damn if i wouldn't love to see W do that this year
Posted on 08/01/2004 3:13:26 PM PDT by hawaiian
St. Paul Mayor Kelly Supports Bush for Re-election
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."
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."
Governor 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.
U.S. Senator 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.
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."
"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.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
The thing about this announcement is that the common sense items mentioned by the mayor. No hype here; just the facts, son.
Kerry is in major trouble now. As you said, the sKerry bounce continues.
.
Yep, all true. I live in the heart of Minneapolis and I don't dare broadcast my political views too loudly for fear that my car will be keyed or my windows smashed -- and I'm not kidding. On the plus side, as you said, the suburbs are all growing Republican at a feverish rate... so I don't have to drive far to feel like I'm in friendlier territory. I still like Minneapolis, tho. :-)
Yeee hawww!
Who cares, as long as the party AS A WHOLE is discredited? Clintonistas supported Kerry and should go down with the sinking ship!
Knew I had seen Norm before and he SUPPORTED Bush!
Ramsey County contains very little more than just St. Paul. I'd guess that 90% or more of the population of the County lives in St. Paul.
Hennepin County is quite large, taking in vast swathes of usually Republican suburbs. Minneapolis makes up something like 30% of the population of the County.
Hennepin County minus Minneapolis makes up the core of Jim Ramstad's Congressional district, and he received the greatest number of votes of any Republican in Congress in 2002.
IOW - Minneapolis can be more liberal that St. Paul at the same time that Hennepin County can be more conservative than Ramsey County.
Randy Kelly vetoed a no-smoking ban. He is for lower taxes.
He is pro-business. A couple of left-wing radio hosts on am1500 have been pushing him to support Kerry. So I am gald to see him supporting the President. Am1500 delayed Rush an hour for these idiot liberal's.
The Iron Range is getting quite pissed off at the Metrocrats. They've been depending upon government "development projects" for years. And they got bupkis this year, because the Senate Metocrats dug in their heels and went "wahhh!"
damn if i wouldn't love to see W do that this year
He's been getting pounded by the PC leftists and anti-Smoking zealots, and the pressure has been getting worse since Mpls and Bloomington jumped on the bandwagon. On the other side of the issue are St Paul businessmen and bar owners like Danny O'Gara. As with Norm Coleman before him, these people are among those who make up a significant part of Kelly's power base. Last week the bar owners got together and started to organize politically. They've already made it clear that, if the ban passes, they will torpedo any stadium bill that involves funding based on entertainment or sin taxes. They've also made it clear that they're going to be ramping up their political activity. While I don't know if Kelly will stick to his guns on the smoking ordinance, he has to know that he can't win without the support of his traditional allies. Kelly's opponents know this too, and it's probably one of the reasons they've been pushing him as hard as they have.
I suspect that part of today's announcement was Kelly's way of sticking a finger in the eye of people like councilman Thune and the other lefties who never wanted him in office in the first place.
This is funny.
Randy Kelly has been conservative on a few different issues. He is a life long St. Paul Eastsider salt-of-the-earth kind of guy.
A friend of mine gave a fund raising party for Randy. This friend is very DFL invested. Bet he's not too happy. Snicker.
As for me, I'm not even gonna discuss this one with my neighbors, their still p.o.'d about Norm! LOL.
This friend is very DFL invested. Bet he's not too happy
You might point out the old saying
"Life is full of disappointments....and this is one of them, deal with it."
It seems that our seasons are shifting. Just wait until we become the vacation state and we are Republican to top it off, you'll all want to move back!
One of my favorites. Norm is a fast rising star. The RNC definitely has a plan for him.
I knew when his name was mentioned that he was okay....Can't recall where I saw him, but was T.V. and he supported Bush.
before this is all over kerry will be leaking more than oil......we are gonna see some ketchup in the road
before this is all over kerry will be leaking more than oil......we are gonna see some ketchup in the road
Former Bloomington resident here.
Bloomington, the third largest city in Minnesota, is quite liberal, which is also part of Hennipen county.
I just went back for a week visit in early July. When I lived there, Bloomington was considered an outer suburb. I was surprised to find that the outer suburbs nowadays are Prior Lake and Chaska, which I've always thought of as farm towns. Bloomington is even starting to take on an inner-city atmosphere - even though the real inner city starts somewhere above 40th street, about 4 miles away.
Where did you hear that St. Paul might get the Twins? Are they gonna build them a new Stadium? I have no affection for the Dome, but I just hate it when public money is used to build a private company a new facility (especially when the Twins are only drawing 15,000 fans a game).
As I said on another thread: New York will go for Bush the day I get to know Britney Spears in the biblical sense.
Uh, Nassau, Suffolk and Staten Island voted for Gore. That must be the map for Clinton (The Mayor posted the Bush/Gore map. Those same counties only voted for Loozio because he had a vowel at the end of his name. :-)
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