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.
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.