R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman are strongly hinting at rival bids for governor.
By RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER, Star Tribune
Last update: October 3, 2009
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman have been popping up all over the state lately, in places Twin Cities mayors don't usually frequent.
Both stopped by Kolacky Days in Montgomery to fete the prune-filled pastry. They were spotted at a recent Coon Rapids pig roast. Rybak has posted photos of himself standing next to a farmer in a Pope County cattle pasture and addressing a crowd in Austin on his Facebook page. Meanwhile, Coleman campaign signs -- with "for St. Paul" in small letters -- have turned up as far north as Duluth. DFL political activists from Pequot Lakes to Hutchinson report visits from each of them.
"I see them everywhere. When don't I see them?" said Marge Hoffa, DFL chair of the Third Congressional District, which spans the western suburbs.
The two mayors are blunt about what's behind their statewide sojourns -- they're both seriously considering a run for governor next year, even as they run for reelection as mayors this November.
If both jump into the governor's race, it would appear to mark the first time a Twin Cities mayor has faced direct political competition from the mayor across the river, and could test the notion that big-city politicians struggle once they move their shows statewide. No mayor from either city has gone on to become governor since Alexander Ramsey in 1860, who had earlier served a stint as St. Paul mayor.
A Rybak-Coleman contest for endorsement could also strain what has been one of the closest working relationships between St. Paul and Minneapolis mayors in recent memory.
Neither one is ready to formally declare a gubernatorial candidacy, nor do they deny the governor's office is in their sights.
Rivals in both parties have suggested it's time for the two to join the field of 11 DFL candidates who have already announced. Republicans have filed a complaint against Rybak and Coleman, accusing them of skirting state campaign finance law with what amounts to informal campaigning.
But Coleman and Rybak are sticking to their own timetables for now.
Coleman says he'll decide this month, so voters in St. Paul's mayoral contest this fall will know his intent. Rybak's announcement may not be quite that soon, but he said Minneapolis voters should know that he is "increasingly likely" to run for governor. An early supporter of candidate Barack Obama, Rybak says he has even told the president of his possible intentions.
Friends who may be rivals
Coleman and Rybak each claim the other as a friend. They've met socially on occasion as well as politically and say they'll maintain cordial relations even if they become competitors.
"We have a good relationship, and I think that's very important," Rybak said. "But I have a good relationship with most of the other mayors in the region and most of the other people in this race."
Said Coleman: "People are appreciative of the fact that the two cities, which have been at odds with each other more often than not, are actually getting along."
As they explore possible gubernatorial runs, the mayors have continued to work together. They recently co-authored a newspaper opinion piece about health care and they've collaborated on environmental concerns, economic issues and the Central Corridor light-rail line. Their partnership, in part, helped bring the Republican National Convention to Minnesota last year.
There's also a practical reason for them to handle things carefully.
"One of them is not going to be the nominee to be governor," said Blois Olson, a Democratic pundit and executive vice president at Tunheim Partners public affairs firm. Both could remain at their city's helm for the next four years.
No fighting -- yet
Politics watchers report that the mayors, along with myriad other DFL candidates, have remained civil on the stump.
"There's been no animosity, no fighting. They've just been standing on their own soap box," said Paul Wright, DFL chairman of the Seventh District in western Minnesota.
The formal DFL field is already flooded with candidates: House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, state Sens. Tom Bakk and John Marty; state Reps. Tom Rukavina and Paul Thissen, former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner and former state legislators Matt Entenza and Steve Kelley. Registered lobbyist Peter Roess and frequent candidate Ole Savior have also filed campaign committees.
With so many candidates in the race, spending time attacking just one potential DFL opponent could be "very, very dumb" strategically and a waste of time, said former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer, who has encouraged Coleman to run.
But that could change should the two mayors end up competing for the same delegates, each trying to prove their city is better run.
Can they win outstate?
Could either DFL mayor from a liberal city win statewide?
"People who are not from a big city or the big cities are going to say, 'Well, is he going to understand my issues in Crookston?' I think it is a legitimate concern, and I think it has to be," said Latimer, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1986.
Twin Cities politicians have had mixed success recently in plying their wares outside their borders. As Hennepin County attorney, Amy Klobuchar trounced U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy in the 2006 U.S. Senate race, winning in a landslide against the Watertown Republican. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, with a home base in Eagan, won an election against a candidate from outstate Minnesota and one against a candidate from the suburbs. Norm Coleman, a former St. Paul mayor, lost to suburban mayor Jesse Ventura in the 1998 governor's race but won a U.S. Senate seat four years later -- only to lose it to Minneapolitan and Democrat Al Franken after last year's extended recount.
