Fateh, Frey address DFL's revocation of endorsement for Minneapolis mayor
The Minnesota DFL this week revoked the endorsement of Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh by the local Minneapolis party unit for the city's mayoral race, sparking backlash.
Last month, Fateh, a democratic socialist, won the support of a majority of delegates at the Minneapolis DFL Convention over incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey, prompting critics of the process — including Frey's campaign as well as several other people — to file challenges to the results.
On Thursday, state party officials announced their findings and vacated that endorsement following their investigation.
"After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention's voting process on July 19, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention," Richard Carlbom, chair of the Minnesota DFL, said in a statement.
He called on the party to "focus on unity and our common goal" of electing Democrats and "holding Republicans accountable for the chaos and confusion they've unleashed on Minnesotans."
Earlier this month, Frey's campaign alleged in its challenge that there was an "extraordinarily high" number of uncounted votes produced by the "highly flawed and untested" electronic voting system used at the convention.
The DFL's investigation determined that 176 votes were undercounted in the first vote because "an electronic voting system produced a highly inaccurate tabulation," and that another candidate was erroneously dropped after the first ballot, even though he should have still been in contention.
Because of those findings, the party determined Minneapolis DFL is barred from endorsing a candidate for mayor this year, and it has been placed on a two-year probation.
"I'm glad that now, following the revocation of this endorsement, that all of the candidates will get treated equally by the DFL in November," Frey told reporters Friday. "One of the things that really separates us as Democrats is that we recognize when mistakes were made. That's exactly what happened. I'm appreciative of the state party, that they conducted a thorough investigation that was based not on politics, but on evidence and facts."
On Thursday, Fateh posted a video statement on social media, accusing the party committee that decided of being Frey supporters and donors.
"This is exactly what Minneapolis voters are sick of. The insider games, the backroom decisions and feeling like our voice doesn't matter in our own city," he said.
A group of Fateh supporters gathered at Minneapolis City Hall on Friday to condemn the decision. They didn't dispute there were issues the day of the convention, but say vacating the endorsement amounts to a distraction.
"The will of the delegates was clear, and I need a party who cares more about building power with the people and upholding our will than a set of technicalities and rules that ultimately did not disrupt the ultimate outcome," said Amanda Otero, co-executive director of Take Action MN.
The Minnesota DFL also allowed all candidates who sought the endorsement to get access to the party's voter database, which is usually reserved for just the endorsed candidate.
Fateh had used "DFL endorsed" on campaign materials in the wake of the July 19 convention, and Thursday's decision means he can no longer do that.
The Minneapolis DFL on Friday evening said "new mailings of DFL slate information" have been temporarily paused as a result of the revocation, and "may cause some confusion as mailers introducing the original DFL slate move through bulk mail delivery."
The Minneapolis DFL said it's working on updated designs for sample ballots.
Frey said the problems at the convention showcase the need for a broader conversation about the process, calling it exclusionary to people like shift workers and parents with children who cannot afford to offer up multiple long days to participate.
"We've got to think long and hard, especially in cities like Minneapolis, where inevitably we will be electing a Democrat no matter what, whether this is the kind of process that brings people in, as opposed to excuse them from voting," the mayor said. "We want to be a system that works for everybody."
Party officials also said in their report that there was clear and convincing evidence that a check-in sheet was not secure, leaving it vulnerable for someone to "replace, delete or alter ballot ID numbers," and that the party unit lost a credentials book for Ward 5.
A group of local and state leaders, including several city council members and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, in a joint statement called the decision "inexcusable."
"Not only does this decision set an extremely dangerous precedent, it will undermine the DFL endorsing process going forward and fails to center the will of delegates," the group said in a statement.