Dear Mpls. Issues List Members, I wanted to inform you myself that I am running for 2nd Ward City Council member.
Your interest in the campaign and, even more importantly, in our City is so important that I want to try to keep you as included in my part of it as possible. I haven�t been posting to the list very often lately, but now that I am a candidate for City Council, that will change. As some of you may recall, I first ran for City Council in 2001. At that time I worked hard to run a principled, positive campaign. With an incredibly hard working team of volunteers we were able to build a strong coalition of people throughout the ward. Homeowners, renters, workers, business operators, students, artists, long time residents, new immigrants, activists and others from across geographic, economic, political, ethnic and age spectrums joined the effort. Together we presented our ideas for reclaiming our democracy, opening up our government and building a more just and sustainable city for everyone. I continue to feel so proud of all of those who helped and of the campaign we ran. And I continue to be committed to the vision and goals we articulated in 2001. Since that time I have done a lot to learn and, hopefully, further develop the skills and knowledge needed to do the best work possible for the people of Minneapolis. I was fortunate enough to have been on Mayor Rybak�s transition team and then, for over a year, on his Ethics Task Force. Working with staff, volunteers and elected officials to help rewrite the City�s Ethics code was a great opportunity for me. I am proud of what we accomplished and consider it an important step forward. I also had the honor of being elected State Chair of the Green Party of Minnesota. Helping lead our young and growing organization during an incredibly challenging and tragic 2002 election cycle was an experience I will never forget. More recently, for the past two years, I have served residents of Minneapolis as Neighborhood Representative on the NRP Policy Board for the Revitalization Neighborhoods. Working with other neighborhood representatives, elected officials and community interest people, as well as NRP and City staff, to help secure funding for NRP Phase 2, to keep neighborhoods in control of their planning, implementation and to make NRP as open and inclusive as possible has been both challenging and very rewarding. During this period I have also continued to administer and teach in our home-based child care and music education business as well as work as associate editor of the internationally distributed newspaper �Public School Montessorian.� Finally, and probably most rewarding of all, I have gotten to immerse myself in the joys of living and learning in the wonderful family I share with Sarah and our children --- from our youngest at 3 to our oldest at 19. Now, as we begin this campaign for City Council, and all the campaigns this election season, I see it as a time of enormous opportunity and great hope for Minneapolis. In the coming months we will have a chance --as individuals and as a citizenry-- to examine, discuss, evaluate, and ultimately make decisions about where we are, where we want to go and how we plan to get there. I hope you will all take an active part. As a candidate in that process, I want you to feel welcome and encouraged to contact me and to join our campaign now or anytime in the future. As a candidate, I am committed to running the most thoughtful, responsive, open, honest, informative and inclusive campaign possible. I welcome your support as well as your criticism. For I believe that open discussion and the full participation of as many voices and viewpoints as possible can only help make ours a better democracy and lead us to better solutions and outcomes in the future. That is one reason why this list is so valuable. In recent weeks there have been many important posts about the 2nd Ward and Minneapolis government. I will be catching up and sharing my thoughts on many of those in the days ahead. I have so much to tell you. I look forward to what�s to come. In peace and cooperation, Cam Gordon Seward Neighborhood, Minneapolis, Minnesota Ward 2-9, SD 59B (612) 296-0579, 339-2452 REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
