History is made. Abdi Warsame wins Minneapolis City Council seat

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Thanks for the update Layzie, this quite an interesting spectacle for a city council seats. I wonder though, why don't these candidates run in non-Somali dominated districts. There are 22 Jewish members of the house congress and 12 senators but they only make up 2 percent of the population. Che was saying this being a precedent for the rest of Somalis in the states but the only message this would send that if your Somali, you need to run in lopsidedly Somali district. Either, hoping for the best for you guys...

[Gheelle.T]

NN, and how many blacks,Latinos, and Asians are in the Senate. It's not a fair comparison, mate. You cannot compare Jewish power to any other ethnicity, let alone to newly arrived Somalis.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Tempers flare up as passionate voters head to the polls.

 

http://www.startribune.com/video/230734481.html#/230734481/video/1/sfcri

 

The polls are now closed. We should be seeing numbers trickling in.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Tempers flare up as passionate voters head to the polls.

 

http://www.startribune.com/video/230734481.html#/230734481/video/1/sfcri

 

The polls are now closed. We should be seeing numbers trickling in.

[LayZie G.]

Naxar Nugaaleed;984643 wrote:

I wonder though, why don't these candidates run in non-Somali dominated districts.

 

Naxar, thats a good question and one that I had hoped Sanka would answer. I would love to know what his thoughts are about

gerrymandering and rigging electoral maps.

 

As you may or may not know, Sanka's candidate came to the spotlight as a champion of redistricting campaign.

 

He and others advocated for a fair representation at city hall.

 

The group felt that they were underrepresented in local elections. Instead of running for local elections based on merit, they cried foul.

 

Said the current system is rigged for the old residents, we can't win against them based on merit.

 

We want the district maps redrawn. We want to gerrymander our way to city hall.

 

Some time last year, and Sanka can correct me, a group of Minneapolis residents got together and decided that the make up of the

city was changing and as such, local elections should give a fair chance for minority in a majority districts a chance to be competitive with

legitimate candidates who ran for local elections.

 

Get this, and this is getting good, the proposed map was put into a public hearing, it got alot of support, and as such, the new electoral

maps were approved. This included the current, and the hotly contested Ward 6, represented by the man you called "whitey" earlier.

 

In the past he has represented a fairly represented Ward, but the current make up, and the way the new map drew up certain

neighbourhoods to boost the minority majority representation put the incumbent at a disadvantage, and his co-minority opponents at an

advantage. As such, Sanka's candidate saw a void, and decided to campaign, and cash in on the momentum of the

redistricting victory that this particular neighbourhood, aka ward 6 won.

 

Shockingly, the new ward 6 puts the visible minorities in the majority, and the traditional voters at a minority disadvantage.

 

It also took away certain blocks and put those blocks in another district to boost minority majority districts.

 

You can say that Sanka's candidate is in a place today that basically sums up the following: " I couldn't run city elections unless the electoral maps were rigged my way, lol."

 

Essentially, Sanka's candidate gerrymandered his way into local elections, lol.

 

 

Redistricting electoral boundaries is not running a legitimate political campaign, but oh well.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

No results are in for Ward 6 yet. It is a matter of minutes ...

 

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

 

 

Numbers are in ... so far Abdi is destroying the competition.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

[Gheelle.T]

Congrats to brother Abdi Warsame. This is another milestone for Somali Americans. All credit to all those who worked with him and made it happen!

[Safferz]

Wonderful!!

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

BREAKING NEWS: We project Abdi to be the winner of Ward 6 city council seat.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Abdi Warsame won a seat on the Minneapolis City Council Tuesday, riding an aggressive campaign to become the highest elected Somali official in the United States.

 

The victory was significant because thousands of East Africans began arriving in Minneapolis two decades ago but had yet to elect one of their own to the City Council, a move that Warsame and his supporters hope will encourage more participation in civic life.

 

Warsame secured 64 percent of first-place votes for the Sixth Ward seat. He defeated 12-year Council Member Robert Lilligren, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe who strove to show that he could connect with East African voters even if he didn’t share the same cultural background. He emphasized that he would address racial inequities.

 

The ward spans Cedar-Riverside, Seward, Elliot Park, Ventura Village, and Phillips West.

 

Warsame, who left Somali as a child and spent much of his life in the U.K., won the DFL endorsement in April and built a considerable edge going into Tuesday by spending weeks bringing East African supporters to the polls to vote early.

 

“He might have generated more volunteer hours from those Somali people who are eager to participate in a democratic process than any of the mayoral campaigns,” said attorney Brian Rice, who is advising Warsame. “The [campaign] room is always packed.”

 

startibune.com

[Gheelle.T]

Great news