> "Clearly the strongest challenger that Mayor Kelly will face will be which > ever candidate wins the DFL endorsment for mayor." >
What if it's Kelly? If I'm Kelly I work very hard to get the DFL endorsement as part of repairing relations from having endorsed Bush. [And obviously run anyhow when I don't get the endorsement.] > Mayor Kelly's political base is made up of the coalition of pro life, > Republican, downtown corporate community, Eastsiders voters, plus the > addition of the newly defined religious conservatives. > > The St. Paul DFL Party's political base is made up of the coalition of pro > choice, DFL, neighborhood activist, small business, organized labor, GLBT, > social justice activists. > > Kelly will be the champion of the first coalition, if he chooses to run, > and I believe he will. > > The DFL endorsed candidate will be the choice of the latter coalition. > Hello? This does not compute. I'm a small business owner, pro-choice, voted for Kerry and I'll be supporting Kelly, unless something/someone drastic happens. Kelly shares with Bush the annoying habit of being very pushy to get what he wants. In Kelly's case it's been expanding the tax base by promoting new housing, slavishly focusing on spending as little taxpayer money as possible and strengthening downtown to buttress the tax base. It's pretty hard to argue with that and he's been successful at achieving his goals. My neighbors didn't like his endorsement of Bush (I don't really care myself) but if (when) Pawlenty throws the city a bone that issue is gone. What's his potential competition going to say: "Hi, I'm here to help St. Paul better than Kelly has and by the way, I'll be raising your property taxes to pay for more stuff?" If you're gay or a union member living in St. Paul you pay property taxes directly or indirectly. Kelly can rightly claim he has been protecting your pocketbook. What's that leave, social justice activists? The angry far left verses the contented near-left-middle-right? For a political office that has little if anything to do with social justice under the worst case scenario? That's not a winning hand. [Remember this isn't Minneapolis so there isn't a continual theme of the police shooting black teenagers or stomping on drunk gay guys.] I predict that Finney won't be the last potential candidate to drop out of the mayoral sweepstakes. I think we'll see another, "I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" far left candidate who get's annihilated in the general election. Chris Boylan MacGroveland/Downtown _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ St. Paul Topics - This Week: Light Rail http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul-topics _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
