urbanMSP

I think its sad we haven't gotten any better choices.

I think, on the whole, it's a fairly impressive field. Were there some particular names that you had hoped to see?

In the back of my mind, I sort of hoped that Rip Rapson would come give it another go (he lost the endorsement to SSB back in the day), but he's moved on.

I was thinking it'd be cool if Peter McLaughlin gave it another shot, but he almost certainly has more power/fun where he is now.

DFL African American caucus snubs Don Samuels, splits endorsement between Jackie Cherryhomes and Betsy Hodges. In effect they endorsed Hodges, because Cherryhomes has no chance whatsoever.

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/200943931.html

HERC opinions divide candidates: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/displa ... yor-debate

CM Samuels has had a very tetchy relationship with swathes of the African American community. He was going to be challenged seriously this year if he ran for Council again.

There is something about Betsy Hodges demeanor or tone that just rubs me the wrong way. I wouldn't use a word as strong as condescending, but a lesser version of that...motherly? I don't have the expansive vocabulary of HoratioRincewind but anyone who watched the last candidate forum should know what I mean.

Right now my favorites are Mark Andrew and Gary Schiff, in that order.

The more I hear from Gary the less I like him.

Why? Not trying to be snarky, just curious. I haven't really developed an opinion in this race other than the obvious about Jackie Treehorn.

She draws a lot of water in this town.

Gary is prone to just saying stuff without any backing. See the recent wine inspector dustup. I agree the food before alcohol & alcohol only being percentage of sales requirements are silly but I'm sure enforcement is lax if the business is not a nuisance. I found the way he handled trying to improve the rail road crossing at 35th and Hiawatha unbecoming of a person who represents city government. I also really dislike the fire fighters union and he's their guy. (Note to the union leadership: don't lecture me on staffing levels if you live in a city with one or two full-time fire fighting positions)

Two more Andrew mailings in the past couple days. One was a big 'ole poster, and both were in color and glossy--not cheap. I wonder what that will translate into in terms of support? I wish I had more of an idea what the race actually looked like. Anyone have any concrete ideas about that? I know who my friends tend to support, but we're about half the age of the average DFL caucus goer, so...

Mailings are a relatively cheap form of both bio & introduction and voter persuasion, and given that this is going to a *smallish* universe of voters (Likely DFL Caucus Goers) it's pretty affordable and simple to flood a lot of mail.

There are people working to line up money for Tina Smith. Her window closes when the filing closes. Given the IRV nature of it she'll have from June to November to run a general election campaign.

The preferred outcome of the DFL endorsement process seems to be to block anyone from getting the endorsement so we can have a proper democratic election in November. I only wish that more of the races had as many (good) candidates as Ward 10. It seems that Ward 10 and the Mayoral race are the only ones likely to not make an endorsement.

Peculiar timing. http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2013 ... m_vote.php

Three weeks later?

Wow, I had no idea that unions made campaign contributions. Shocking! If only there were a law against it, our democracy could take its perfect form in which politicians would be solely owned by for-profit corporations.

Aren't unions for profit corporations anyways?

http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 04531.html

Tina Smith will not join Mayors race.

Mark Andrew gets an enormous benefit from this. Other candidates will have to look around and see if they can try to get the business community's support like Smith could have.

Good news for me then, because I was about ready to hop on the Mark Andrew bandwagon. I met him the other night and found him much more likeable in person than in the debates. I thought he did fine in the debates, but came off as much more down to Earth and approachable in person. Perhaps a little too much obsession with "green", not that environmentalism/climate change aren't important, but aren't exactly top priorities for a City. That stuff flies a little higher on the flag pole. He seems convinced that bicycle/ped greenways in other parts of the city could trigger the same level of private investment that's going on along the Greenway.

It's also possible he could draw an endorsement from Mayor Rybak. Really it comes down to him or Hodges and I can't believe that Rybak wouldn't make an endorsement in this race...just not yet.