Mayoral Race

[FISHMANPET]

I guess being a cranky old crank is a platform now.

[gpete]

I saw that VP Mondale endorsed Mark Andrew.

I guess I'm still stunned at how most of the establishment Dems have lined up behind Andrew. What, exactly, is the vision that they see from Andrew? What is the chatter about his campaign?

[HoratioRincewind]

The only argument against HERC is based in environmental justice and it's funny that no one is making that argument.

There are plenty of people making that argument, they just aren't well represented by the people running for mayor.

[HoratioRincewind]

I guess I'm still stunned at how most of the establishment Dems have lined up behind Andrew.

Just as many 'establishment' people have lined up behind Hodges. The race in many ways is breaking out with the old anti-RT crowd behind Andrew and the RT people behind Hodges.

In an internecine DFL fight in a DFL controlled city, everyone is the establishment.

[web]

weak mayor strong council system anyways

[woofner]

The only argument against HERC is based in environmental justice and it's funny that no one is making that argument.

There are plenty of people making that argument, they just aren't well represented by the people running for mayor.

I guess that's why I wrote that in a forum about the mayoral race.

[MNdible]

This article is definitely pushing me into the Hodges camp. Brian Rice is poisonous, and it gives me great pause that Andrews would team up with him.

[nordeast homer]

Has anyone else gotten a call from the Andrew camp? I noticed that the phone number they were calling from started with 666... a sign?? After my wife answered the phone I asked her if Satan was getting into politics, of course her reply was, "he's been in politics a looooong time!"

[Nick]

Has anyone else gotten a call from the Andrew camp? I noticed that the phone number they were calling from started with 666... a sign?? After my wife answered the phone I asked her if Satan was getting into politics, of course her reply was, "he's been in politics a looooong time!"

Right??

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1114&start=140#p25934

[Silophant]

http://www.minnpost.com/two-cities/2013 ... light-rail

As much as I don't like his "Just put a heater in every bus stop instead" plan for the streetcar, He's got the right idea here. Between this and the way he appears to be the only candidate with a clue about how the power grid works, I might just have to vote for him.

[mplsjaromir]

If one wants rail transit to run through a dense corridor it should at least have a direct route. 3C will add too much time to make it attractive to suburbanites. It will either run a circutious around the CBD and its destinations, or be cut off from from other operations. If you think that the cost to build down Nicollet is not going to increase at the same rate Kenliworth I probably have some bad news for you.

Cam Winton reminds me of Tim Pawlenty. His statements (paraphrasing) "why isn't Minneapolis the same as Edina?" really bothers me. Either he is too dumb to realize that Edina has done everything in its power to exclude poor people. Or he does know and he''s a big time panderer. It reminiscent of T-Paws "households have cut their budgets, so should the government". Which means he does not realize households and governments are totally different and making analogous is not wise.

Cam's posturing that diverting money from inexpensive bicycle infrastructure would greatly accelerate street resurfacing is, again either really dumb and has no grasp on the Minneapolis budget, or pandering.

I guess I feel protective about the some of the only urbanism for 400 miles and I do not want some guy from the South coming up here with some harebrained schemes.

[MNdible]

I'm unlikely to vote for him as my first choice, but I do think it's more than pandering. He's speaking to a fairly large chunk of the voters who may always vote for the Democrat at the national and state level, but at the local level finds the very liberal status quo to be a bit off-putting, a bit too much.

I haven't heard him say anything anti-urban. Maybe I haven't been listening closely enough.

This whole Uitility Municpalization thing is a much better example of pandering, if you ask me. A very small, vocal group of people who are well connected can steer the city down a ridiculous path, burning a lot of city staff time and goodwill to make a few people feel warm and fuzzy about electricity.

[mplsjaromir]

I agree about the Minneapolis Municipal Power deal, a pretty bad idea. Its doable, but there is lots of stuff to improve the city and the carbon footprint. For one allow developers to build residences in areas that are well served by transit *cough* Colfax, Dinktown *cough* .


The bike stuff is anti-urban for sure. It has been toned down. I give him credit for recognizing that crime is on a downward trend and the employment picture looks good. The streamlining of city services is something every politicians says they will do, I guess I'd like to hear how he would do it.

On a somewhat tangential note, I golfed with a guy from the City of Minneapolis IT department. He said that working for the city can be frustrating, but that the higher ups and pols generally have a good sense of what to do. Its the middle level people who have turf to defend who oppose change. Hard to say what can be done about that, good governance is hard to do.

[twincitizen]

There are already 11 candidates registered for the mayoral race. Not a single one is a major candidate that pursued the DFL nomination. 11 friggin vanity/joke campaigns. Yep, they definitely should have raised the filing fees. $20 is just way too low of a threshold. Even $100 would have kept most of these jokes from registering. Add the 5 DFL'ers, Stephanie Woodruff, and Cam Winton and we have 18 people on the ballot...with 10 days remaining for more to register.

http://candidates.sos.state.mn.us/Candi ... didateid=0

[mullen]

yea i agree. why is bob fine running for mayor? no chance of being elected mayor. ok in this new system maybe he does with all the candidates based out of the southwest neighborhoods. why does anyone want to be mayor really. we're a weak mayor system.

[lordmoke]

Just looked at the candidate list and I noticed that several candidates' addresses are not in Minneapolis- is residing in the city not a requirement to run for mayor? What?

Also, Mike Gould.

[FISHMANPET]

Oh Mike Gould, what a character.

[Silophant]

I like how he wrote down "Mpls", apparently remembered where he actually lives, and crossed it out and put "South St. Paul".

[twincitizen]

Stephanie Woodruff has gained the support of the Independence Party.

[twincitizen]

Jim Thomas has dropped out of the race and endorsed Mark Andrew: http://www.minnpost.com/two-cities/2013 ... ses-andrew

I guess he really needed that $20...