Bakk, a DFL candidate who said both mayors have been on the stump enough that they should file their candidacies, said the Democrats' real battle will be in the western and southern parts of the state.
DFL First District chair Lori Sellner, whose swing district comprises southern Minnesota, said her delegates will look for someone who understands the issues non-big-city residents face, but that doesn't preclude urban candidates.
"It is just one of many factors that delegates will look at it," Sellner said.
Don Bye, longtime DFL chair in the Eighth District that includes the DFL bedrock that is the Iron Range, said any metro DFL candidate simply has "more to prove" to outstate voters.
But, he said, "I think it is provable."
Rachel E. Stassen-Berger • 651-292-0164
Showing posts with label Mayor Chris Coleman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mayor Chris Coleman. Show all posts
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
When it's about city taxes, devil's in details for Minneapolis, St. Paul mayors
Rybak and Coleman must juggle nursing their budgets, staving off tax revolts and keeping political options viable.
By STEVE BRANDT and ANTHONY LONETREE, Star Tribune staff writers
Last update: August 22, 2009
When Minneapolis hardware store owner Jim Welna got the chance to buy a building in the next block on Franklin Avenue and quadruple his floor space, he sat down to run the numbers.
They didn't add up -- in large part because of the property tax he'd have to pay. He figured that he would have to budget nearly $140 from each day's proceeds just to pay that $50,000 annual bill.
"I couldn't see a business model that would allow me to factor those taxes in and keep prices affordable," said Welna, who is chairman of the Seward Civic and Commerce Association.
Property taxes, which have risen steadily in Minneapolis and St. Paul, are likely to continue that trend. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak proposes to raise city property tax collections by 11.3 percent next year, the most during his two terms, after a string of 8 percent increases dating to 2003.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman proposed a 6 percent increase in the city's share of property taxes after levy increases of 9 percent, 15.1 percent and 8 percent during his first three years as mayor.
Both mayors are acting like potential gubernatorial candidates, and they blame Gov. Tim Pawlenty's no-new-state-tax policy for the local increases that could be drags on their campaigns.
Still, there's no sign of a property tax revolt in either city.
Few show up to protest at the annual public hearings before levies are adopted. Support for Pawlenty's tightfistedness has eroded, according to one pollster.
Both mayors are buffeted by offsetting pressures when they recommend raising property taxes. Not enough, and there aren't enough cops, workers to fill potholes or clerks to staff counters. Too much, and people such as Welna feel the pain.
Rybak swears that he puts political blinders on when he crafts a city budget and any tax hike he thinks is necessary to support it. He says his job is to do what's in the city's long-term interests. He blames tax increases on Pawlenty's policies and inherited problems such as a growing pension burden.
Coleman says that he's had to raise taxes in part to keep police and firefighters on the streets after state aid cuts. While his predecessors avoided significant levy increases for 12 years, Coleman says that was when state aid was dependable.
Just how much each mayor would be hampered by their taxing records in a statewide race depends on whether they're competing inside their parties or running in a general election, and whether President Obama's stimulus efforts pay off or are seen as a waste of money, analysts say.
Pollster Bill Morris of the Minneapolis research firm Decision Resources found a substantial drop in support for the no-new-taxes approach since Pawlenty's first legislative session in 2003 -- from 61 percent then to 33 percent this summer. Yet property taxes remain the most unpopular of the big three taxes, the other two being income tax and sales tax.
That puts mayors in the awkward position of raising the most unpopular tax to fund their budgets. Legislators who might vie with them for governor control less-unpopular taxes, although their fiscal decisions influence local property levies.
Still, the mayors' records concerning property taxes are likely to have much less impact on DFL delegates and intra-party contests than the crucial swing voters whom Hamline professor David Schultz estimates at 30 percent of voters.
"I can see Republicans trying to frame one of those two candidates as a classic tax and spend liberal," he said.
'Willing to pay'
In St. Paul's West End area, at Jefferson Avenue and Fulton Street, Matt Long, co-owner of Tavern on the Avenue, sees the city's police force as exceptional and worth protecting. Across the avenue, John Evanson, 37, who owns a single-story Craftsman-style home, values the city's culture and history.
Here, where home values mirror the city's median value, St. Paul is investing.
A block away, workers are building a new refrigerated ice rink at Palace playground. A half-mile away, a new fire station and headquarters building is going up.
