Watch us from Studio 5! TruthToTell on Blip.tv or in Our Video Archives HELP US BRING YOU THESE IMPORTANT DISCUSSIONS OF COMMUNITY INTEREST – PLEASE DONATE HERE! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The St. Paul City Council and School Board elections are edging closer. November 8th will tests the city’s the new voter-approved Ranked Choice Voting system for City Council races only. Passed in 2009, and eliminating a primary for a single November general election, voters may mark their first, second, third and fourth choices until one candidate attains a majority (or substantial plurality) in each of the council seats. As has always been the case, the four top vote getters in the school board race will win the available seats in which two of the candidates are incumbents. This week we speak with three of the four candidates for Ward One. (Ward One ranked-choice sample ballot here.) One – James McEiver – has failed to respond to our invitation. Starting with the crowded Ward 2 field, TruthToTell has been devoting four successive weeks to St. Paul’s elections – in the fervent hope that voters will stop giving their local government(s) short shrift and get to the polls in numbers higher than the all-too-common 15%-35% turnouts. We’ve now presented candidates from Wards Two and Three. The following week we present candidates from Wards 5 and 6 on the 31st. On November 7th, the day before the election, Jeanne Massey ofFairVote/Minnesota will be on hand to explain the Ranked Choice Voting process. The remaining races have nominal or no opposition for the incumbents. As with Ward 3 last week, four candidates are competing in Ward 1. One is DFL-endorsed in this NONPARTISAN race, another represents the Green Party. Two others are running as independents. Again, no party association accompanies a ballot name in city elections. A key issue in Ward 1 is who can best represent the best interests of a vastly diverse electorate. Furthermore, it is through Ward 1 that a lengthy chunk of the Central Corridor will run. It’s an issue that has divided the African American community and raised hackles on the backs of University businesses – many of them Asian and East African – over the disruptions caused by light rail construction. Ours is one of the last meetings these candidates will attend. These three will participate in the final face-to-face debate of the season at 7:00 tomorrow night, Tuesday, Oct. 25th at Mt. Olivet Church, 451 Central Ave. W., between Dale St. and Western Ave. The candidates: On-air guests: MELVIN CARTER III – Incumbent (one term); DFL-Endorsed JOHNNY HOWARD – Neighborhood Activist (Thomas-Dale/Frogtown); Green Party-endorsed ANTHONY FERNANDEZ – Neighborhood Activist and Member, St Paul Planning Commission; Independent
Hosted by Producer Andy Driscoll, TruthToTell (TTT) is weekly a public affairs radio show airing on Twin Cities Radio Station KFAI-FM Mondays at 9:00AM and features multiple perspectives on a wide variety of critical local, state and regional issues. TTT was created to engage citizens and students in understanding issues of governance and public policy, critiquing media coverage of critical policy matters, encouraging public discourse and taking collective action to resolve problems. TTT is an independent production, financed, produced and brought to the public through radio, podcasts and the Internet by CivicMedia/MN a local nonprofit created to bring local and regional public and Native affairs to listeners and educate them about the many faces of government.
