Kurt Michael Anderson

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Kurt Michael Anderson

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Independent

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 2, 2021

Education

Bachelor's

University of Minnesota, 1974

Law

New York University, 1977

Personal

Birthplace

Rhode Island

Religion

Roman Catholic

Profession

Lawyer

Kurt Michael Anderson (independent) ran for election to the Minneapolis City Council to represent Ward 11 in Minnesota. He lost in the general election on November 2, 2021.

Anderson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.

Elections in Minneapolis are officially nonpartisan, but the Minneapolis City Charter allows mayoral and city council candidates to choose a party label to appear below their name on the official ballot. Ballotpedia includes candidates' party or principle to best reflect what voters will see on their ballot.

Biography

Kurt Anderson was born at Newport Naval Base in Rhode Island. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 1974 and a J.D. from New York University in 1977. Anderson’s career experience includes working as a lawyer.

Elections

2021

See also: City elections in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2021)

General election

General election for Minneapolis City Council Ward 11

The ranked-choice voting election was won by Emily Koski in round 1 .

		Candidate	%	Total Votes	Transfer	Round eliminated
		Emily Koski	58.3	7,789	0	Won (1)
		Jeremy Schroeder	30.3	4,049	0	1
	Submit photo	Kurt Michael Anderson	5.2	695	0	1
		Dillon Gherna	3.4	455	0	1
		Albert T. Ross	2.6	345	0	1
		Undeclared Write-insUndeclared write-in candidates may advance past the first round in some ranked-choice elections. If the official source reports write-in votes by candidate name, Ballotpedia displays them alongside the ballot-qualified candidates. However, if write-in votes are reported without a name, they will instead be included in the total write-in votes figure in Round 1. Please consult the official elections source for more details about unnamed write-in candidate vote totals past Round 1.	0.2	21	0

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 13,354
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign themes

2021

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Kurt Michael Anderson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Anderson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a 36-year Minneapolis Ward 11 resident. Various family members have resided within the city limits continuously since at least 1923. I also have a substantial background in suburban and rural Minnesota.

My political resume includes some DFL politics in Bloomington-Richfield (1972-74); Fred Harris campaign (New Hampshire, 1976); national convention alternate for Mondale (1984, representing a rural MN congressional district); State DFL Platform Commission co-chair, 1998-90; SD 62 (Mpls – Richfield) DFL Chair, 1992-94; Ward 11 DFL convention co-convenor, 1993; Treasurer, John Brandl for State Senate, 1986-90; Treasurer, George Dahl for School Board, 1987; Treasurer, Tim Penny for Governor, 2002.

I was Parish Council President at the now-closed Church of the Visitation in Minneapolis, in about 1998-90.

In approximately 1993 I was invited but declined to join the U.S. Foreign Service. In 1986-92, I provided pro bono legal representation to an unsuccessful asylum applicant, from Haiti.

My published online commentaries in MinnPost.com are:

One and a half cheers for Ruth Bader Ginsburg

How to lessen inequality in a pandemic: a COVID-19 financial amnesty.

I filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court, addressing whether the First Amendment mandates property rights in vulgar or offensive expression. Iancu v. Brunetti, No. 18-302,

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Strongly Oppose defunding Minneapolis police. Instead, double the size of the force, with culturally competent officers.

• Revise Minneapolis 2040 zoning plan to emphasize integrated home ownership throughout the city.

• Actually 3rd and 4th. 3. Revise Ranked Choice voting to have a ranked choice primary from which three candidates advance to a ranked choice general election.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you balance the needs and desires of existing business and housing communities with new development? Would you take gentrification and displacement into consideration when planning neighborhood development?

The next step in racial integration should be to sponsor integrated home ownership throughout the city, focusing the effort on persons whose ancestors were excluded by previous covenants, redlining, or social custom. In other words, persons historically forced to live in segregated neighborhoods should have the first opportunity to integrate other neighborhoods.

Community Question Featured local question

Please list the criteria you would use to evaluate which projects are worth maintaining or starting in Minneapolis when it comes to public infrastructure.

Give first priority to infrastructure supporting major growth projects, then to the most damaged, obsolete, or vulnerable infrastructure.

Community Question Featured local question

What do you think about the city's environmental health? Would you make any changes to current policy?

I am a longtime transit user and more recent Nice Ride bike rental member. I also have conducted most of my business online, for decades. I appreciate the city's progress in trying to get commuters out of single-occupant cars and I would look for opportunities to expand that effort.

I also think we need to continuously review and evaluate the neighborhood benefits and burdens of our public works efforts, in the interests of promoting equity.

Community Question Featured local question

What role do you feel police should play in Minneapolis? What are your thoughts on the city council’s proposed changes to the Minneapolis Police Department?

I strongly oppose Charter Amendment 2, seeking to abolish the police department. It is the wolf of police defunding dressed in the sheepskin of public safety. All of the "choices" that defunding advocates promise already exist, and can be enhanced without a charter amendment. Most prominently, Hennepin County COPE (Community Outreach for Psychiatric Emergencies) already sends competent treatment and social work personnel to intervene with persons having psychiatric emergencies. But Step 1 in these situations is to get the person to accept, or in any event submit to, the intervention. Therefore, COPE staff is almost always accompanied by police in any community intervention.

