Who’s Eric Harris Bernstein, and Why is He Making the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation Race so A lot Enjoyable? 

Eric Harris Bernstein is tough to pin down. The first-time Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation candidate is a frenzy of vitality, operating from one assembly to the subsequent, virtually growing one thought earlier than the subsequent can come to fruition. At least on the marketing campaign path. 

“I like talking to people,” Bernstein, a New York transplant, says over espresso at Easy Day Cafe within the Kingfield neighborhood. “In Minnesota, you need that aggressive openness to be invited to the conversation.” 

The self-described extrovert popped in entrance of Minneapolis voters at Hennepin Open Streets again in September, excitedly telling them about his candidacy. Bernstein had run into Ward 10 City Council Member and Vice President Aisha Chughtai as they made their method down a energetic strip of the occasion, finally speaking to voters collectively. 

But earlier than the duo might take off, Bernstein pulled Steve Brandt off his personal Open Streets marketing campaign path and pitched him on making a joint marketing campaign video. Brandt, operating as an incumbent candidate for the Board of Estimate and Taxation, was blissful to play alongside. 

“Steve, you’re killing me out there. I can’t dine on your sloppy seconds forever,” Bernstein improvised in entrance of an iPhone as Brandt laughed. 

“You can’t laugh,” Bernstein directed Brandt, interrupting the video filming. “You gotta be, like, tired of me.” 

Bernstein and Brandt are operating for the 2 open seats on the Board of Estimate and Taxation, a citywide physique that helps set the maximum tax levies for City Council, Park & Recreation Board, and the Public Housing Authority. The board additionally authorizes the issuing and promoting of metropolis bonds. 

In different phrases, it’s a restricted scope place that’s all about taxes, loans, and common funds. Local political blogger Naomi Kritizer describes the individuals operating for the gig as “nerdy about budgets and finance, detail-oriented, and ethical.”  

Brandt, Chughtai, Samantha Pree-Stinson (elected), Mayor Jacob Frey, City Council President Elliott Payne, and Park & Recreation Board President Cathy Abene at the moment serve on the BET. Pree-Stinson isn’t operating for re-election this yr resulting from well being points. 

The board handles some vital points—these are the individuals whose selections assist decide how excessive your taxes might be, in any case—but it surely’s a race hardly ever on voters’ radars. The candidates themselves are vying for a $400 month-to-month stipend, which makes this under no circumstances a full-time job. 

Bernstein stated he isn’t approaching the race as a contest “because there are two seats.” 

And but, there are three individuals operating. 

“Honestly, he’s the only candidate I have seen being out and about,” Brandt says over the telephone. “We run into each other a lot.” 

Bob Fine is the extra fiscally and socially conservative third candidate for the Board for Estimate and Taxation this November. He is DFL-endorsed alongside Brandt (Bernstein entered the race after the DFL endorsement course of). 

And, to make this sometimes sleepy race all that extra juicy, Fine simply requested individuals to rank Bernstein second on their ballots this November, calling him a “fresh voice” on the Better Minneapolis podcast. 

On Friday morning, Brandt issued the next assertion: “For much of this campaign I’ve answered this way: I’m required by party rules to support my fellow endorsee: Bob Fine. But if you ask me with which of my competitors I’d rather serve, my answer is Eric Harris Bernstein.”

Even although Bernstein initially campaigned with a message of “don’t vote for Bob Fine,” he modified his tune after the 2 had espresso. 

“I think Bob Fine has some really important ideas about how we can get better value for the taxpayer dollar,” Bernstein says, although he follows up shortly with the clarifying remark, “I think Steve is the better guy for the job.” 

The latest marketing campaign finance report knowledge, revealed in late October, reveals Bernstein has raised $21,000 for his candidacy, with the incumbent Brandt at $10,600. Fine is stagnant at $3,000. While these are comparatively small quantities in comparison with the bigger races within the metropolis, that are being flooded with PAC cash, that’s nonetheless a marked improve from the final BET election.

