Gary Unger believes the St. Paul City Council has lost its way.
An excessive amount of discuss childcare – an enormous problem, but not the town’s job, Unger said – not enough discuss funding the police, and too little attention to basics like paving the roads and minding utility wires. So Unger’s running for the Ward 6 City Council seat. Electorally, he’s faced an uphill climb from the beginning. On the time Unger entered the race, the incumbent he’s difficult, Nelsie Yang, had already raised tens of hundreds of dollars.
Since entering the race, Unger has raised almost no money – but his face continues to be appearing in mailboxes across St. Paul’s East Side, on flyers declaring: “Vote Gary Unger for City Council.” How?
“Thank God for this PAC that keeps putting stuff out,” Unger said in an interview. “I mean, it’s marvelous.”
A political motion committee called Service Saint Paul, backed by two labor unions and an advocacy organization for residential landlords, has spent $121,000 in October alone attempting to sway 4 of the seven St. Paul City Council races, including Ward 6. The last-minute flurry has paid for polling, in-person voter outreach, digital ads, and mailers – like these, shared on social media by local politico Matt Privratsky.
Unger, who’s been lively in neighborhood- and ward-level politics for years, told MinnPost he doesn’t know the people behind Service Saint Paul and couldn’t say why they endorsed him – or put his face on a few of those mailers.
“Apparently, they’re not too keen on not funding the police,” Unger said. “They’re not into this rent control. Apparently I fit the bill of what they need to have.”
Within the races for the seven seats on St. Paul’s City Council, the candidates themselves had raised a collective sum of roughly $853,000 for his or her campaigns since essentially the most recent council election in 2019, in accordance with a MinnPost evaluation of campaign finance records. As of two weeks before the election, the candidates had already spent roughly $655,000 of that total.
But Unger’s example illustrates the potential an independent expenditure group holds to change a race during its final days. So who’s involved in these political committees? Who’s backing them financially?
Service Saint Paul
Service Saint Paul has raised greater than $220,000, and as of this past week, still had nearly $99,000 left to spend on behalf of the candidates they’d endorsed: James Lo and Yan Chen (who has also not reported any fundraising) in Ward 1, Isaac Russell in Ward 3, David Greenwood-Sanchez in Ward 5, and Unger in Ward 6.
Jason George – the chair of Service Saint Paul and a staffer for the PAC’s biggest donor, the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 49 – explained that his group goals to be a counterweight to “ideological” activist groups pushing for rent control and reduced police funding at City Hall.
“City government must be focused on core services and never a number of the ideological discussions which might be happening,” George said.
Why back Unger, who’d raised a grand total of $375? George said Yang, the Ward 6 incumbent, had backed the abolition of police in her response to the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America’s candidate questionnaire – a position George said was out-of-step together with her ward.
“The residents of Ward 6 should know that and make a alternative,” George explained.
In Yang's response to MinnPost's candidate questionnaire, the incumbent said she supported diverting funds from traditional policing in favor of a "restorative justice approach to public safety."
"Unfortunately, the Eastside has experienced many years of divestment, putting the community right into a cycle of poverty," Yang told MinnPost. "While serving on the City Council, I actually have supported over $100,000 in funding for BIPOC led organizations that work to forestall gun violence, provide mental health education, and advance other community safety initiatives."
Along with the IUOE – a union that represents heavy machinery construction employees in addition to some St. Paul public works employees – Service Saint Paul received contributions from the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters PAC ($25,000) and from Minnesota Multi Housing Association, which represents residential property owners ($10,000).
A part of that coalition, Minnesota Multi Housing, has also spent slightly below $8,000 to ascertain a smaller separate spin-off PAC called “St. Paul Works.” That committee has run ads supporting Ward 7 candidate Pa Der Vang – whom Service Saint Paul didn't endorse.
