Jim Graham wrote: The people who pushed McLaughlin to run for Mayor were those same RT supporters and workers from four years ago. Most of us do not even recognize
RT's present supporters. RT says that now he will go out to the Neighborhoods, the heart of his support. It shows how out of touch RT really has become due to the shield his staff has erected around him. Those neighborhood folks that supported him have not been able to get through that shield for over three years. It was those same neighborhood leaders, who RT had abandoned during his administration, that kept RT from winning on Saturday. He had better go to the business offices and Bond companies where he expects to get support. But if I were him I would not expect support from the workers who serve Minneapolis, they know how ineffective the Mayor's office has become and ineffective it has made the City over the last four years. The police, the firefighters, the street-workers and even those working in the offices, keep saying the same thing. "Get us a new Mayor." Mark Anderson: Jim, I think you overstate the influence of neighborhood leaders and activists on the actions of voters, particularly in the final election in November. Perhaps RT doesn't have the support of a lot of the activists from four years ago, but that amounts to only a few hundred votes. My memory from four years ago was that the number of activists for SSB vs. RT was about equal in the last election, and yet Rybak won pretty handily. I think the point has been previously made that Rybak received a lot of support from conservative non-DFLers in his last election. I think this is correct. Republicans haven't been able to elect a candidate in this town for many years because they can only garner support of 20-30% of the voters. Nevertheless if these Republican leaning folks vote as a block for the more fiscally responsible candidate, they can easily determine an election between two contenders that are evenly split in their DFL support. I think RT is counting on support from outside the DFL to put him over the top. I count myself as part of that 20-30%, since I vote Republican more often than not. I am disgusted with all of RT's broken promises, but he does seem to have done pretty well with governing the city in difficult financial circumstances. He is at least trying to keep our tax increases to a minimum. I can't imagine voting for McLaughlin, who never saw a government project he didn't like. He doesn't seem to have gotten the message that we're still trying to pay for all the overspending in the nineties; we don't need more of the same. A vote for McLaughlin is a vote to bring back the SSB regime. Someone previously suggested Lisa McDonald. Can she be drafted into the race at this late date? I'll take her any day over these two. On a related note, I was surprised to see some posts to this List implying that publicly financing the stadium is a Republican-type action. I always figured that buying a stadium was just one more government project that DFLers like to foist upon the public as an "investment" in the community. Pretty similar to LRT and the Guthrie. It may be that Republican politicians support government financing of the stadium as often as DFLers, but I think it matches the DFL philosophy more closely. I certainly haven't seen MORE support for it by Republicans than Democrats. Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
