Pioneering legislator won't seek 5th term

Neva Walker, the first black woman elected to the Legislature, said she will not seek a fifth term this year.

Walker, 36, a DFLer who represents a large swath of south Minneapolis, said in a letter to District 61B constituents that the decision wasn't easy. "However, it is time that I turn my focus," she said.

On Wednesday, Walker added, "I never said I would stay in office forever, and people weren't trying to hear me."

Her legislative committee and division assignments are finance, health and human services, and mental health.

"My number one goal was to get more people involved. I think I accomplished that," she said.

At least two people -- Farheen Hakeem and Jeff Hayden -- have announced their candidacies for Walker's seat.

As for what's next for Walker, she said she is not sure.

A graduate of Minneapolis South High School, she represents the Minneapolis neighborhoods where she was raised. She studied sociology at the University of Minnesota.

She was comfortably elected to her fourth term in November 2006 and nabbed 80 percent of the vote when she was first elected in 2000.

Among the issues she has concentrated on are affordable housing, affordable health care, access to health care, education, people with disabilities and racial profiling.

In 2003, Walker was taken aback when she received a letter from the lawyer of then-Rep. Arlon Lindner, R-Corcoran, that was addressed to her as "Walker-Black." Linder's lawyer apologized and called Walker "hypersensitive."

Walker told the Star Tribune that, "It's easy to say that when you're not on the receiving of a racist comment, but racist attacks are emotionally and mentally draining. And I am far from sensitive. It takes a lot to offend me."

Many initially thought that Walker's former campaign manager, Matthea Little Smith, would run for Walker's seat. But Smith said Wednesday in an e-mail on a city issues list that she has decided otherwise.

Hakeem and Hayden formally announced Wednesday that they are running. They both plan to address affordable housing, education and economic development.

"There is a great potential to bring more resources to our district," said Hakeem, 32, a Green Party member who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2005 and Hennepin County commissioner in 2006. Hakeem recently became a foster mother of a teenage girl.

In an e-mail, Hayden, 41, said he understands "the concerns of the people in this district, and they deserve a hard working and inspired voice at the Capitol." In 2005, Hayden unsuccessfully ran for an Eighth Ward council seat. He is a married father of two children.

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