Community Question Featured local question

What would you like Minneapolis' public safety system to look like by the end of your term? What would you do to accomplish your vision of public safety?

I propose what may seem, to many, to be a counterintuitive solution – doubling the authorized strength of the Minneapolis police force. As many persons have pleaded, we need community cops more than 911 cops. We need police officers who include mental health specialists and mediators, and all of whom both represent and are attuned to the diverse culture of our city. Organizations such as Mad Dads are excellent resources both for recruiting and referral as well as evaluating the suitability of police candidates.

We need a police department adequately staffed to analyze rape kits as well as investigating homicides, burglaries, and muggings. The recent mass resignations and retirements of police officers present part of an opportunity to make the changes we need; but the officers in the community need to know that they are not funded to be Lone Rangers, and that they have a strong force behind them – as well as good community relationships – to ensure the safety and success of their efforts.

I recall but cannot retrieve Steve Berg’s StarTribune OpEd c.2006, “How New York Got Its Groove Back.” He pointed out that New York City had 2.5 times the number of police, per resident, than Minneapolis had at the time. Granted, this was before the Eric Garner killing and also included an overly aggressive stop and frisk policy by the NYC police. On the other hand, the homicide rate was much lower than in other major US cities including Minneapolis. One may surmise that there are a large number of middle-aged people walking around NYC today who might have been dead in the streets two decades earlier.

These historical lessons indicate a need to implement Broken Windows 2.0, an approach to policing that involves a large, community-supported law enforcement presence, while avoiding racial profiling and adhering to Warren court standards regarding stops and frisks.

I calculate that doubling the size of the Minneapolis police force, once we are able to actually fill the positions (and assuming no cuts elsewhere), would increase the total tax bill in Minneapolis by six to seven percent.

Here is some additional recommended reading, from the Atlantic: Progressive Denial Won’t Stop Violent Crime (July 2021), https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/crime-progressives/619569/ .

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I adhere to the biblical principle that the last shall be first, and the first shall be last. Too often, the burden of social progress has fallen on the middle economic classes in our country.

I believe that while market economics are an important policy tool, they are not the Holy Grail.

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the state government and legal system?

It's the most local of all offices, closely connected to the individual citizenry. People expect a personal acquaintance with their council member.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I would take my examples as the situation required, For example, among presidents during or near my lifetime I admire Truman's decisiveness amid uncertainty, Eisenhower's international restraint, Johnson's determination to advance a social and economic agenda, Ford's attempt to heal a wounded nation, George H.W. Bush's navigation out of the Cold War, and Barack Obama's determination to renew government confidence as an agent of social and economic progress - and also his recognition of and steps to address a new geopolitical threat.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

Possibly J.K. Galbraith's "Economics and the Public Purpose"

Otherwise, none in particular, but I feel I have benefited from the following recent reading:

Piketty -- Capitalism and Ideology
Case and Deaton -- Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
Chernow's biographies of Washington and Grant (and Grant's own memoirs)
Practically anything published in The Atlantic (ignore the covers, read the articles)

But to keep myself up to speed on the larger discussion, I have also recently read:
Zuboff -- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Kendi -- How to be an Antiracist
DiAngelo -- White Fragility

I also feel much benefited from a reading project over several years, decades ago, from cover to cover and much revisited since -- the Bible.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Demonstrated competence and experience in the analysis and resolution of competing interests - together with an insistence on keeping matters as transparent as possible.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

The experience, patience, intelligence, and sense of good will that I can contribute to the reconciliation of competing interests and the resolution of conflict.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Show up for the job; stay close to constituents; and pay attention to detail while keeping the big picture in view.

What legacy would you like to leave?

50 years of prosperity, tranquility, and the brightening of our democratic beacon.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

President Kennedy's assassination, when I was 10.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Newspaper carrier, 3 years

What is your favorite book? Why?

None in particular. I have enjoyed many.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Why would I want to exchange my life for any of theirs???

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

I haven't had an earworm for a long time. But you may enjoy listening to Laura Nyro's "Goodbye Joe."

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Financial challenges in the 1990s and early 2000s in raising children amid several voluntary job changes.

Are there any little-known powers or responsibilities held by this office that you believe more people should be aware of?

It depends on another charter question, Question 1. Currently, the council - and in particular a select four of the 13, plus the Mayor - have executive control of all departments except for the police (which the Mayor commands). This "weak mayor" system has worked relatively well for the city for 150 years, but drawing a clear line between executive (Mayoral) and legislative (Council) functions would be an improvement. So, Question 1 has my mild support.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

Not necessarily. Experience in trades, professions, and businesses is also an important part of the necessary mix of expertise to run this city well.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

Integrity

Attention to several levels of detail without losing sight of the big picture

Ability to listen and to respond candidly to constituent concerns -- and the same when communicating with interest groups, with a special emphasis in that case on transparency

Tell us your favorite joke.

Look, I'm a Dad. They come and go too quickly to retain them.

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Note: Community Questions were submitted by the public and chosen for inclusion by a volunteer advisory board. The chosen questions were modified by staff to adhere to Ballotpedia’s neutrality standards. To learn more about Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project, click here.

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