Josh Martin Profile picture
Local political nerd in Minneapolis. Campaigns: @OmarFatehMN, @sorenmpls, @cashmanforward7
Mar 19 5 tweets 2 min read
So I know many of the people who follow me are excited (or at least resigned) to attend the DFL caucuses and conventions.

But fun fact - did you know caucuses and conventions cost money? (1/5)

form.jotform.com/241337556589166Preregister for DFL Caucus Night with a Nonattendee Form  We look forward to seeing you at your in-person Minneapolis DFL caucus! Under state rules, all caucuses and endorsing conventions must be held in-person. You can preregister with a nonattendee caucus form to make the in-person experience quicker and be nominated if you cannot attend on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. The Minneapolis DFL coffers are not what they once were. COVID caucuses made fundraising difficult, and we also had to have an extra round of elections recently (thanks Phyllis Kahn). (2/5)
Jan 15 8 tweets 1 min read
So I am a parliamentarian in my spare time. I am known to frequent the official Robert’s Rules of Order forum. Occasionally, people ask us a legislative question. And the answer is we have no idea.🧵 Parliamentary procedure is the rules governing a deliberative body.

Theoretically, you can just “roll your own rules.” But that’s not most people’s idea of a good time.
Aug 15, 2024 13 tweets 5 min read
An astute political observer pointed out that I might want to look at raw vote totals rather than just percentages, since there is variation in population and turnout between areas. This makes sense – this isn’t the Electoral College, after all.🧵 But I wasn’t sure I should look at *just* raw votes. An area with very high turnout (Ward 13, for instance) might score highly on that metric even if the area voted for Samuels. And an election is a zero sum game. To win, one candidate needs to receive more votes than the other.
Aug 12, 2024 9 tweets 4 min read
The City Council met today in Committee of the Whole at 1:30 PM. 🧵

TLDR: Adopted bylaws for the Community Commission on Police Oversight and received the first ever “Council Tracking Report” on the status of ordinances, enterprise policies, and legislative directives. City Council Committee of the Whole sitting at the dais  Minneapolis City Council Committee of the Whole August 12, 2024 The committee received a presentation and report on the status of ordinances, enterprise policies, and legislative directives through August 1, 2024.



lims.minneapolismn.gov/Download/RCAV2…
lims.minneapolismn.gov/Download/RCAV2…
Aug 12, 2024 23 tweets 9 min read
The MN State Primary Election is coming up tomorrow, with polls opening at 7 AM and closing at 8 PM. Here's a look at the state of play ahead of the election, with a focus on the elections Minneapolis voters will see on their ballots.🧵 This thread focuses on the state/local races. The federal races are covered in a separate thread.
Aug 12, 2024 24 tweets 10 min read
The MN State Primary Election is coming up tomorrow, with polls opening at 7 AM and closing at 8 PM. Here's a look at the state of play ahead of the election, with a focus on the elections Minneapolis voters will see on their ballots.🧵 Don Samuels (left) and U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (right) This ended up getting too long for one thread, so this will focus on the federal races, and I'll do the state/local races for Minneapolis in a separate thread.
Feb 8, 2024 6 tweets 1 min read
The continued defense of Mayor Frey's comments "losers with nasty cat blankets" comment was that it was a joke. Which misses the point.🧵

This isn't, and never was, the problem with his comments. Everyone knew it was a joke. No one really believed the Mayor had a study on this. But the jokes you tell often have a kernel of truth.

In Mayor Frey's case, there's long been a perception that he favors downtown business interests over the interests of the average worker. This isn't generally a perception you want as an elected official.
Jun 6, 2023 9 tweets 3 min read
Okay, as promised by @WedgeLIVE, I have compiled a summary spreadsheet of information from Statements of Economic Interest for:

-City and school board elected officials
-City executive officers
-City charter department heads🧵

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… This is in substantially the same format as the spreadsheet I compiled last year, but it's more organized. I also added a column which indicates changes compared to last year's report.

I don't know that there are any "bombshells" in this data, but some items of interest are...
Sep 15, 2021 16 tweets 3 min read
Following the Rules to Amend the Charter: An Act in 8,000 Parts 🧵

May 25, 2020 - George Floyd is murdered by Derek Chauvin, an on-duty Minneapolis police officer. May/June 2020 – Massive protests occur in reaction to the murder by police, as well as in reaction to the treatment of protesters and the media by police.

June 7, 2020 – The rally in Powderhorn Park occurs, in which nine council members commit to transformational change of MPD.
Sep 15, 2021 8 tweets 2 min read
Well, this is a fun detail I didn't notice in the order before:

4.) The City Respondents and County Auditor are enjoined from publicly releasing results tapes or copies of results tapes from individual machines. For those not in the know on this (I have served as an election judge for several years), the "results tapes" are printed out by the ballot tabulators on and show the results on each item on the ballot by race, for that precinct.