Mpls sees Green in race for mayor

Minnesota may be a blue state, edging ever closer to red status, but as the September 13 primary approaches, Twin Cities voters will be seeing Green. This year Green Party Minnesota has endorsed two candidates for mayor: Farheen Hakeem in Minneapolis and Elizabeth Dickinson in St. Paul.

Most people will tell you that Farheen Hakeem is a long shot to beat out incumbent RT Rybak or Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin in the mayoral primary, since only the top two finishers will advance to the general election in November. But Hakeem sees things differently.

“Actually, the chances of my winning are not so slim. If my chances of winning were so slim, I don’t think RT and Peter would be kissing my butt as much as they are. Why would they give me the time of day if I wasn’t a threat?”

Hakeem believes that her ability to relate to the average Minneapolitan will win her votes. “If you look at the people in Minneapolis, they look a lot more like me, they have the same background as me,” she says. “I’m still a renter and I’ve seen the effects of development, the economy, the job market—these are all things that have directly affected my life. And when you look at RT Rybak and Peter McLaughlin, they are pretty far away from that.

Hakeem is convinced that she’ll get support from a broad and diverse swath of the populace. “There’s a voter base they can’t touch. I have the women’s vote, the immigrant vote, the people of color vote, the transgender/radical/queer vote, the low income vote, the renter vote, the Green vote. The list goes on and on. When you add them up, there are a lot of votes.”

Whether or not Hakeem can actually mobilize those voters remains to be seen. She is often criticized for being “too young” and inexperienced, although at age 29, her resume is impressive. Born and raised in Chicago, she moved to Minneapolis to pursue graduate studies. She taught math in the Minneapolis Public School system, and after September 11, 2001, turned her attention to social activism. Hakeem is involved with the Anti-war Committee and the Women of Color Building Project, and speaks publicly against racism.

She’s been a community organizer for a housing co-op and in education, has tutored youth at District 202, served as an advocate at the Minnesota Department of Public Health and worked as a counselor at Upward Bound. Currently she’s the membership coordinator for the Girl Scout Council of Greater Minneapolis. And oh yeah, she’s an Arab-American Muslim who wears a headscarf and used to perform stand-up comedy.

Despite her age and lack of political experience, Hakeem sees her advocacy work as ample qualification to become mayor, but whether she can win may be less important than simply having her in the race. For many, the difference between RT Rybak and Peter McLaughlin is slim—so much so, that neither Democratic candidate garnered a majority of delegates at the DFL convention last May, and therefore neither received the party’s endorsement.

Hakeem sees herself as a viable alternative to the other choices—“RT and RT Lite”—and fully embraces the left-leaning policies of a true progressive. But while her platform, which focuses on four issues: sustainable economics, living wages, affordable housing and an anti-racist approach to public safety, may not differ extensively from that of her DFL challengers, there is one issue that clearly sets them apart: The Stadium.

Hakeem unabashedly decries any public financing of a baseball stadium, while both DFLers support legislation that would give $350 million of city money to the Twins. In an effort to placate both sides, McLaughlin has added an amendment to the stadium bill that includes funding for youth sports activities, amateur sports, child care adn libraries. Hakeem calls this “a little Band-Aid on bullet sized wound,” adding, “That money could be used for so much good…so much good. It’s such a disgrace.”

Perhaps it’s her age or her idealism showing, but it seems clear that DFL support of the stadium is a deliberate nod to developers who influence public policy and can make or break political careers. As one anonymous media source proclaimed, “If you want to have a political career, you have to support public funding for stadiums. You can placate the liberals with other issues [such as same sex rights and social service programs], but if you’re going to do business with business, you’ve got to support public subsidies in some form.” Even if it means doing business with Carl Pohlad—owner of United Properties and one of the wealthiest landlords in the state.

In addition to facing off against Rybak and McLaughlin, Hakeem has had to wage a public relations campaign to combat racial stereotyping. Because of her appearance, Hakeem says people assume she’s “a foreigner” and constantly ask, “Where are you from?”

“I counted during Pride weekend—I got asked that question 67 times.” She chalks it up to ignorance and increased scrutiny of Arabs and Arab-Americans in a post-9-11 world. She says that since her campaign began in March, “I’ve only counted five really nasty incidents—just five people being outright gross to me and my volunteers. That’s pretty good. Mostly it’s ignorance that I have to deal with.”

“But,” she adds, “I’ve really held the media accountable.” She describes incidents with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Southwest Journal, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and WCCO radio that involved everything from labeling her as “angry” (“The reporter whipped out a picture of me at an anti-war protest at the Target Center and said, ‘Are you an angry person?’ But the photo showed me looking at this woman who was all up in my face, clutching her American flag, wearing her [Norm] Coleman sticker…and I’m just looking at her”), to misinformation about her ethnicity (“…they described me as a ‘black Muslim from Chicago’”), to questioning her religion (“…they said, ‘Is Minneapolis ready for a Muslim mayor?’ and I said, ‘Is Ward 10 ready for a white, Christian male?’”).

Is Minneapolis ready for a feisty, quick-witted intellectual Muslim mayor? Maybe or maybe not, but Hakeem’s candidacy in the race—and her candidness about race—sure make for interesting politics.