At 09:14 AM 12/6/01 -0800, loki anderson wrote: >All this talk about Barb Johnson and the council >presidency is, from what I've heard, pretty moot. The >word downtown is that Ostrow has his seven and is now >trying to get as close to unanimity as possible. I've heard Ostrow's got his seven also. However, I've also heard that there isn't a strong mandate for some of his views -- especially his efforts to push public funding of the stadium. In many of the elections, the stadium WAS a campaign issue -- and Paul Ostrow's view of the stadium was not a popular one.
I'm glad that RT has clarified: <<Sen. Higgins also wrote that I said I would go back to the community to override the $10 million cap on a subsidy for the stadium. She isn't the only person who took that out of my testimony, so I may well have misunderstood the question, but this is definitely not my intent. I would not support changing the cap.>> ============================================ EY: However what's interesting is this suggests that RT would support having the city put up the 10 million as a subsidy for the stadium. What bothers me about all this is RT used the stadium issue against both Lisa McDonald and Sharon Sayles Belton. The way he used the stadium issue against Lisa McDonald was especially tacky -- by taking advantage of her hearing disability at the MPR forum. Now that he is elected, he has caved on this issue so fast. This talk of a "breath of fresh air" is sounding more and more like empty rhetoric as time goes on. Since RT has become mayor, I've been wondering -- is he really just a puppet of Jim Niland? >What I'm wondering is if any of the newbies are going >to get any serious positions. I've heard that Scott >Benson is trying to become the DFL Majority Leader, >but that Paul is supporting Joe Biernat. I really like >Scott and think he did a great job as the Chair of the >Fifth Congressional District for the party. I also >have concerns about the propriety of having someone as >majority leader who openly supported a candidate >running against a DFL endorsed candidate, as Joe did >with John Casserly who ran against Benson. I have lots of problems with Joe Biernat as majority leader -- but this isn't one of them. >It also raises my eyebrows that Joe was one of only >two DFL candidates for the Council who did not ask to >screen with Stonewall (the other was Barb Johnson). He >didn't have any apparent problems screening with all >manner of labor unions, why the problem with >Stonewall? It would be interesting to get the story directly from the horses mouth on this. Why didn't Barb Johnson or Joe Biernat screen with Stonewall DFL? > >Joe would better serve the council as head of Ways and >Means or some other serious standing committee rather >than as Majority Leader. Scott would make the best >Majority Leader. It's really unfortunate for the 3rd ward that Joe Biernat got reelected. Unfortunately his opposition was weak. Valdis Rosenthal would have been a stronger candidate going into the general. RT and the Lawn Sign issue: From City Pages, I understand that RT's campaign workers collected lawn signs from other campaigns. If that's the case, why can't RT's campaign deliver the signs to the campaigns -- rather than asking the campaigns to come get the signs. When I first read Laura Sether's email, I thought that council candidates and others had dropped off lawn signs at RTs headquarters. However, from the City Pages article, that seems not to be the case. Eva Young Ward 8 _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
