In a message dated 11/5/2004 3:27:39 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: 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 Chris, I just want to comment on one part of your statement: "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." That is a mostly false claim with respect to the GLBT community. The GLBT community has it's own chartered caucus of the State DFL party and with it comes an independant endorsment process where candidates must screen with either the endoresment committee or the Board of Directors. While it is true that Stonewall DFL may not have a conflicting endorsement with the State DFL, we may elect to NOT endorse a candidate in a race based upon findings in our screening process. ie. The state or city DFL endorses a particular candidate that the GLBT community cannot support. Stonewall reserves the right to vote down an endoresment for that particular race. While this senario is rare, it has happened in the past and generally it is picked up by the GLBT local press as a statement AGAINST a particular candidate. For the GLBT community, it is more than just taxes that concerns us. The issues that directly impact our community like anti-gay marriage initiatives, employment discrimination, hate crimes, civil rights, HIV/AIDS prevention/funding, inclusive school curriculum and community/police relations are all issues that each candidate must respond to. As a gay man that lived in St. Paul, I cared much less about the fact that my taxes were low than I cared about the hate crimes I witnessed and was victim of in my W 7th neighborhood as my home an vehicles were vandalized on a regular basis for no other reason than I hung a rainbow flag in front of my home. Regarding Saint Paul's Mayoral election, Stonewall DFL will be screening each candidate equally and will make its endorsement based on a very tough set of GLBT community issues. Paul Skrbec Inver Grove Heights Stonewall DFL, Director At Large _____________________________________________ 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/
