Political Expert: Cities Seeing More Partisan Influence

Political science professor David Schultz says political parties are making endorsements and getting more involved in city and school board races.  

“Essentially now, we’re getting endorsements, we’re getting party support and what it does at this point is politicize everything all the way down,” said Schultz, who works with Hamline University and the University of Minnesota.

Schultz doesn’t necessarily believe the party influence is a good thing in local races.

“Cities are supposed to be apolitical and we hope they are kind of run like businesses where politics doesn’t infect it,” said Schultz. “But if we are going to get into this situation where here we take basically every city service, every decision, the things that affect us most at a local level and we’re going to run into a whole bunch of political polarization problems. That becomes a scary thought.”

Locally, the DFL has endorsed candidates in the Brooklyn Park race for mayor. This year, the DFL endorsed Hollies Winston for mayor and Teshite Wako in the race for city council.

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