Minneapolis City Council incumbents Gary Schiff and Sandra Colvin Roy won DFL endorsement on Saturday in what appeared to be the stiffest challenges to council incumbents for this fall's election.

Both collected just enough support for first-ballot endorsement. Schiff was endorsed for a third term in the Ninth Ward, centered in the Hiawatha-Lake area. He bested Corcoran neighborhood staffer Amy Arcand, one of a loose group of neighborhood activists seeking council seats this year. Schiff still faces a Green Party challenge from Dave Bicking and possibly Peter Eichten.

Colvin Roy's endorsement may not end her competition for the 12th Ward seat with peace activist Charley Underwood. He's retiring as a teacher in June, and said last week he'd run against the three-term councilwoman in the Longfellow-Nokomis area ward.

But he sounded less sure Saturday after Colvin Roy garnered 63 percent first-ballot support, saying he'd take a couple of days to reassess.

"It's a wearing job challenging a 12-year incumbent in an uphill battle," he said. "I definitely haven't ruled it out because I don't see a downside for the ward." Underwood's campaign emphasized building a sustainable local economy. He told delegates that Colvin Roy was a "credible council member," but also said later that he thinks competition for the seat is good.

Colvin Roy has been one of the council's workhorses, chairing its Transportation and Public Works Committee and mastering unglamorous topics like sewer separation and potholes. But she has never had an easy reelection campaign. In her last campaign in 2005, she polled the lowest voter support among all incumbents not facing another incumbent.

Schiff reached 62 percent endorsement support, so Arcand asked party delegates to give him a unanimous endorsement. Schiff promised to work with her to find a permanent site for the popular Midtown Farmers Market.

Schiff defeated Bicking with 59 percent of the vote in 2005. He's one of the council's most liberal members and has mastered the arcane topics of zoning law as chairman of the council's Zoning and Planning Committee. His pitch to delegates emphasized fighting gangs, opposing cuts in the Civil Rights Department and working for better rights and working conditions for immigrants.

This year's election is slated to be the first under ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. It will also be used in the 10th Ward DFL convention on April 18, but not the April 4 First Ward convention, if rules committee recommendations are followed.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438