REVISED: Minneapolis for the Many Slings Mud In Ward 7

Minneapolis for Many suggests City Council candidate Elizabeth Shaffer is a DINO!

NOTE: I have revised this post with grammatical corrections and additional comments from candidate Elizabeth Shaffer.¹

I received a mailer today from Minneapolis for the Many (a far-left PAC that gets most of its funding from out of state), suggesting that the Minneapolis Ward 7 City Council challenger candidate Elizabeth Shaffer is a DINO (Democrat In Name Only), hold on, clutch your pearls, a Republican masquerading as a Democrat in our beautiful blue city!

The political ad notes that out-of-state landlord Brian Fitterer gave half a million dollars to Trump in 2020 (therefore, he is evil) and made a maximum donation to Elizabeth Shaffer for this year’s election (therefore, she must be evil too). Now, the maximum donation for a Minneapolis City Council member is $600. I am not sure how much influence you can buy for less than half a percent of the money Elizabeth Shaffer has raised, but I bet it is not much. Shaffer has stated: “As far as the donor mentioned, unfortunately, I do not have the ability to background check all the people who send in money to my campaign…….or have the desire or time to comb through all Katie’s donations to find all her donors’ backgrounds.”

I was able to confirm that Fitterer did donate to Shaffer; however, the City of Minneapolis campaign finance reports appear to misspell his name as Fritterer:

Fitterer also contributed to Michael Baskins, Lydia Millard, and Jacob Frey this election cycle:

The mailer directs you to an anti-Shaffer website that makes the following claims:

• Shaffer has raised over $16,000 from Republican donors - there are links to the evidence, but I have no way of knowing if the list of people comprises Republicans or not. But assume that it's true, the fact that 11% of the money she has raised is from Republicans should not be scandalous. Although Republicans are almost irrelevant in Minneapolis, there are still Republican voters in the city. For example, in 2024, 12% of Minneapolis voters cast their ballots for Trump. If you are a Minneapolis Republican, it is unlikely that you would support a left-leaning candidate like Shaffer’s incumbent opponent, Katie Cashman. Minneapolis is a blue city, but their are many shades of blue - it is not all DSA blue.

• Shaffer donates to Republicans - there are links to evidence, but the evidence is unclear to me. As best I can tell, it appears to be the same list of donors to Shaffer. There is also a link to a letter to the editor in a community newspaper that claims (without evidence) that Shaffer is a republican donor. In that same newspaper, Shaffer rebutted the writer: “Over the course of my lifetime, I have contributed to one Republican candidate, over ten years ago... who happened to be my brother. No regrets.”

• Shaffer’s donors are responsible for hundreds of property violations across the city in the last two years alone. A link is provided to a spreadsheet that is primarily the aforementioned Fitterer and James Rubin (another $600 Shaffer donor). Although this is a true statement, it overstates Rubin and Fitterer’s influence on Shaffer, and it misrepresents who the bulk of Shaffer’s donors are (regular citizens of Minneapolis).

• Shaffer is anti-labor based on the fact that Shaffer is a Minneapolis Park Board Commissioner, and the Park workers went on strike in the summer of 2024. A strike is a complicated matter (I know, my dad was a labor leader with SEIU 26 back in the day), and the strike was ultimately settled. Running the park system in a city with escalating taxes on its citizens is a complicated matter. Previously, Shaffer has stated: “As commissioner, I supported the established union and management negotiation process, which ultimately resulted in a historic agreement with LIUNA 363, providing an average salary increase of $11,000 over two years. I am pro-union and am focused on forging strong relationships with workers AND businesses to ensure a strong local economy and great jobs for Minneapolis.” Shaffer is endorsed by the DFL, the Carpenters Union, SMART (Sheet Metal Workers International Association) Local Union 10, and the Firefighters Union.

• Shaffer wants to criminalize marijuana based on the fact that, as a Park Board Commissioner, she supported banning the smoking of marijuana in the parks. Note you can’t smoke or vape tobacco in the Parks, nor can you drink alcohol in the Parks². So it is misleading to suggest she wants to criminalize marijuana. I am pretty sure the majority of Minneapolis citizens don’t want someone smoking weed on the beach next to their family, just like you don’t want them smoking tobacco.

• There is a lot of focus on Fitterer - I don’t doubt that he is a slimy landlord, but again, how much influence does $600 buy you (less than half a percent of the money Elizabeth Shaffer has raised) in a City Council race? My hunch is not much.

• As a Park Board Commissioner, she diverted funding away from youth programs, voted against an ADA-accessible Greenway ramp, and prioritized parking over parks. It goes on to say Shaffer’s Park Board (oh, now it's her Park Board, even though she is just one of nine Commissioners) demanded back pay from park worker Indica Medeira, who went on maternity leave after giving birth to her pre-term son. Let’s take these one at a time:

  • Diverted funding away from youth programs - the evidence cited was a 54-page PDF document of a December 2024 public hearing of the proposed 2025 budget and tax levy for the Park Board - I could not figure out what Minneapolis for Many was accusing here.

  • ADA-accessible Greenway ramp - the link is to a Star Tribune article about the Park Board owning a garden, which Hennepin County wanted to pave with a bike and pedestrian trail to the Midtown Greenway. The story, as I read it, was that this was not an open-and-shut case, and there were several inconsistencies to navigate through.

  • Prioritized parking over parks - the link is to a Star Tribune article about converting the Uptown mall into a park, which would have eliminated parking for the neighboring apartment dwellers. I have lived near the Uptown mall much of my life; it is not a park - it is a boulevard that has supported parking all of my life (66 years).

  • Indica Medeira - It is a sad story. Still, the Park Board (which is a governmental bureaucracy with 630 full-time employees and 1,500 seasonal employees) had a perfectly legal policy at the time that required paid parental leave conditional upon returning to work. After Medeira’s plight came to light, the Park Board changed the policy and recinded their claim against Medeira.

In summary, the election ad sent to my home was not a lie, but a deception. I don’t appreciate the mud-slinging locally; I get enough of that nationally. Minneapolis for Many’s focusing on one slimy $600 donor doesn’t define Elizabeth Shaffer for me.

1. This is what I love about local politics - you can actually talk to elected officials and candidates!

2. In Minneapolis, it is illegal to drink alcohol in public parks unless it is served at a licensed park eatery, a designated area with a special permit, or a sanctioned public event. This means that casual picnics with your own alcoholic beverages are not allowed.