2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

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FISHMANPET
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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby FISHMANPET » April 23rd, 2017, 4:28 pm

Wait what madness is this. Do you not have precinct caucuses like Minneapolis? What's going on here.

EOst
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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby EOst » April 23rd, 2017, 5:40 pm

Precinct caucuses and ward conventions happen on the same day now.

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FISHMANPET
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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby FISHMANPET » April 23rd, 2017, 6:04 pm

Well the fact that you even have ward conventions is weird, in Minneapolis the caucuses send delegates directly to the city convention, the ward convention is only for council races (which you don't have right now, right?)

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby EOst » April 23rd, 2017, 7:00 pm

I don't know how it is for council races (which I know generally have better turnout), but the precinct caucuses were a total formality yesterday. In my precinct, basically everyone who wanted to stay for the ward convention got a spot. Even the ward caucus only narrowed us from ~144 down to 55 delegates and 55 alternates.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby EOst » April 23rd, 2017, 8:36 pm

Slightly different overall numbers here: http://www.twincities.com/2017/04/23/me ... committed/

Carter – 71
Thao – 45
Harris – 39
Goldstein – 7
uncommitted and other – 42

Not sure where the higher Thao number comes from (or the lower uncommitted/other) but I'd trust his numbers over mine.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby EOst » April 24th, 2017, 9:50 am

Peter Callaghan's numbers match mine (https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... t-personal)

So... who knows?

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby Tiller » April 29th, 2017, 10:07 am

Just posting 'cuz I'm bored, but Ward 6 is going pretty strongly for Dai Thao. I'll post the final tally once we're done.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby Tiller » April 29th, 2017, 12:27 pm

The delegate totals for Ward 6 are:

31 Dai Thao
7 Harris
5 Carter
1 Uncommitted

Bringing the total so far to:

Carter - 76
Thao - 76
Harris - 46
Goldstein - 7
Uncommitted/Other - 43

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby EOst » April 29th, 2017, 1:18 pm

Thanks Tiller! I've been told to expect something similar (maybe a bit less lopsided) from W7 tomorrow. I've also had confirmed what I believed anecdotally, that most of Xiong's delegates are also Thao delegates.

If we go by Melo's numbers, W6 would bring us to:
76 Carter
66 Thao
46 Harris
7 Goldstein
54 Uncommitted

plus:

2 Brodrick
13 Xiong

W4 was a "landslide for Carter" (per Stark) but I haven't seen numbers yet.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby Tiller » April 29th, 2017, 4:11 pm

I heard W4 was 44 Carter to 8 Thao from one of Thao's staffers as we left. Idk about the other candidates and uncommitteds, tho.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby EOst » April 29th, 2017, 9:36 pm


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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby Tiller » May 3rd, 2017, 8:16 am

An interesting article in the strib: http://m.startribune.com/allegations-ag ... 421088863/
The only new information I found are the two snippets below. Does anyone know where the name Sarah Clarke may have come up before this bribery thing? This isn't the first time I've heard of her but idk who she is.
The allegations against Thao and his campaign manager emerged Saturday. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is investigating a February meeting between Thao, lobbyist Sarah Clarke and some of her clients, where they discussed a packaging materials ban the city is considering.
Clarke said she did not want the texts between her and Marlow to get out, and she shared them with someone who leaked them.
A reasonable and interesting post from Dave Thune (former councilmember) on the issue:

"Fundraising is one of the most uncomfortable parts of running for office. Of course you solicit funds from people you believe support you and what you stand for. And of course people who have an interest in local government seek out candidates to contribute to, who support their causes. There is nothing inherently evil about this. Causes can range from general support of neighborhood issues to general support of business issues. They can also be specific to issues expected to be discussed at the city council.

Candidates are in a delicate position so as not to give the appearance of money for a vote. It is common for councilmembers to differentiate between campaigning and acting as a councilmember by holding campaign activities out of city hall. This is generally understood by potential contributors and lobbyists and in general works pretty well.

In Dai Thao's case, the meeting request was made to a campaign official - not a city staff person. The meeting was held outside of city hall. It is very easy to understand that Dai felt this was an appropriate situation to ask for support. It is also common for campaign managers to do followups to make sure the candidate actually made the request and to do so without consulting the candidate.

In general, I didn't invite people I knew I'd be in disagreement with to fundraisers. Sometimes though, checks just arrived in the mail. I recall returning a contribution once. It just didn't seem honest to take money if I knew I'd be voting against that person. I suppose that might be misconstrued as reverse bribery but it wasn't meant that way.

My interaction with Dai while we served together was collegial. I am in awe of his life story and I respect the fierce advocacy he gives the issues he cares deeply about. He never once tried to extract a vote for a vote from me, and as a retired civilian, he has never once tried to get a contribution from me for support on a neighborhood issue.

Until campaigns are publically financed, there will always be an uncomfortableness about raising money.

Dai is honest to the point of appearing quite direct.

I would give the benefit of the doubt to him. He wasn't offering a quid pro quo. Nor apparently did he receive one.

Lets talk about city issues facing our great city!"

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby Scottie » May 3rd, 2017, 8:27 am

According to this article Clarke is Jacob Frey's wife which is kind of an odd twist.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/05/0 ... king-to-me

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby David Greene » May 3rd, 2017, 8:54 am

That's good to hear from Thune. I knew Dai before his political life and this whole thing has been a shocker. He was always a straight shooter with me, to the point of sometimes being brutally honest as Thune alludes to. I have a very hard time believing he actively solicited bribes.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby twincitizen » May 3rd, 2017, 10:16 am

Regardless of whether Dai did any wrong or not, his campaign is probably over. He should drop out and release his delegates. This is shaping up to be a head-to-head battle between Carter and Harris.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby David Greene » May 3rd, 2017, 10:44 am

I agree that's probably what should happen at some point but I'm not sure he should do that quite yet. It's only been a few days since this hit the news. Let's see how it plays out. Also, he should try to extract something for releasing his delegates.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby MNdible » May 3rd, 2017, 11:00 am

It seems like he's pretty good at extracting things for political favors, so yeah.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby David Greene » May 3rd, 2017, 12:13 pm

It's the nature of power. To get something you gotta give something. Happens all the time.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby EOst » May 3rd, 2017, 1:10 pm

I really hope Thune's read of the situation is correct. Like David I've always found him to be very honest, almost to the point of weakness, like the time when he told me more in five minutes about the political dynamics of the current council than every news article I've read put together. Having said that, though, in almost every conversation I've had with him he offered me something in exchange for something else (implied or stated). That's politics, sure. But even his colleagues call him "transactional."

Take it with a lot of salt, but I've had at least one elected official (not a CM) tell me that they believe Dai was set up, i.e. that this meeting was intentionally structured to lure Dai into making an incriminating request, which could then be held as leverage if he got too close to Carter.

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Re: 2017 St. Paul Mayoral Election

Postby David Greene » May 3rd, 2017, 1:30 pm

Take it with a lot of salt, but I've had at least one elected official (not a CM) tell me that they believe Dai was set up, i.e. that this meeting was intentionally structured to lure Dai into making an incriminating request, which could then be held as leverage if he got too close to Carter.
If there's even a whiff of this being true, Dai should not drop out. If something like this happened we deserve to know.


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