My hometown is making news these days due to the Mayoral election that will happen on Tuesday. Perhaps you have all heard about what’s happening here, but just in case you haven’t, I’d like to share the good news.
A bit of history might put it all into context. Senator Norm Coleman got his political start as the Mayor of St. Paul. He ran initially as a Democrat and may well be the original DINO. Problem is, with its blue-collar history, you can’t really win an election in this town as a Republican. He did not win the Democratic endorsement, but beat a pretty weak endorsed candidate. The sad thing is that he was re-elected mayor even after changing parties during his first term. Then, with some nudging from Cheney, Coleman decided to challenge Paul Wellstone in his re-election campaign for the Senate. We all know how that one turned out and no one can possibly measure the amount of sadness and grief we all feel at the outcome.
In an attempt to find a replacement for Norm, up came Randy Kelly, who had been a State Senator for years. Kelly has always been a bit of a mixed bag as a Democrat. He is a tough blue-collar type politician who fought well on labor, law and order kinds of issues, but is anti-choice. As a Mayoral candidate, he took on Coleman’s mantel with the backing of the money crowd (Chamber of Commerce) and Republicans, but continued to identify as a Democrat. Things were a little dicey when it came to an endorsement in the Coleman/Wellstone Senate race. Kelly decided to stay quiet, but we all knew his connection was with Coleman.
So, Kelly was elected Mayor of St. Paul. While initially things were managed fairly well in the city, along comes a HUGE budget shortfall in the state with a Republican Governor (Pawlenty) who had pledged not to raise taxes. St. Paul is going to get screwed with state budget cuts. Does Kelly stand up to the governor and fight for the city? NO! He panders to the Republicans and decimates the city budget.
Before any of this has even settled, he really jumps into the mud big time and goes public with an endorsement of George W. Bush for president. By this time we all knew he was DINO, but to endorse this war criminal – that was a shock! When Kelly tried to claim he was still a Democrat, the President of the City Council Kathy Lantry (who has a GREAT sense of humor) said, “Yeah and I can claim that I’m 5′ 4″ and blond, but the minute I walk out the door everyone knows the truth.”
Well, I’m proud to say that the City of St. Paul does not forget this kind of betrayal. Next week Kelly will loose his job to a real Democrat, Chris Coleman. Polls are showing Coleman with a lead of 61% to 26%. That kind of a lead in an election like this is absolutely unheard of. And most people who have been polled credit it to the endorsement. Kelly has out-raised Coleman in terms of contributions by over 2 to 1 and the media have been reporting that almost 70% of his money is coming from out of the city. But the residents of St. Paul are standing firm!
I’m seeing signs that the national media is picking up on this race as a demonstration of the fall of Bushco. So I’m hoping that on Tuesday night I can say that I’m proud to be a resident of the City that started the downfall.
