The Minneapolis City Council candidate who accused Council Member Alondra Cano of "Jim Crow tactics" for challenging the credentials of more than 100 delegates elected in the caucus has challenged 93 delegates himself, filing a challenge with the Minneapolis DFL late last week.
The campaign for Mohamed Farah, who is in a three-way race with Cano and former Council Member Gary Schiff for the Ninth Ward council seat, asked that 93 delegates who didn't sign in to participate in the caucus be stricken from the roster for Saturday's convention, where delegates will try to endorse one of the three candidates. Only a handful of the delegates named in Farah's challenge have Somali names.
Farah's campaign also complained that 17 delegates in one precinct used false addresses, that two delegates in another precinct don't live in the precinct, and that one precinct's caucus was convened during prayer time.
"This was an act of discrimination and … it helps further disenfranchisement [of] a community that has been marginalized," Farah's campaign wrote. "Also, before prayer time the convener refused to allow a subcaucus."
Farah asked that either that precinct's delegation be thrown out, or the delegates divided evenly between Cano, Schiff and Farah.
The haggling over delegates matters because a candidate needs the support of 60 percent of them to win endorsement at the convention Saturday.
Farah caused a firestorm last week by accusing Cano of "voter suppression" and comparing her delegate challenges to President Trump's Muslim travel ban.
But Farah's challenges, which he filed a night before he blasted Cano, cite some of the same procedural problems the incumbent council member cited, just directed at different delegates.
Schiff also filed challenges to the Minneapolis DFL late Thursday, mostly asking that delegates who are not slated for a seat at the convention be seated, or that several who are slated to be seated not be seated because they are listed in multiple precincts or because their addresses cannot be confirmed.
All the complaints will be looked at by a nine-member group in the Ninth Ward called the Credentials Committee, which will make a recommendation to delegates, who will decide what to do at the convention.
The convention is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Saturday, at South High School.
The first round of ward conventions was held April 22. Longtime incumbents Barb Johnson and Lisa Goodman failed to win endorsement, and challenger Jeremiah Ellison won endorsement over incumbent Blong Yang.
Adam Belz • 612-673-4405
Twitter: @adambelz
