-one new members, many of them elected with WFP backing. WFP executive director Dan Cantor said, in reference to de Blasio’s presence at the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, “We are living in the world Occupy made. We are the beneficiaries of what they did in terms of making this [about] inequality, which is from our point of view the core issue of our time.” What OWS did, yes—along with the organizing and electoral infrastructure patiently built by labor and community groups.… Continue reading »

Dai Thao, an information technology manager who moved to St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood from the North End two years ago, has defeated six other candidates to become the first Hmong-American elected to the city council.

He will represent Ward 1, which spans Frogtown, Summit-University and corners of surrounding neighborhoods, one of the most racially diverse areas of Minnesota.

…

Dai Thao, who in 2008 became a recruiter and political organizer for Hmong members of the liberal activist group TakeAction Minnesota, ran with the support of TakeAction and the St. Paul firefighters union, IAF Local 21. He previously worked on the campaigns of state Rep. Rena Moran, DFL-St. Paul, and state Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St. Paul, and was a staff organizer with ISAIAH, a faith-based social justice advocacy group.

Click here for the full article. … Continue reading »

She’s a fan of NASCAR who wears Wonder Woman T-shirts beneath blazers, a progressive activist with a penchant for wading into messy political issues at City Hall, and a DFLer whose bid for mayor was opposed by the establishment of her party.

Betsy Hodges, the presumptive next mayor of Minneapolis, is a hard-nosed budget wonk driven by her concern for the less fortunate. She is sharp and witty in private, but careful and restrained in the public eye.

…

Hodges’ apparent victory comes after a political career spent in the trenches of progressive fights. She cut her teeth in local politics in the late 1990s as an activist for Progressive Minnesota, now TakeAction Minnesota, working on education referendums and opposing stadium subsidies. She later worked as an aide to Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman — now a supporter — and as development director at a nonprofit.

Click here to read the full article.… Continue reading »