Evanson said that he's had job offers elsewhere but that he loves St. Paul. He said a 6 percent tax increase is significant, but that "if we want what we want, then we have to be willing to pay for it."
Long said he's been hit with the federally imposed minimum wage increase and the state's new 3/8-cent sales tax, and that he'd prefer not being dealt another property tax increase.
He calculated that, if Coleman's plan passes, the tavern will need to ring up more than 100 extra sales a month to cover the property tax hikes imposed on the bar since Coleman took office.
'It just went skyward'
In Minneapolis, Welna has seen the city's valuation assessment on his 108-year-old building jump from $70,000 to $325,000. With many home values falling, property tax increases fall more heavily on commercial property. His annual tax bill is almost $7,700.
Welna is no rabid anti-tax guy. He has seen city assistance bolster businesses on Franklin. The space he considered buying was vacated by the Seward Co-op. It left for an even bigger store that was financed in part by city loans, an investment Rybak touted in his budget proposal.
But Welna and other businesspeople feel that their tax load is getting burdensome. Joanne Christ, whose family owns the Black Forest restaurant on Nicollet Avenue, described it this way: "It was a nice gentle climb until about seven years ago, maybe eight. Then it just went skyward."
Rybak's projected budgets portend a hefty tax increase for the city's $216,000 median home. The city's levy against that property is projected to rise 55 percent between now and 2015. That's not counting county or school taxes.
The Northrop neighborhood in south Minneapolis abounds with houses close to that example, and Judy O'Brien's bungalow is one of them. She has lived there all but about five years of her life, buying it from her parents in 1980. She thinks her tax bill was about $500 then; now it's $2,718.
"It's hard to see things go up like that every year," O'Brien said. "But it's unrealistic to expect it to go down."
She pays almost twice as much in taxes on her house as do her friends in the suburbs. But that hasn't driven her out of town. "I wouldn't have chosen to live in the suburbs," she said. "I like older neighborhoods. I like to watch the neighborhoods change."
sbrandt@startribune.com • 612-673-4438 alonetree@startribune.com • 612-673-4109
By STEVE BRANDT and ANTHONY LONETREE, Star Tribune staff writers
Last update: August 22, 2009
When Minneapolis hardware store owner Jim Welna got the chance to buy a building in the next block on Franklin Avenue and quadruple his floor space, he sat down to run the numbers.
They didn't add up -- in large part because of the property tax he'd have to pay. He figured that he would have to budget nearly $140 from each day's proceeds just to pay that $50,000 annual bill.
"I couldn't see a business model that would allow me to factor those taxes in and keep prices affordable," said Welna, who is chairman of the Seward Civic and Commerce Association.
Property taxes, which have risen steadily in Minneapolis and St. Paul, are likely to continue that trend. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak proposes to raise city property tax collections by 11.3 percent next year, the most during his two terms, after a string of 8 percent increases dating to 2003.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman proposed a 6 percent increase in the city's share of property taxes after levy increases of 9 percent, 15.1 percent and 8 percent during his first three years as mayor.
Both mayors are acting like potential gubernatorial candidates, and they blame Gov. Tim Pawlenty's no-new-state-tax policy for the local increases that could be drags on their campaigns.
Still, there's no sign of a property tax revolt in either city.
Few show up to protest at the annual public hearings before levies are adopted. Support for Pawlenty's tightfistedness has eroded, according to one pollster.
Both mayors are buffeted by offsetting pressures when they recommend raising property taxes. Not enough, and there aren't enough cops, workers to fill potholes or clerks to staff counters. Too much, and people such as Welna feel the pain.
Rybak swears that he puts political blinders on when he crafts a city budget and any tax hike he thinks is necessary to support it. He says his job is to do what's in the city's long-term interests. He blames tax increases on Pawlenty's policies and inherited problems such as a growing pension burden.
Coleman says that he's had to raise taxes in part to keep police and firefighters on the streets after state aid cuts. While his predecessors avoided significant levy increases for 12 years, Coleman says that was when state aid was dependable.
Just how much each mayor would be hampered by their taxing records in a statewide race depends on whether they're competing inside their parties or running in a general election, and whether President Obama's stimulus efforts pay off or are seen as a waste of money, analysts say.
Pollster Bill Morris of the Minneapolis research firm Decision Resources found a substantial drop in support for the no-new-taxes approach since Pawlenty's first legislative session in 2003 -- from 61 percent then to 33 percent this summer. Yet property taxes remain the most unpopular of the big three taxes, the other two being income tax and sales tax.