TakeAction Minnesota
The TakeAction Political Fund has been organizing on behalf of left-wing causes in local races across Minnesota for years – and this 12 months in St. Paul, the fund has been a primary conduit for (as George put it) the “activist” energy flowing into the race.
In St. Paul, TakeAction endorsed incumbents Yang and Mitra Jalali (Ward 4) together with candidates Anika Bowie (Ward 1), Saura Jost (Ward 3) and Hwa Jeong Kim (Ward 5).
The group praised each of those candidates for individual reasons, but among the many common threads in TakeAction’s praise: The endorsed candidates stood behind St. Paul’s voter-enacted rent control ordinance and supported a “responsive” and “comprehensive approach” to public safety.
For instance, TakeAction praised Yang within the Ward 6 race: “In her first term, she showed political courage by prioritizing investments in public education, disrupting the establishment of nearly automatic approvals for charter school funding. She also led a campaign for access to the COVID-19 vaccine on the East Side and worked to advance rent stabilization and community-centered public safety.”
Most of TakeAction’s efforts to sway the race have come from in-person voter outreach. The committee spent greater than $21,000 paying for TakeAction staff and for outreach employees – from a “partner” cooperative called The People’s Canvass – to door-knock in Ward 1 for Bowie, and one other $28,000 for similar outreach in Ward 7 for Johnson.
The group has also reported smaller independent expenditures in the shape of staff time spent boosting Jost, Jalali, Kim and Yang.
The TakeAction Political Fund’s only listed financial backer is its parent organization, also called TakeAction – which can also be backing slates of candidates in Duluth and the Minneapolis City Council race.
Other PAC contributions
The campaign backing a ballot measure to boost St. Paul’s sales tax reported slightly greater than $47,000 in contributions, and has spent most of that cash thus far on communications. The measure would make the town’s sales tax rate the best within the state, raising nearly $1 billion over the following decade for road repairs and park improvements.
At a MinnPost event on Monday, outgoing City Council president Amy Brendmoen said she believes the relatively-muted “Vote Yes” campaign reflects supporters’ belief that the sales tax measure is polling well and prone to pass.
Several other political groups also made direct contributions to several campaigns, though not one of the following totaled greater than just a few hundred dollars per candidate:
- The International Union of Operating Engineers’ offshoot PAC – Service Saint Paul – didn’t endorse Ward 2 incumbent Rebecca Noecker. Nonetheless, the union itself did donate money to Noecker’s campaign.
- Faith in Minnesota, the political arm of the St. Paul-based interfaith organizing powerhouse ISAIAH, reported in-kind donations of staff time supporting Jost’s campaign.
- The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce’s PAC donated money on to Lo, Russell and Vang.
- A bunch called the Saint Paul Historic Preservation Committee – which backs candidates “who support historic preservation” – contributed to the campaigns of Bowie, Lo, Russell, Greenwood-Sanchez, Johnson and Vang.
- The Laborers District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota Political Fund – the political arm of the development union LiUNA – donated to Noecker, Jalali, Kim, Yang and Johnson.
- Greater Than, a Vermont-based PAC that supports progressive women candidates, gave to Kim’s campaign.
Candidate fundraising
Some St. Paul candidates raised huge sums of cash before September, when campaigns first offered an in depth update on their funds.
The re-election campaigns of Noecker, Jalali and Yang all benefited from a slow drip in fundraising (and spending) throughout their most up-to-date council terms that’s ramped up in recent months.
Lo and Syed each stockpiled huge amounts of money in early fundraising, hoping to interrupt out of the crowded Ward 1 race – where eight candidates are running.
But between early September and mid-October, no candidate has raised more cash than Russell in Ward 3, who raised greater than $23,000 to fuel his campaign’s race to the finish.
Russell has also spent greater than any candidate aside from Syed during September and October, hoping to win an election in Ward 3 that many observers expect shall be close. Russell’s closest competitor in fundraising, Jost, raised $14,000 through the same stretch – and nearly matched Russell’s pace of spending.