Most of Bernstein’s earliest and largest funders are from New York City. At least 4 donations of $1,000 got here from his NYC community in August. “I don’t feel defensive about the money,” he says. “People are excited to see me running.”

Bernstein stated he had written to a bunch of his associates’ dad and mom who had turn out to be his surrogate dad and mom after his mother handed away in 2017. “They’re excited to see that I’m getting involved and they were happy to show support. When you’re fundraising, you don’t bargain yourself down,” he provides. 

He’s additionally up-front about his East Coast privilege. 

“I am very fortunate to grow up in a family that had good careers and did well,” says Bernstein stated. “I went to a private school in New York City.”

Continually outspending his racemates, Bernstein’s total effort in campaigning is often reserved for larger poll races. So why is he operating one of the crucial inventive and engaged campaigns in Minneapolis this yr? 

Building Community Through Benches 

“The Avengers assemble,” mayoral candidate Jazz Hampton introduced as he met up with Bernstein and Tom Saunders of the Minneapolis Public Seating Authority outdoors of the Hennepin County Government Center Service Center on October 15. 

Saunders has been designing and inserting benches across the metropolis to lift consciousness for the necessity for public seating. Here on the plaza, amid different building, Bernstein and Hampton constructed a neighborhood bench.

“Idle hands are the devil’s playground,” Hampton stated about taking part within the exercise simply three weeks earlier than the election. He had spent the morning along with his youngsters at college conferences and was headed to a mayoral discussion board at Capri Theater within the night. 

“I like that this is also taking the pressure off of me,” Bernstein stated, watching Hampton drill into the bench. According to Saunders, the bench Hampton constructed was positioned in Powderhorn Park close to the playground on the Recreation Center constructing. 

This “build a bench with a candidate” schtick got here on the heels of Bernstein’s “bench-raising” marketing campaign occasion on October 4, hosted at Saunders’s home, the place Brandt, mayoral candidate the Rev. DeWayne Davis, and Park & Recreation Board candidates Tom Olson (incumbent) and Michael Wilson constructing benches for the general public. 

With doorways to knock on and telephone calls to make, why would any candidate spend a gradual burn weekend afternoon and night with just a few dozen individuals, particularly only a month earlier than the election?

Bernstein says he thinks politics must be joyful and related. 

“I did the bench thing because I wanted to have a fun gathering and I wanted people to have fun,” he says. “But I wanted to do something that was a little different and was a way that people could engage in local politics that would be fun and feel good.” 

Bernstein’s bench-raising occasion in early October led to Davis and his husband, Kareem Murphy, adopting one of many benches for North Commons Park. Other benches constructed that day have popped up at Bryant Square Park, Mueller Park, Longfellow Park, and at a Seward bus cease after a marketing campaign occasion at Bench Pressed.

“I’m getting tons of pictures from people every day of people sitting on those benches,” Bernstein says. 

The complete bench factor began when Bernstein reached out to Saunders, lengthy earlier than his candidacy days, about constructing a bench into his retaining wall. When Bernstein launched his marketing campaign, Saunders reached out, asking how he might assist. 

Saunders stated Bernstein is a “unique fit” for this place not solely due to his “experience and expertise” on the State Capitol (Bernstein is the Coalition Director for We Make Minnesota with a particular curiosity in state tax and price range insurance policies), however as a result of he can speak about taxes in a method that’s straightforward to grasp. 

Ok, however Can He Do the Job?

Saunders is true. In the fleeting moments when Bernstein is much less frenzied, he’s speaking about taxes. His wonky experience is an odd pairing along with his typical uniform of a Modern Times hoodie, Ceasefire hat, and black leather-based work boots. 

“I just see a lot more hope and excitement about what we could have than I do frustration and fatalism about some of the way we are doing things,” Bernstein says. 

He’s additionally fast to name out our society’s reluctance to speak about taxes. 