That puts mayors in the awkward position of raising the most unpopular tax to fund their budgets. Legislators who might vie with them for governor control less-unpopular taxes, although their fiscal decisions influence local property levies.
Still, the mayors' records concerning property taxes are likely to have much less impact on DFL delegates and intra-party contests than the crucial swing voters whom Hamline professor David Schultz estimates at 30 percent of voters.
"I can see Republicans trying to frame one of those two candidates as a classic tax and spend liberal," he said.
'Willing to pay'
In St. Paul's West End area, at Jefferson Avenue and Fulton Street, Matt Long, co-owner of Tavern on the Avenue, sees the city's police force as exceptional and worth protecting. Across the avenue, John Evanson, 37, who owns a single-story Craftsman-style home, values the city's culture and history.
Here, where home values mirror the city's median value, St. Paul is investing.
A block away, workers are building a new refrigerated ice rink at Palace playground. A half-mile away, a new fire station and headquarters building is going up.
Evanson said that he's had job offers elsewhere but that he loves St. Paul. He said a 6 percent tax increase is significant, but that "if we want what we want, then we have to be willing to pay for it."
Long said he's been hit with the federally imposed minimum wage increase and the state's new 3/8-cent sales tax, and that he'd prefer not being dealt another property tax increase.
He calculated that, if Coleman's plan passes, the tavern will need to ring up more than 100 extra sales a month to cover the property tax hikes imposed on the bar since Coleman took office.
'It just went skyward'
In Minneapolis, Welna has seen the city's valuation assessment on his 108-year-old building jump from $70,000 to $325,000. With many home values falling, property tax increases fall more heavily on commercial property. His annual tax bill is almost $7,700.
Welna is no rabid anti-tax guy. He has seen city assistance bolster businesses on Franklin. The space he considered buying was vacated by the Seward Co-op. It left for an even bigger store that was financed in part by city loans, an investment Rybak touted in his budget proposal.
But Welna and other businesspeople feel that their tax load is getting burdensome. Joanne Christ, whose family owns the Black Forest restaurant on Nicollet Avenue, described it this way: "It was a nice gentle climb until about seven years ago, maybe eight. Then it just went skyward."
Rybak's projected budgets portend a hefty tax increase for the city's $216,000 median home. The city's levy against that property is projected to rise 55 percent between now and 2015. That's not counting county or school taxes.
The Northrop neighborhood in south Minneapolis abounds with houses close to that example, and Judy O'Brien's bungalow is one of them. She has lived there all but about five years of her life, buying it from her parents in 1980. She thinks her tax bill was about $500 then; now it's $2,718.
"It's hard to see things go up like that every year," O'Brien said. "But it's unrealistic to expect it to go down."
She pays almost twice as much in taxes on her house as do her friends in the suburbs. But that hasn't driven her out of town. "I wouldn't have chosen to live in the suburbs," she said. "I like older neighborhoods. I like to watch the neighborhoods change."
sbrandt@startribune.com • 612-673-4438 alonetree@startribune.com • 612-673-4109
Thursday, March 19, 2009
NEGATIVE ATTACK BLOG ON MAYOR COLEMAN
I did some digging and there are a blog and website that is attacking St. Paul Chris Coleman but who was behind that? Its called "My Mayor is Cheating on Me."
People who created that website are totally stupid. I have ran for public office three times in the past and used better common sense not to attack my opponents. Where are their common sense of clean campaign?
It look like St. Paul politics won't be that pretty this year so wait and see what happen. It is horrible thing to do before this saturday's St. Paul City DFL Convention.
My Mayor is Cheating on Me website
What is your opinion?
People who created that website are totally stupid. I have ran for public office three times in the past and used better common sense not to attack my opponents. Where are their common sense of clean campaign?
It look like St. Paul politics won't be that pretty this year so wait and see what happen. It is horrible thing to do before this saturday's St. Paul City DFL Convention.
My Mayor is Cheating on Me website
What is your opinion?
Friday, January 9, 2009
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman seeks second term as Mayor
Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has decided to run for second term as Mayor. He announced his candidacy earlier this week and at this time there are no opponents. He is going to seek DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor) endorsement on March 21st at Saint Paul DFL City Convention.
You could read his announcement at his campaign website
Chris was on Saint Paul City Council and ran for Congress in 2000 but failed to secure DFL endorsement.
You could read his announcement at his campaign website
Chris was on Saint Paul City Council and ran for Congress in 2000 but failed to secure DFL endorsement.
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