Mayoralty
In 2001 Rybak (57,739 votes for 64.69%) defeated incumbent Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton (30,896 votes for 34.61%), the first African-American and first female mayor of the city. Rybak's mayoralty has dealt mostly with lowering crime, creating jobs, building affordable housing, and balancing the City's budget. He attends public events in the city on a regular basis and participates directly in discussions of city issues on his Facebook page. He is one of probably a very small number of mayors to have ever crowd-surfed, diving from the stage during a "Rock for Democracy" event at the popular Minneapolis club First Avenue in July 2004.
In 2002, Rybak developed the City of Lakes Loppet, a 35-kilometer urban cross-country ski race through Theodore Wirth Park and across Cedar Lake, Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun which ends on the streets of the Uptown Minneapolis. The event attracts nearly 2000 skiers. Rybak, a skier himself, has participated in races.
Rybak has made many public appearances at rallies and protests. In April 2004 he spoke to a rally of striking Metro Transit workers at the Hennepin County Government Center plaza. Like many Twin Cities politicians, he marches in the annual Twin Cities Pride Parade.
In his 2005 re-election campaign he defeated challenger (and fellow DFLer) Peter McLaughlin by nearly 25 percentage points, 61.47% to 36.72% (43,198 votes for Rybak and 25,807 votes for McLaughlin), and performed another crowd-surf.
In August 2007, after the collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge, Rybak asked Governor Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota state officials to implement its replacement, ensuring that the new bridge would be capable of handling mass transit. Rybak pushed that future needs and policy considerations shouldn't be ignored in the rush to build a replacement. His leadership resulted in a bridge plan which included improvements to carry a future light rail line. Rybak was quoted as saying "we (the City) have a vision that we believe will be for a bridge that will serve us for many years to come." His role also involved authorizing municipal consent of the final bridge replacement.
He was listed as a finalist for the 2008 World Mayor award.
In June 2008 Rybak was elected Vice President for Communications of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors.
According to DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Rybak was the first mayor of a large U.S. city to endorse the presidential campaign of Illinois Senator Barack Obama in 2007. Rybak campaigned on Obama's behalf and was active in the youth wing of the campaign.
In January 2009, Rybak announced his intention to run for re-election as Mayor in the 2009 Minneapolis City Council elections.
In March 2009, Rybak proposed eliminating the Minneapolis Civil Rights Investigations Division, which investigates discriminatory practices and was established in 1967 as part of the city's Civil Rights Department. The move was met by opposition from the community with both the DFL African American Caucus and the Minneapolis Urban League speaking out against the plan. During his tenure as mayor, Rybak has gone through six civil rights directors and has decreased the number of workers in the department.
On November 3, 2009, Rybak was elected to a third term as mayor, winning more than 73.6% of the first-place votes.
Rybak is an avid user of social media, often using it to alert followers to vital city information, and is credited as the first mayor in the United States to use Twitter.
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