Wedge LIVE!

John has a conversation with Saraswati Singh, currently a Ramsey County prosecutor, who is running for Hennepin County Attorney. Saraswati Singh's campaign website: saraswatisingh.com Registration for the February 1 caucus is happening right now. For information on how to participate -- and to access contactless/non-attendee forms -- Hennepin County residents should visit caucus.dfl.org and Minnea...

John is joined by Melody Hoffman of the local news upstart Southwest Voices (SWV). We kick off the show with an ill-advised detour into parking statistics on Hennepin Avenue. We talk about the history of Wedge LIVE, Melody's deep and extremely well-placed admiration for John's contribution to the local news landscape--and how Melody might live up to that as a founding editor of SWV. How should we...

John is joined by PeggySue Imihy (city planner) and Jonathan Ahn (transit consultant) for a conversation about transit in the Twin Cities. First, we try to answer a philosophical question inspired by Linden Hills: Can trees and bus stations co-exist? We talk about the City of Minneapolis' plan to reallocate space for transit, pedestrians and bikes on Hennepin Avenue -- and the resulting uproar ove...

A special episode your host hopes you're too busy to listen to, intentionally scheduled for the week between Christmas and New Year's. John is joined by Jason Garcia and Taylor Dahlin for a rehash of the biggest story of 2021 that you didn't want to be reminded of: the bizarre rise and fall of Mickey Moore's campaign for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 9. Join the conversation: twitter.com/wedgel...

John is joined by Elissa Schufman and Jason Garcia for a special holiday episode. Elissa takes us through some end of year reflections. Jason gives their naughty and nice list. We name our "persons of the year," make resolutions for 2022, offer book and movie recommendations, and consider the meaning of Chief Arradondo's exit. And much, much more. Join the conversation: twitter.com/wedgelive Suppo...

John is joined by redistricting enthusiast Josh Martin for a conversation about redrawing political boundaries in Minneapolis. It's a process that happens every ten years, and it's already underway for City Council and Park Board. Based on data from the 2020 census, the ideal City Council ward should have a population of 33,073.38. The city's most populous ward -- Ward 3 -- currently has a populat...

With two weeks to gather his thoughts and recover from a November 2 gut punch, John is joined by Jason Garcia for a wide ranging conversation about the state of Minneapolis politics heading into 2022. John feels bad. Jason feels less bad. It's unclear if this makes things better or worse: we're less than a year from people ramping up city council campaigns for the 2023 election. 2022 gives us a ch...

John has a conversation with David Wheeler, who's running for Minneapolis Council in Ward 10. What's David's closing argument in the final days of the election? How does electing David Wheeler help fix our city's problems? What role does he see for himself on the city council with regard to public safety? David is against Question 2 on the ballot (the public safety charter amendment), so John asks...

John has a conversation with Andrea Larson, former deputy city coordinator with the city of Minneapolis. Andrea spent six years in the city coordinator's office, and has overseen teams working to develop alternatives to traditional police response. This is work that began at City Council direction in the years prior to George Floyd's murder. The planning work is well underway, and includes the 911...

John is joined by co-host Elissa Schufman for a conversation with Naomi Kritzer, noted local election profiler and award-winning author. We talk about why Naomi got into writing about elections, her most and least favorite candidates over the years, if she has any candidate endorsement regrets, how scam candidate Mickey Moore actually got much weirder than the last time he ran for office. Somehow...

John is joined by Lisa Bender, President of the Minneapolis City Council, as she enters the twilight of her Council career. We talk about how she feels going into the final week of the city election, public safety, the strong mayor charter amendment, what's next for housing and transportation policy, what it's been like to push department staff to develop a new policy, her hopes and fears for the...

John is joined by co-host Josh Martin. We begin the show with breaking news (as of last Friday when this was recorded) of the Star Tribune editorial board withdrawing their Mickey Moore endorsement. Then a conversation about Question 1 (aka mayoral control or "strong mayor") with former Minneapolis City Council President Paul Ostrow. Paul is somewhat unusual among question 1 supporters in that he...

