Ms. Pepin, if Cano had done what you did to post these tweets here, there would
be no issue at all. Ken Bearman has it right. I’m getting really tired of this
thread, so I am going to write it to death (I can dream).
After the last public utterances I’ve heard from Cano on this subject, I guess
I am finally decided that she is beyond redemption. To Cano, everyone who
believes her behavior with regard to this communication unethical, is a racist.
They may or may not be racists, but that is irrelevant to whether Cano behaves
ethically as a member of the Minneapolis City Council.
I think campaign finance law doesn’t get into this sort of thing, so it remains
an ethical problem, not a legal one as Gayle Bonneville posits, but I would be
interested in hearing from folks with more knowledge about incumbent use of
public information inaccessible to most without an official request, in a
campaign or protest.
Cano will face whatever sanctions the Council decides on when they get the
board report (pretty limited, I think, and unlikely to be more than a scolding
resolution as anything else hobbles the Council as well, i.e., they could strip
her of certain roles, but that would increase work for others) should they
agree there’s a big problem in all of this kerfuffle.
I predict Cano will face a challenger in 2017 should she run for reelection
when the only folks who can really sanction her will decide on this, if they
remember it. Since she only got Democratic Farmer Labor Party endorsement when
her opponents stepped aside in 2013, I don’t think that will happen again as
delegates do tend to remember this stuff.
The more one looks, the more one finds Cano lacking in even the basics for a
good public servant or politician.
Just imagine endorsing a Phyllis Kahn opponent;-), but then you don’t have to
imagine: many have. I know a few of them and they are alright as long as they
don’t always get their way, something that seldom happens in the DFL to the
frustration of many of us. I mean look at Ward 9 where the DFL endorsed Cano
and helped get her elected. Could she have won without endorsement against her
opponents? Maybe, maybe not, but I sort of doubt it. Kahn has done it, but Cano
is no Kahn.
Of course I have really liked a few of Representative Kahn’s opponents over the
years, especially the ones who worked hard to build their base and campaigned
hard, relentlessly working the caucuses and conventions with compelling
agendas; these were usually young and vital folks with an enthusiasm that can
only be matched by greater numbers and experience. It is a joy to witness, and
if one day should one of them succeed, it will be as bitter sweet for me as I
hope it was for those who lost. I remember these folks and their campaigns.
Some time when Phyllis decides not to run (I’d prefer it if she never stepped
down, but died in her seat at the capitol, perhaps bored to sleep during a
Republican’s tirade), someone may have a better chance, but until then it would
be a terrible shame to lose someone with experience, someone with good
judgement, someone with the ability to work with colleagues, someone who will
serve all constituents to accomplish great things, and someone blessed with a
talent of irritating the right people to much better effect than someone like
CM Cano ever could.
Thank you Phyllis for being you and no thank you CM Cano as you seem to be
somebody folks could do without in any elected office. Sometimes those who
share a number of your goals are the biggest barriers to reaching them. That’s
life. That also seems to be true of Cano and a number of other Black Lives
Matter folks who never met a coalition of like minded folks they would not
undermine given half a chance.