Progressives on Minneapolis’s city council used the council’s first meeting of the year to install members of the Democratic Socialists of America as both the “majority leader” and “minority leader,” seemingly installing a one-party state designed to ice out representation for the council’s moderate minority.
Aisha Chughtai will be majority leader, saying her role would be to “identify uncontroversial ideas that the rest of the body largely agreed with,” as the Star Tribune paraphrased, while the minority leader would be tasked with convincing others to accept more controversial ideas.
Chughtai nominated Robin Wonsley as minority leader. Wonsley explained the role differently, saying the minority role would be to “recognize the political diversity” of the council, specifically the four members of the Democrat Socialists of America–a group that includes Chughtai, as well as Jason Chavez and Soren Stevenson.
Wonsley’s City Council bio says “Robin Wonsley is a Democratic Socialist” who “In 2018 … began her PhD program in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies.” Chugtai’s bio says “She is the first Muslim woman, and youngest person ever elected to the Minneapolis City Council.”
Moderate members protested the appointments, with council member LaTrisha Vetaw pointing out that the socialists were claiming to represent “political diversity” by installing two members of the same political faction in the majority and minority slots. But the progressive majority refused to budge.
Linea Palmisano, the council’s longest-serving member, said “President Payne, you put the four DSA-ascribed members on everything. This is over-representation,” adding that the majority and minority leaders almost always voted the same way. “If the desire is political diversity, which I also appreciate, this is not.”
Palmisano was the only moderate permitted to lead a committee: the Enterprise and Labor Relations Committee.
Even the moderate members are hardly moderate by national standards, aligning with Mayor Jacob Frey. Elliot Payne was re-elected as council president.
Star Tribune columnist Eric Roper reacted with shock to the appointments, writing that “for those following at home: The majority leader, a democratic socialist, is the steward of consensus issues. And the minority leader, a democratic socialist, is the progressive champion. And these aren’t partisan roles, except the minority member represents a political movement that the majority member also belongs to. Got it.”
The move overrode the will of voters as expressed in a 2021 referendum, which eliminated a partisan structure in the council, including those titles.
Roper wrote that the city attorney emphasized that the majority and minority titles “didn’t have to do with political parties, since the council offices are technically nonpartisan.”
Wonsley, the minority leader, said “Democratic socialism has been a growing political movement nationwide,” and that Democratic socialism is not a political party.
Payne, the council president, said that Wonsley brings a “very specific lens” as minority leader because while the other DSA members on the council also align with the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party, Wonsley technically fashions herself an independent.
Wonsley, the minority leader, said “We’re going to have to generate progressive revenue, and that includes also a tax on the rich,” adding she also wanted to have unarmed mental health professionals respond to 911 calls.
The chaos at the council’s inaugural meeting bodes poorly for Minneapolis as it is the epicenter of violent clashes with immigration enforcement and rampant fraud by Somalis that led to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz dropping his re-election bid.