First Minneapolis mayoral debate highlights deep divisions

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The top five candidates to be elected mayor of Minneapolis met up for the first debate of the campaign season Friday morning.

Mayor Jacob Frey, state Sen. Omar Fateh, Rev. Dewayne Davis, Jazz Hampton, and Brenda Short took the stage at Westminster Presbyterian.

Sharp shooting

Debate disagreements:

In 82 minutes of debate, the candidates shared only a few differences in policy, including how to handle unhoused people in Minneapolis. 

And even that started with agreement: None of them want encampments to exist.

"But we need to deal with it in a humane and compassionate way," said Fateh. "And what we know is that bulldozing our neighbors block by block does not put them into housing, throwing away their belongings, their key identifiers, their social security cards, their IDs. That does not help."

"We go out to visit the encampment and we provide social services," Frey said. "We partner extensively with the county and other jurisdictions. We provide social service support. We offer shelter, oftentimes housing. We even bring a mobile medical unit out to the encampment."

Dominating debate

Beyond the top two:

Mayor Frey and Sen. Fateh frequently traded punches and got the majority of time on the microphone.

By our unofficial count, Frey got to speak for a little over 18 minutes, Fateh got 17 minutes, Davis got ten, Hampton nine, and Short got just shy of eight minutes.

Their visions for downtown and Uptown revitalization were too short for much detail, but all the candidates agreed that keeping the Timberwolves and Lynx wasn’t worth investing more city taxpayer money.

And they all agreed keeping crime down helps draw businesses and visitors, but they disagreed about how to achieve it.

"I reject any false dilemma that it is only either a warrior style police that is at every corner, making sure like it is in D.C. with the National Guard, and Defund.," Davis said. "There are a lot of options and good options between those two extremes."

"We don't need an armed officer to respond to every single call," Fateh said. "We know that at the city, we had a report that showed that nearly half of 911 calls can be diverted away from police. That means alternatives to police, the BCR teams, the crisis response, the mental health workers."

"We now have 24 hours a day, seven days a week mental health response," Frey said. "And I also believe that we need police officers, and we need far more than we have right now. We are presently increasing the number of officers that we have on the police force."

"I believe we have a deep need for more officers in this city," said Hampton. "We have to have more, and we have to ask them to do less, so they're more likely to stay on this force and we're more to recruit others."

Crunch time chances

Early voting has already started, but the candidates have a few more forums to make the argument they belong in this office, including another debate Oct. 13.