St. Paul (Dem) mayor supports Bush for re-election - implications???

[jean]

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/08/01_helmsm_kelly/

What is going on here?

A little background: MN Sen Norm Coleman (R) was once mayor of St Paul and switched political parties. Currently Coleman has been known here in MN as Bush/Cheney's 'bagman' and served on the Bush/Cheney Truth Squad at the Dem Convention. He was hand picked by the Bush admin to run against Sen Paul Wellstone, who died in a tragic plane crash shortly before the 2002 election

St. Paul, Minn. — (AP) St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly broke Democratic Party ranks on Sunday to announce his support for President Bush's re-election. "George Bush and I do not agree on a lot of issues," Kelly said in a statement. "But in turbulent times, what the American people need more than anything is continuity of government, even with some imperfect policies."

snip

Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who co-chairs the Bush-Cheney campaign in Minnesota, praised Kelly. "His bold decision is courageous and a welcome move toward working across party lines," Pawlenty said in a statement.

snip

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, the Bush-Cheney campaign's other co-chair in Minnesota, called Kelly's announcement "bipartisanship at its finest." "Mayor Kelly recognizes that jobs are being created and that tax cuts have stimulated that job growth. He has done the same for St. Paul," said Coleman, Kelly's predecessor as mayor of Minnesota's capital city.

snip

But the St. Paul DFL Party said Kelly "has traded the values of St. Paul for the agenda of the Republican Party's far right."

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/headlines/

Kelly endorses Bush

St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly on Sunday endorsed President George W. Bush for re-election, but did not switch parties as some had predicted.

"With just over 90 days left before the election I feel extremely confident that the message, priorities, and policies of President George W. Bush will better serve America and the people of Minnesota over the next four years," Kelly said in a statement.

Rumors persisted through the weekend that Kelly would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, and bolt the DFL for the GOP. But Kelly says he's remaining in the DFL, although he will actively campaign with Republicans this week on behalf of Bush.


http://www.kare11.com/news/news-article.asp?NEWS_ID=67485

Kelly, who said he's remaining a Democrat, said the economy is going in the right direction. "There's no reason to believe a change of course will produce better or quicker results," he said.

And the mayor said the United States will bring the troops home from Iraq a lot sooner if "we don't try to bring in a whole new leadership team to run the show. We must stay the course."

snip

"Rather than advocating the needs of St. Paul, Mayor Kelly's decision to not support John Kerry's strategy for building our cities does the voters of St. Paul a disservice," the party said.

Kelly, who was elected mayor in 2001, is up for re-election next year.


edit - added more content

[still_one]

1. I hope him or his family need stem cell technology

they deserve it!

[aquart]

2. The man has made a deal for a private sector job.

Or he really wants a primary challenge.

[northernsoul]

8. he didn't get the DFL endorsement last time and he won't this time

Kelly just committed career suicide, must be lining up that private sector job.

[oly]

3. What's happening in St Paul?

When I lived in Roseville a few years ago, St Paul was reasonably progressive. Is it still? What about MN in general?

[Krupskaya]

4. He's angling for Senator.

I think he's falling in line the way Coleman did a few years ago. He endorses Bush, switches parties, Bush boots Cheney, picks up Coleman for VP, and then Pawlenty can reward Kelly with a senatorial crown.

Speculation, of course. But you heard it here first.

[loveable liberal]

16. i hear ol' normie has a zipper problem....

talk about flip flop, norms no reagan.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

20. Normie has a BIG zipper problem.

His wife lives in California.
So when he was mayor of St. Paul, he was very...
unfaithful is the wrong word because nobody ever caught him being unfaithful, but the rumors were too strong and too numerous to ignore.

[northernsoul]

22. When you think of Norm, think of jackrabbit with a thyroid condition

He's kinda like Mayor Quimby from the The Simpsons. Except not remotely funny.

[Cha]

5. What a fuckin' Idiot...did Not he see the Convention and all

the Generals for Kerry. I feel sorry for the People of St Paul, Minn. having such a sorryass for a mayor...Cripe even republikans are voting for Kerry. What makes him such deluded scaredy cat.

Who would ya rather be in Foxhole with? Stupid!

[Cha]

6. Any Dem who endorses whistle ass isn' t a Dem but

an operative.

[northernsoul]

7. Don't worry, Kelly will be unemployed soon enough

The man is only in office because he got Tom Barnard to lie about his opponent before a million listeners 24 hours before the election. He's managed to piss off every constituency in town (except for his beloved Chamber of Commerce, of course). He's a complete invertebrate and he will destroyed at the polls in 2005 - hopefully by Bill Finney.

