In three leafy, affluent – and high-turnout – voting precincts around Minneapolis’ Cedar Lake, Ward 7 candidate Scott Graham trounced his opponent Katie Cashman in last week’s City Council elections.

But Cashman won almost in every single place else, carrying eight of the ward’s 12 precincts on first-choice ballots alone. That was enough to shut the gap. City officials declared her the winner, with nearly 51% of the vote, after counting second-choice ballots.

Cashman’s victory helped a coalition of left-leaning groups and critics of Mayor Jacob Frey clinch a majority on the City Council within the elections. Candidates endorsed by the Minneapolis for the Many PAC – or their allies, including those endorsed by the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists – now control seven of the council’s 13 seats.

MinnPost broke down first-choice voting data by ward and precinct, which helps illustrate where the closest races were decided.

One other political motion committee, “All of Mpls,” which supports Frey, spent not less than half-a-million dollars in hopes of giving more allies a seat of power at City Hall. Despite this financial advantage, All of Mpls won only considered one of the three races where the PAC went head-to-head against the left-wing coalition.

The lone victory? Ward 8, where incumbent Andrea Jenkins held onto her seat by 38 votes. Her strong showing within the Regina, Field and King Field neighborhoods appears to be a part of the explanation she was in a position to hold off three challengers, Soren Stevenson chief amongst them.

Here’s the identical map, but re-colored to point out the races where All of Mpls backed a candidate:

Note that the map still shows voting data from wards where the Minneapolis for the Many coalition didn't field a candidate.

For instance, in Ward 6, Jamal Osman was in a position to win a three-way re-election race by racking up huge margins within the Phillips and Ventura Village neighborhoods. Challenger Kayseh Magan performed strongest in just a few downtown precincts and a sliver of Cedar-Riverside.

Many political operatives expected the race for the open Ward 12 seat to be close. Aurin Chowdhury had the backing of the Minneapolis for the Many coalition. Luther Ranheim was All of Mpls’ pick within the race. Each had strong fundraising numbers – and a 3rd candidate, Nancy Ford, was doing her utmost to make it a three-way race.

But in the long run, Chowdhury won all but two of the ward’s 12 precincts outright. The one two where she didn’t win on first-choice ballots? Morris Park, which borders the airport (by two percentage points), and one precinct that runs along thirty eighth Street (by one percentage point).

Adding those precinct-level results together ends in this map: