From Ch 9 News: Kelly 27% Coleman 51% (nt)

[question everything]

[KitchenWitch]

1. Right on!

:7

[jean]

2. Yippee!!!

:toast:

[Frances]

3. Please explain who Kelly and Coleman are

Thanks

[question everything]

4. Kelly is the mayor of St. Paul (MN), a democrat, who supported Bush

last year. Coleman is a St. Paul concilman who ran against him in today's primaries.

A few weeks ago John Kerry came to visit to express his support for Coleman.

[Frances]

6. Good news then

Thanks for filling me in

It's interesting that there's a good guy Coleman and a bad guy Coleman (Norm who started as a Dem then went Repub). I hope someone can take Norm out!

[Carolab]

5. YES!!! I'm so glad I voted today and to know it COUNTED!!

One weird note: my fiance went to vote and (despite having voted in all of the elections since we moved to our present addy in St. Paul in 2000) found out he wasn't registered!

Think Mary Kiffmeyer's new "electronic voter database" is working for her???

[dflprincess]

34. But at least in Minnesota you can register on election day

n/t

[KitchenWitch]

7. KARE 11

Coleman 51.5
Kelly 26.7

[Viking12]

8. AP: Coleman 51%: Kelly 27%; Dickinson 20%

With 70 percent of precincts reporting, Coleman had 51 percent or 9,587 votes, while Kelly had 27 percent with 5,044 votes. Green Party candidate Elizabeth Dickinson had 20 percent, with 3,744 votes.


I doubt Dickinson voters will vote for Kelly in the runoff, so it should be easy going for Coleman if the Dickinson voters come back to the polls in November.

Nice to see some sanity returning to my hometown.

[Carolab]

9. It was too ridiculous when Kelly's campaign manager blamed turnout.

Yeah, poor turnout for KELLY, that is!!!

HAHAHAHAHA

Recall RANDY!!!!

[hermetic]

10. One small step for mankind

:woohoo:

[scratchtasia]

11. Awesome

Kelly deserves a good trouncing for endorsing Bush.

[katinmn]

12. Yahoo! Nice showing!!

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

13. Oh HELL yeah!

Take a seat, Kelly! Bet you wish you hadn't tied yourself to Bush now, huh?
Bring on November!

:woohoo:

[dodger501]

14. When you sleep with the devil

expect to get f***ed

[northernsoul]

16. or, as I like to say:

don't shit where you eat

I say Randy at the Winter Carnival, I told him to polish off his resume because he'll be out of job by the end of the year.

[ISUGRADIA]

26. I'm sure the administration has a job lined up for him when he loses

[Eric J in MN]

27. Did he reply?

nt

[ISUGRADIA]

15. 73% against incumbent, not a good sign 8*)

[Oreo]

17. Good news for real liberals

Ousting Kelly would be huge... a great message to Dems that if they sleep with the enemy, they might as well change parties.

I think the only reason Normie was loved in St Paul was the hockey team he took all the credit for. God I hate Normie


Strib article here: http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5613639.html
Kelly faced voters for the first time Tuesday since endorsing Republican President Bush in 2004. His campaign for weeks had downplayed expectations for the primary, saying he expected to lose.

"When the incumbent mayor loses a primary by a 2-to-1 margin, it's a referendum on his performance," said Coleman, who defeated Kelly in the incumbent's own East Side precinct. "It has nothing to do with party loyalty. It's about value and judgment. He's had four years to establish trust with the voters, and clearly the voters are not happy."

Prof. Larry Jacobs of the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute agreed, saying of Kelly, "It's a real sign that he's got the fight of his life here."

-snip-

Jacobs said: "Kelly is going to need very large margins among the other sets of voters, very large margins among independent voters. He'll obviously do well among Republicans, but this is not a Republican area. ... This is kind of the cost of endorsing Bush."

[Spike from MN]

23. Gee, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you on this.

"I think the only reason Normie was loved in St Paul was the hockey team he took all the credit for."

I live in St. Paul and most certainly never loved Normie. I have always hated him. Just had to set the record straight there. ;)

I have to admit, it even felt weird casting a vote for Chris Coleman just because the last name gives me the heebie jeebies. Sorry Chris, no offense but I'd change my name if I was you. You got my vote but man it felt weird.

Nice to know that Kelly is on the way out. I remember when he ran the last time and I got a call from someone from his campaign asking me to vote for him. He ran down the list of talking points and when he came to "he has been endorsed by Norm Coleman" I told him to stop right there. I said there was no way I would cast a vote for anyone that Norm endorsed. The guy at the other end actually started laughing and said "Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot." I wasn't going to vote for Kelly anyway because I thought he was a weasel. Norm's endorsement of him only served to confirm that.

Go Chris! St. Paul had been stuck with horrible mayors for far too long. It's about time we get someone decent in there. St. Paulites always vote the right way in state and national elections but for some reason, we can't seem to give ourselves a decent mayor. I think that's about to change. ;)

[dpbrown]

28. I got called at least three times by Kelly people

Each time I let them run all the way through their spiel about how good Kelly's been for the city, blah, blah, blah, and then when they got to the point where they asked me, "So can Mayor Kelly count on you for his support?" I told them:

"Randy Kelly endorsed the worst President in the history of the United States of America, George Bush, and I would never vote for Randy Kelly, ever."

That pretty much ended the call.

[Spike from MN]

30. Nice job. Keep them on the phone and let them waste their time.

I never answer my phone thanks to the #%@&!$* telemarketers but I might have to start doing that in October or so. I'd LOVE to tell Kelly's people just what I think of him. I'll make sure to mention my "Recall Randy" button.

Oh, I'll have to make sure to tell them that I hate Randy Kelly. Wasn't that the reason Kelly endorsed Dubya in the first place? I think he said he saw an "I Hate Bush" bumpersticker and that made him to decide to endorse the Chimp. Smart move there. Apparently he bases his political decisions on the bumperstickers he sees. Yeah, that's real leadership for ya. I'll be so damn glad when he is no longer Mayor. I may have to take the day after the election off just to celebrate. ;)

[bvar22]

18. Will Kelly run against Coleman as an Independent?

I'm sure the Republican Party will finance his campaign (and pump up his Cayman account) if he runs against the Democratic Party.

If Kelly runs against Coleman, would he get enough votes to throw the election to a Republican?

[Viking12]

19. St. Paul mayoral primary elections aren't party votes

It is a runoff w/ the top two facing in the november election. Kelly will oppose Coleman head-to-head. As I said in an earlier post, with 20% of the primary vote going to the Green Candidate, Kelly is TOAST in the November election if those Green voters show up to the polls.

[question everything]

22. You mean, there won't be a Republican on the ballot? (nt)

[Oreo]

24. The republican is Kelly

He just spells it with a D for some reason ;)

[Viking12]

25. Nope.

Unless you consider Kelly a Republican which is very plausible. In St. Paul's last mayoral election Kelly barely edged out progressive city council member Jay Benenav.

[CrazyForKucinich]

20. Yay for a choice between unlivable wages and unlivable wages!

WTG Saint Paul.

[myrna minx]

21. Yay! n/t

[loveable liberal]

29. I love a good story!

This one made my night. Lets hope its a microcosm of whats to come nationally.

[CatholicEdHead]

31. Media has really been carrying Kelly's water the past couple of days

EVERY report talked about the same "primary means nothing" points, and how good it is to "work across the isle" with Republicans who are said to basically control everything, so then they must be given into.

:vomit:

[CatholicEdHead]

32. Kelly is now asking for everyone to get slective memories

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5642774.html

"St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly asked voters Thursday to set aside their anger of his 2004 endorsement of President Bush and look at his record when they vote in November.

"Anger is not a road map toward this city's future," Kelly said at press conference at his reelection headquarters. "When all is said and done, I believe the people of St. Paul, in their heart of hearts, care more about where we will all be four years from now than they do about rehashing a previous election."

Kelly said he made his decision to back Bush "on principle...and as the last few months bore out, I certainly didn't do it for political reasons."

Kelly alerted the media that he would be making a "major address on the status of the mayor's race," but the 10-minute speech offered little details in the way of the "assessment of the race,"challenges he faces" or "odds of his success" he promised to address.

Instead, skeptical reporters noted the presence of freelance videographers and questioned whether Kelly was using the even to shoot a commercial. Kelly denied the charge.

"We're not filming a TV commercial," he said."

[jean]

33. good move, Randy - remind the voters of your bushbot loyalties

[USA_1]

35. Coleman

Better Coleman than Kelly who endlessly sucks up to Republicans.

An item appears on MPR which has escaped the attention of the The Press and that is with respect to the Xcel hockey arena in downtown:

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/10/03_helmsm_hockeyreturns/


It reads (in pertinent part):


The economic impact of the Wild cannot be overstated, according to the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber's Ellen Watters says doing the math on Wild games means big money for St. Paul. Forty-four games, at an average of $45 per ticket. Then, add $10 for food and drinks or momentos, and that adds up to the Wild generating an estimated $3 million in state sales-tax receipts. $217,000 of that goes to the city of St. Paul.


According to those figures, St Paul gets back less than 10 % of the tax revenues generated by the paying sports fans. Bear in mind that the taxpayers of St Paul are paying 50 % of the cost for Xcel. Since we are paying 50 % of the cost of the arena, we should be entitled to 50 % of the tax revenues.

I realize that the contract for this arena steal was arranged by Republican Norm Coleman and that neither candidate had anything to do with those negotiations (so far as I know). But since the arena has not generated revenues into the City, the contract needs to be renegotiated. Note how The Press which claims to represent the interests of the City has not written an editorial to demand such reformation.