Tomorrow morning, Mayoral candidate and Green Party member Doug Mann will file a petition for a writ of mandamus in an attempt to force a referendum on the city's expenditures on a new Vikings stadium project. See also the Southside Pride's article Can This Man Stop the Vikings Stadium? (If this were a British paper, the headline certainly would read, Can This Mann Stop the Vikings Stadium? but I digress.) Although, as Mann points out, the writ, if executed, will not actually "stop the stadium". It will stop the un-democratic rush by the city council to ignore its own charter and throw an non-proportionate amount of city money at the project, which is already contracted and in the advanced planning stages. If the move succeeds in getting a referendum on the ballot for November 5, most analysts agree that it will fail, although that is by no means guaranteed. For the Minneapolis Farmer Labor Association, it may mean another big push, this time to get the No vote that most members want. And even a No vote will only cause consternation and a renegotiation of the city's share. It would be a major re-negotiation, since the charter allows only $15M to be spent, while the current formula calls for a minimum contribution of ten times that amount.
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