John's guest is David Fey from Faith in Minnesota. David served as Deputy Mayor during RT Rybak's first term beginning in 2002. Speaking from his experience in Minneapolis City Hall, David explains why he's telling people to vote no on ballot question 1, which would shift control over the city's non-police departments to the mayor. John expresses his ongoing confusion over why the Charter Commissi...

John and co-host Elissa Schufman (@schufman) have a conversation with ranked choice voting enthusiast Todd Schuman. Is there ever a good reason to not rank every slot on your ballot? Why do we only get three choices for the three Park Board at-large seats (as opposed to three for each seat)? What is a spoiled ballot? How does ranked choice voting work? Why does Todd's last name have an "f" while E...

John begins by scolding co-host Jason Garcia for failing to prevent audio disaster in the previous epside. Then we have an extended conversation with Robin Wonsley Worlobah, who is running for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 2. We talk about public safety, the "strong mayor" proposal, and answer the question: how long is too long for a podcast episode? What is Robin learning in her conversations...

This episode took a lot of work to salvage. John screwed up his audio and had to re-record. So you'll be hearing John's voice, as it was recorded on the day of this conversation, as well as some re-recorded voiceover from a week and a half later. Please don't be confused. I apologize to Jono Cowgill, President of the Minneapolis Park Board. You should absolutely vote for Jono, even if you can't en...

John's guest is Cam Gordon, who represents Ward 2 on the Minneapolis City Council. First, we get Cam's reaction to the recent legal back and forth over the public safety charter amendment (this episode was recorded before the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision to allow voters to decide Question 2). John asks how Cam assesses the quality of the advice the City Council receives from the City Attorne...

John is joined by co-host Jason Garcia for a conversation with Aisha Chughtai, who's running for Minneapolis City Council. We start with an inappropriate degree of fawning from an uninvited special guest. Aisha wants to know how long this show will go (we have no good answers). Aisha talks about balancing work and running for office as she enters the heart of the campaign. And what it's like to be...

John has a conversation with Minneapolis City Council candidate Katie Jones. We talk about the incredibly high stakes for this election while Katie sits on the floor of her attic. In a time like this, why disrupt your life to become a candidate? John chides Katie the engineer for not laughing at his jokes and expresses frustration with election year distraction politics. What is Katie's response t...

On the thrilling conclusion of BET Candidates Week: Steve Brandt. John begins by asking Steve to give his assessment of where Minneapolis stands after the events of the past year or so. How would Steve explain the BET to a normal human being? What would Steve do if the Council needed his help raising the tax levy to fund alternative public safety priorities beyond what's contained in the mayor's b...

Pine Salica is our first guest for BET Candidates Week! We start off with the basics. What is the BET? Why do you want this job? Are you a fiscal conservative or are you willing to provide budget flexibility to fund essential city priorities? We talk about the public safety charter amendment and the recent ballot language controversy. Pine tells us about their desire to have Minneapolis raise mone...

John is joined by Jeremiah Ellison who represents Ward 5 in North Minneapolis. Jeremiah says he's a progressive outlier in a historically low-turnout ward that tends to elects more conservative council members ("we made people feel like it was worth voting" in 2017). We talk about a housing crisis Jeremiah faced early in his first term; the rent control charter amendment (and mayoral veto); public...

John is joined by Erica Mauter for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of the 2021 election. Erica reacts to John's narration of what he calls "the Kneecapping of Erica Mauter" by the Star Tribune Editorial Board. Erica talks about her experience campaigning for City Council as a Queer Black woman in an especially white part of Minneapolis (Ward 11), and how that influenced her decision to...

It's a wide ranging election year conversation with longtime local journalist ("40 years of sedimentary layers in Minneapolis"), and Twitter Dad to all , David Brauer. David talks John through the various scenarios, ranking them on a scale of how likely they are to make you poop your pants. After covering the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and the various City Council races, we discuss two charte...

John is joined by Jason Garcia and investigator Taylor Dahlin. Taylor has untangled the web of mystery and deceit that surround the Mickey Moore campaign for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 9. Questions beget more questions in the quest to understand the real Mickey Moore. Does Mickey Moore really live in Ward 9 where he is currently running for City Council? Did he ever live in the 5th District...