[Cha]

9. No Worries, eh?! I do feel better already and knew there had

to be an interesting back story to this!

[dflprincess]

10. I'll admit I don't pay that much attention to St Paul City politics

wasn't there some trouble between him and Finney? And - this could be where display my ignorance of St Paul politics - isn't Finney a pretty decent guy? I always got a favorable impression of him.

[northernsoul]

21. Finney, good guy and now a publicly declared DEM!

I heard that Finney's now officially identified himself as a committed Democrat (as opposed Mayor Quimby)

[loveable liberal]

15. tom barnard made his bones as a dem also...

just another puke who turned on the working man....must be the idiot influence of teri traen...a right wing xian whacko....

[dpbrown]

11. Jay Benanav should have won that race

And we need to commit ourselves to the goal that this is the end of Randy Kelly's political career as a Democrat.

If it prevaricates like a Republican, and it moralizes like a Republican, and it demagogues like a Republican, well then by golly it's a Republican.

Dan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota

[preciousdove]

12. Jay Benanav MAY HAVE WON THAT RACE

Jay dropped his challenge of the results. Kelly picked up more votes than voters in his home district. We have Diebold optical scan ballots here. The race was real close.

I have been avoiding the news. My toddler grandson had skull surgery last week at Gillette and I was trying to stay mellow. I want him shunned, recalled and run out of town on a rail.

He has to see that the tide is turning against the Republicans and that he is not a good enough Democrat to survive so it makes sense he has totally sold out for the private sector job.

I went to a neighborhood meeting at Kiki Sonnens before that election expecting to hear him talk about issues. They actually used the time to sit around and complain about neighbors who, the horror, let their grass get above an inch and a half long and the litter problem downtown. I am not kidding.

Kudos to those who stopped Kiffmeyer's end run on accessibility to voting. What's next?

[preciousdove]

13. The Conservative takeover of the DFL

When I moved from Frogtown urban homestead of the 1970'2 to my grandmother's home in Como-Midway in 1991 I attended my first Hamline-Coalition Meeting since I lived with my grandmother in the early 1970's. There was a turf war going on that I didn't entirely understand but there are a lot of businesses in this area and of Course Hamline College which was changing from a "liberal" arts college to a more conservative law college. Everyone was united trying to stop the ghetto creep from the south and east. It wasn't pretty and I was asked at that meeting why I didn't stay in Frogtown with my kids and fight the drug dealers not exactly the welcome I had hoped for. The others in our focus group seemed to think it was a fair question. (My husband and I grew up in Roseville.)

About that time I was about half dead without a diagnosis and I also had some nieces and nephews I was worried about it turned out with reason who lived a block away. I got a scanner to hear police calls for there and the apartment building next door that was drug dealing.
When I was playing with it I picked up a call from my nephew's cordless ordering drugs from the house next door. It took about 9 months to get things taken care of and I sold the scanner so I wasn't tempted to listen again but it was interesting. Eventually both those problems were solved but while listening to them I was picking up the calls of one of the shakers and movers here in Hamline Midway. The callers were influential in the DFL and supported Coleman and really disliked everyone but rich white Christians and actually went out out of their way to make trouble for those who were not like them. At the time I was turned off to politics but that started me contacting the DFL occasionally when I felt strongly about an issue.

The Mayor of Minneapolis was part of the DNC but they did nothing to warn or protect her when she was taken down by association with the Councilman on the take. Maybe somebody can tell me why the DFL keeps shooting itself in the foot the last few years.

[loveable liberal]

14. he just stepped on his own dick.

what a f*&kwit. and to hear "pawlenty of nuthin" spew about bipartisanship. coupla gomers.

[kikiek]

17. My thought is that Coleman is going to groom him to try a run for Dayton's

seat in the senate. Hey it worked for him right. Ironic that at a time when we have Republicans who were diplomats, ambassadors, scientists, economists all saying Bush must go for our country's health, he decides he better stay. I am more disgusted today than yesterday. Never like him or trusted him.

[no name no slogan]

18. He's been a DINO for years

After all, his good friend Norm Coleman "hand picked" Kelly to succeed him on the council, after all.

Kelly's just alienated what little DFL support he had left in St. Paul, which is a heavily Democratic city.

Oh well, I guess that explains his crappy performance on "Midday" last week.

[jean]

19. Kelly is flying around the state today with Pawlenty + Swiggum - grrrr

[jackieforthedems]

23. They're Really Independents

When they keep changing their minds, they're really Independents. Anyway, they make it look as though there are some "under the table" incentives going on when they switch like that.