FREY: The fucker lost. Start with that. End with that. A caucus was held. The other guy packed the caucus. A vote taken. Frey lost. Now trying to undo stuff by appeal to inner party operatives. They in turn can be honestly fair, or give Frey something circumstances say he does not deserve.:
Strib coverage, (while wanting objectively while valuing a good story)::
Democratic socialist Omar Fateh just won the Minneapolis DFL endorsement for mayor. Now what?
Mayor Jacob Frey’s campaign is challenging the results of the DFL convention, saying the numbers don’t add up.
July 22, 2025 at 6:00AM
Three years ago, Minnesota Sen. Omar Fateh was in the hot seat, sitting through a Senate ethics investigation into an alleged quid pro quo with a Somali news outlet.
On Saturday, Fateh was riding high, as Minneapolis Democrats endorsed him to be the city’s next mayor over incumbent two-term Mayor Jacob Frey.
Now the race begins in earnest, reflecting a conflict that’s been brewing for years: A comparatively moderate [their opinion from which Crabgrass differs, and opinion early in a "news" item]Democratic mayor against a rising young progressive who’s part of the ascendant Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) wing of the party — an election that is likely to draw national attention and money while potentially upending the power dynamic in City Hall.
Saturday marked the DFL’s first endorsement of a Minneapolis mayoral candidate in 16 years. The party endorsement carries no legal weight, but it’s highly sought after in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, and can open up party resources to Fateh.
It also marks another win for the DSA, after Zohran Mamdani defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary last month. Fateh has drawn national attention since Mamdani’s win, with some calling him the “Mamdani of Minneapolis.”
Some perspective
The endorsement represents a fraction of Minneapolis voters — hundreds of delegates who tend to be more politically engaged than the average voter. Over 140,000 people voted in the 2021 Minneapolis election.
And the delegates’ favor hardly predicts the winner of the fall election.
In 2017, Frey finished second in the convention and went on to win. [rank choice voting at fault]
In 2021, after one of the most tumultuous years in the city’s history when Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, community organizer Sheila Nezhad won more votes than Frey at that DFL convention. During that campaign, Frey resisted pressure to support defunding the Police Department and advocated for the mayor to have more power and control over police. He was re-elected by 10 percentage points in a 17-person race.
History suggests a Frey ploy, reemployed. Run many, have name/incumbancy recognition. Strib continues with wording highlighted by Crabgrass]:
Fateh supported the failed ballot measure to overhaul the Minneapolis Police Department.
Last year, a more progressive bloc won control of the Minneapolis City Council, including democratic socialist Robin Wonsley. She and her progressive allies on the council have sought to block much of Frey’s agenda and have been skeptical of police funding, pointed the finger at landlords and developers for rising housing costs, and criticized Frey’s treatment of the unhoused as lacking compassion — views shared by Fateh.
Frey is hard on homelessness is what that says, and the council majority opposes his heavy hand.
Fateh also supports a ban on the police interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Fateh called a June federal drug raid in south Minneapolis “blatant fascism,” accused MPD of cooperating with ICE, and said it would be “unconscionable” for police to help with crowd control at an ICE raid.
Frey has said the militarized operation was a bit tone-deaf, but defended MPD’s involvement in what turned out to be an investigation into money laundering and human and drug trafficking.
Crabgrass has not tried following any Strib links. Strib has a paywall.
Fateh ousted an incumbent before
Fateh has been an underdog before. He unseated veteran state Sen. Jeff Hayden by nearly 2,000 votes in the 2020 DFL primary.
That victory also came with heightened scrutiny. A federal investigation into ballot fraud during the primary later led to his brother-in-law being convicted of lying to a grand jury about his handling of absentee ballots as a campaign volunteer. No other charges were brought, but the case became part of the Senate ethics investigation.
Fateh was the first Somali American elected to serve in the state Senate, yet Frey has generally enjoyed support among many in the East African community and has recently been highlighting his Somali support.
Yeah. Sure. On the Somali support. Selective history is probative but biased, since negatives against Frey go unreported. Now the nitty-gritty -
Frey campaign challenging the results
The Frey campaign is challenging the results with the state DFL, questioning why only 578 votes were recorded on the first ballot, even though over 1,000 delegates and alternates were checked in.
The campaign argues there’s no plausible reason why over 20% of the total delegates and upgraded alternates would skip voting on “the most hotly contested, highest-interest business of the convention.”
Near the end of Saturday’s convention, which featured numerous voting delays, convention co-chair Ann Friedrich announced Fateh had secured the endorsement after he won by a clear visual vote of delegates holding up their badges.
Monday evening, Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist said he hadn’t had a chance to review Frey’s official challenge, but said, “We are confident that our handling of the convention will be upheld.”
Dave Orrick of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.
Open with a gut punch to the candidate the owner likely does not favor. Great "news." Then at the end indicate the inner party will face things, AND WHAT IT DOES WILL REALLY MATTER.
The inner party cannot in good conscience nor with appearances of fairness preeminent, interfere with what actually happened, and give Frey something he failed to achieve at caucus-
CAN THEY?
WILL THEY?
Because there will be an election in the fall, and passions are now hot, the Crabgrass guess is the inner party will want to cool things without leaving Frey on an island, and will issue some statement that serious irregularities appear to have happened but they will not interfere with the result of voting at a caucus, since the ultimate question awaits the general election and passions there will be least inflamed by inaction now, so that logic and merit hold sway in November.
Election integrity then will be paramount, while by doing nothing now besides clucking a little does the least partywide harm.
Anything more heavy highhandedly favoring the incumbent conservative would show itself to be very bad politics against an ethnic-and-policy minority member, early and notably, so just sit tight.
But it is the Minnesota DFL, a party of politicians first and foremost, hence a party not immune from awful political decision making.
Aside from that, fair use? The entire Strib item is presented, since a major theme of the post is whether Strib has a finger on the scale in its reporting, which requires thorough airing. Presenting it all, with a few marginal comments, is the best way for readers to see Crabgrass opinion with that opinion being presented as minor to the full report itself, which readers can see and weigh. Crabgrass in effect believes this is preliminary with intervening time, so letting the chips fall as they have is best handling.
_______________UPDATE______________
Related to Frey's bitching about losing the caucus, is the larger question of whether the Dems should put their civil war aside with the goal being to temporally unify enough to win the midterms, ideally in both houses of Congress, use such a victory if they acheive it to set hearings agendas, and then to play out the civil war in their ranks, chips falling as they may.
Progressives would end up losers that way, since they are outnumbered in the Democratic Party, and it would be same old same old redux, but unseating the Republican federal trifecta is more important to the factions within the party than any other thing. Or should be.
Repeal the Trump Bill could be a unifying theme. That whole story is for a future full post, but is footnoted now. Trump's mental situation is also a unifying need to put down roots of sanity as quickly as feasible, for the People. Crabgrass believes JD Vance is bold enough to push a palace coup once he sees it required, Trump showing himself more and more unhinged day by day. Vance would have to act per Constitutional procedures, the problem being the bunch of misfits that make up the Trump Cabinet, whose agreement Vance would have to seek. More later, perhaps.