So far, McDonald is my favorite possibility. Though I gave $50.00 to R.T.'s campaign (one of the three or four biggest mistakes of my life), I voted for LMc. Even though she's considerably to the right of my ideal candidate, she has brains, vision and an aesthetic sensibility as well. But she'll be wasting her time appealing to conservative voters should she run again. Right now Rybak is working hard to secure their support. Several weeks ago he wrote a letter to the Southwest Journal admonishing his buddies from the Police Federation for bashing Barrett Lane, our most conservative council member. Quite an about face for RT when you consider last summer, when Council member Natalie Johnson Lee, a Green Party member and African American, was unfairly attacked by the Police Federation. Rybak did nothing to defend her.
Heck, I may even vote for County Commissioner Mark Stenglein should he decide to run again. While he's way to the right of me, I think he has a good heart and has been a credible advocate for disenfranchised people, though I wonder what his position is on the Excess Project. A major issue in the next Mayor's race will be the Police Department. The Police Federation's endorsement will be to Rybak what the Target subsidy was to his predecessor, SSB. --------------Peter Schmitz CARAG > > Peter McLaughlin and Lisa McDonald will hopefully get to debate > the > > issue in > > front of the public during the upcoming Mayoral campaign. They > are > > the two > > who seem to be most talked about for the next election. Should be > a fun > > election when you throw in the present Mayor and Stenglein. We > just > > have to > > figure out which one will keep the majority of their campaign > promises. > > If both Lisa McDonald and Mark Stenglein run for mayor in 2005, both > > will again fail to survive past the primary. Both candidates > compete > for almost exactly the same vote. > > McDonald is the more credible of the two. She can get over 50 > percent > in the general election by holding the conservative/independent base > > and then peeling off maybe a third (or more) of DFL voters. This > was > her winning strategy in the 10th Ward, which has a smaller > conservative/independent base than the city as a whole. I don't > think > Stenglein can pull in nearly enough DFL votes to to win (Stenglein > might have been able to do that against Sharon Sayles Belton in > 2001, > but he won't come close to doing that against either Rybak or > McLaughlin). > > Having said that, RT won with a lot of conservative/independent > votes > in 2001. If he manages to keep even a modest percentage of those > voters in 2005, he will be nearly impossible to beat (assuming he > stays > strong with the progressive DFL voters who abandoned Sayles Belton > in > 2001, which seems likely). > > The new reality is Minneapolis is that, if conservative/independent > voters cast their ballots as a single bloc, they can choose which > DFL'r > wins. Which is why you'll see more of these really weird, > conservative-progressive coalitions in the future (recent example? > Don > Samuels, of course). > > And, in 2005 the conservative-progressive coalition will take a page > > right out the Republican playbook and continue to run against the > "establishment" even though they are the establishment now. > > Greg Abbott > > ------------------------------------ > > Sent from the computer of: > > Greg Abbott > Linden Hills > 13th Ward > > ------------------------------------ > > TEMPORARY REMINDER: > 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. > 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - > change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) > > ________________________________ > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn > E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls > TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
