Caucus season is almost upon us. It's your chance to become a superlobbyist and wield influence with local candidates on behalf of the issues you care about. Josh Martin joins John to talk about why you need to get involved and why there's no reason to feel intimidated by the process.

We're talking about the story of the unsuspecting flower shop owner who says she had little interest in politics for most of her adult life, until the county started planning the reconstruction of Lyndale Avenue. Before you know it, in 2024, she had made a donation to MAGA (the Republican party of Minnesota). Then in 2025 she's running a local PAC (We Love Minneapolis), teaming up with Mayor Frey's former campaign manager, with a mission is to turn people out to the DFL caucus. Is this raising any red flags?

We're also talking about the violence interrupting preacher Jerry McAfee who threatened violence against members of the city council; then made dramatic pronouncements about how he doesn't preach non-violence; but was nonetheless all set to receive a $640,000 contract for violence interruption work -- until two of his violence interrupters were arrested for their actions during a shootout.

And a stupid human interest story: A Minneapolis firefighter is running for city council. But along the way he'll be forced to overcome the fact that he plagiarized a portion of his website from a candidate running for city council in a different ward. Complicating matters, he forgot to delete the other candidate's name from the plagiarized text.

We'll also be taking a look at candidates for mayor and city council, with a particular focus on the competitive wards.

Information on the April 8 Minneapolis DFL caucuses: https://minneapolisdfl.org/

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