“Taxes are such a third rail in our politics,” Bernstein says, which “makes people uncomfortable discussing the money that we raise and spend together.” 

He argues that the town of Minneapolis isn’t an “effective agent” of the taxpayers’ greatest pursuits. 

“We spend too much on things that we could do more cost effectively,” Bernstein stated. “We don’t maximize the use of our publicly owned assets. We see them as just sort of stagnant burdens that we should maintain.” 

Bernstein stated his tackle metropolis belongings places his values extra consistent with Fine. 

“He did some really impressive things for the Park Board,” Bernstein stated. “And honestly, in some ways I feel that Bob and I have more of a connection about how the city should be managed in the long run than I do with Steve.”   

Fine was an at-large Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board commissioner for 16 years and ran for Minneapolis mayor in 2013. Fine told MPR that  the Park & Rec Board was capable of restrict its tax levy improve by “increasing efficiency and finding new sources of revenue.”

Alternative income sources, like a metropolis earnings tax, are a cornerstone of Brandt’s candidacy this yr, one thing Bernstein isn’t too jazzed about. 

“Eric is less enthusiastic about a city income tax, applying only to higher earners. He sees it as difficult on a one-city basis,” Brandt says. “It’s something important to look at.” 

Bernstein doesn’t disagree with Brandt’s evaluation, however says including one other small-to-medium-sized earnings stream whereas sustaining the established order received’t work. 

Bernstein says he’s extra focused on tapping into the “bevy of revenue” on the state stage and tightening up the town’s fiscal technique. 

When Bernstein labored on the Roosevelt Institute in New York City, he began to grasp taxes and public spending as an underlying metaphor for “how much we care for one another.” 

Bernstein says he developed an curiosity in taxes when he acknowledged that there are some issues individuals won’t ever have the ability to afford. Those issues must be taken care of collectively. 

“There’s no amount of money we’re going to earn as individuals that’s going to give us a clean environment, safe neighborhood, good infrastructure,” Bernstein says. “We do these things collectively by nature of what they are.” 

More broadly, and maybe past the scope of the Board of Estimate and Taxation, Bernstein theorizes about authorities in a hopeful method.

“We’ve conceived of government as something that deals with the worst off people in our society and the hardest problems. The government can also be a place where we build parks and trails,” Bernstein says. He believes in funding what some would name “superfluous” facilities, like skating rinks alongside essential social companies.  

“If you make people choose between joy and survival, we have lost the plot entirely. It is joy and social connection that help us survive and thrive as a city,” he says.

Yes, a variety of what Bernstein talks about is politically romantic. Collective governance and the way we look after each other via taxes are heartwarming to speak about, however could also be above the board’s paygrade. Even Brandt has known as him out on this. 

“Eric has a more expansive view of what the role of being a BET member is than the city attorney would advise us is allowable under the City Charter,” Brandt says. 

There’s one other issue behind Bernstein’s dreaming-big marketing campaign, which can reply this text’s complete premise: younger individuals. 

“A lot of what has powered the positivity has been the young people involved in the campaign,” Bernstein says in a follow-up telephone name. (He prefers to speak on the telephone; don’t textual content him.) 

The younger individuals concerned in his marketing campaign and others have “built a culture around city politics, city elections, and state elections and the importance of a Minnesota and a Minneapolis that cares for people and that cares for the future that we are going to share.”

Bernstein credit Sean Lim for his daring black-and-white graphic design, “a good part of what got me traction early on,” and Rudy Funk Meyer for producing vital marketing campaign movies. 

He additionally says the younger individuals in Minneapolis politics have created a tradition the place his concepts are straightforward to domesticate. 

“The soil that we planted that seed in was so rich and ready,” Bernstein says. 

Early voting for the 2025 Minneapolis city-wide elections is accessible on the Early Voting Center day-after-day till election day, November 4. You can discover out the place your polling place is and see what’s in your poll on the Secretary of State website.