Posted on 08/02/2004 7:16:47 AM PDT by rhema
St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly, a DFLer for his entire 30-year political career, will tour Minnesota with state Republicans today to stump for the re-election of President Bush.
He will do so as a Democrat, he said during a news conference at his home Sunday.
Kelly related sighting an "I Hate Bush" bumper sticker on a car driving down West Seventh Street about six months ago and called it a turning point.
"I do think the politics of hate in this country for the last decade or more has poisoned the discourse, and I think that some folks have to jump out of this allegiance to party and say, 'What's in the best national interest?' " Kelly said.
The mayor called Bush's Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, "a good man," but added he thought it unwise to change national leadership during the war in Iraq and said he thought a Kerry administration would "jeopardize the economic recovery that we are experiencing."
He will board a plane today in Eden Prairie with Gov. Tim Pawlenty and House Speaker Steve Sviggum and head to Rochester, Minn., as the first stop on the multicity tour.
His announcement got a warm welcome from Bush supporters. U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman called it "bipartisanship at its finest."
But the endorsement disappointed DFLers in St. Paul, including some of the mayor's staunchest supporters.
"I'm very disappointed," said Jim Kielkopf, chair of the DFL in Kelly's old state Senate district. "He's a good leader and an honorable man, but I will have trouble supporting him. … George Bush has been a disaster for the working people of the East Side."
Political rivals were even speculating that Kelly's political future might be in jeopardy.
"He's a turncoat," St. Paul DFL Party Chairman Jim Mogen said, standing across the street from Kelly's house on the East Side. He issued a statement saying Kelly had "decided to deal away the progressive principles that he held in the Minnesota Legislature for table scraps from Gov. Pawlenty and the Taxpayers League."
The mayor said he wasn't planning to follow the example of his predecessor, Norm Coleman, who switched parties in 1996 and ran for re-election as a Republican in 1997. "If I run for re-election, I will be running as a Democrat," Kelly said. "I think our party needs to be less monolithic, more tolerant to different views, and I hope this can be a suggestion and a wake-up call."
St. Paul City Council Member Kathy Lantry, also standing outside Kelly's home, said she wasn't convinced. "I can say I'm 6' 2", blonde and 120 pounds, too, but as soon as I open the door, people figure out something different," Lantry said. "You can say anything you want, but as Democrats, it's all about actions, not words, and the policies of George W. Bush have not helped core cities at all."
But it was Kelly's "if" that was weighing on the minds of some other city officials after Kelly's announcement, which was only open to the media.
"I wonder, frankly, if this might tell us that he's not going to run for re-election," said Ward 2 City Council Member Dave Thune, also a DFLer. "He probably has read the cards and sees that a number of candidates, including Corky Finney, would beat him, and maybe he's planning on not running for re-election and counting on an appointment to a federal administration."
Kelly did say he had spoken personally with Bush on Friday, but said he wouldn't share any details. He made it a point during his statement, however, to say he wasn't backing the president "in any way to calculate raising my ability to run for higher office."
He called the decision a matter of conscience, which he hoped his fellow DFLers would respect.
As mayor and as a member of the state Legislature, Kelly has had an arm's-length relationship with his fellow Democrats. He ran against and beat the party's endorsed candidate, St. Paul Council Member Jay Benanav, in 2001. (Then again, the party's endorsee hasn't won a mayoral election since 1989.)
Kelly also helped found Democrats for Life of Minnesota last August, going against the party's traditional abortion-rights positions.
But Kelly did delineate differences with the president on Sunday, saying he would prefer that Bush focus greater energy on the federal budget deficit and "resist those who believe gay marriage should be an issue to divide America to win an election."
The Bush/Cheney campaign was still pleased to have the Democratic mayor on board and issued statements of support from Pawlenty and Democratic U.S. Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, as well as Coleman.
The Kerry/Edwards campaign issued a statement downplaying Kelly's endorsement. "His announcement isn't surprising given Randy Kelly's longstanding flirtation with the Republican Party and will have little if any impact on the campaign," said communications director Stacie Paxton. "John Kerry and John Edwards enjoy overwhelming support in St. Paul."
What does "DFL" mean?
its the Minnesota Democratic party, back in the 40's or so, the democrats merged with the Farmer-Laborer party and became the DFL. They never changed it to just plain democrats.
What are the chances of Kelly changing to Republican after his re-election?
He may be a Republican by the time he runs again, if he indeed does. In helping co-found Democrats for Life of Minnesota, Kelly has had the temerity to challenge the DFL's right-to-death platform plank, which has primacy over almost every other tenet of their liberal canon. With that act of mutiny alone, he's probably eased himself out of the party.
So far sounding like a good guy. Any reason we don't want him?
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party - http://www.DFL.org
Ha ha. The DFLers are goin' crazy!
Rep. Kahn accused of taking GOP fliers
Dane Smith, Star Tribune
July 23, 2004 KAHN0723
State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, a 32-year veteran from Minneapolis and a key figure in the DFL House caucus, was stopped by New Hope police earlier this week after a citizen complained that she was removing a Republican House member's campaign literature from doorsteps and replacing it with a DFL opponent's material.
The case has been referred to the Anoka County attorney's office for possible charges, officials said.
If we don't rescue (and maybe reclaim, where necessary) him, think of the horrible alternative: a pro-life, decent guy trapped in the party of dependency, death, and moral dereliction.
I don't know if you're familiar with her, but she is a looney nut job that's about as left as left can get and a perfect example of a Minnesota liberal.
I live in Minnesota and follow Minnesota politics reasonably closely, which makes me all too nauseatingly familiar with Kahn and DFLers like her. Joe Soucheray, Twin Cities radio talk-show host, makes fairly frequent (disparaging and/or despairing) references to Kahn.
Then you know! I live in the Twin Cities area also.
I feel your pain.
Nobody knows de trouble I've seen. . . My suburb has elected exactly two Republican state legislators in the 18 years I've lived there, both of them in special elections to fill vacancies. The presidential vote count always goes to the feckless Democrat, too.
P.S.: GREAT pictures on your profile page!!
This really is an interesting move. A couple of thoughts.
Mayor Kelly may be intending to use this as a power play to resurrect a socially conservative, labor-based wing within the DFL party. There is a real opportunity there. The moonbats who currently dominate the party are driving the DFL into irrelevance. The average Minnesota DFL member is not a clone of a Berkely, California liberal. But the leadership of the current DFL certainly is.
The more likely possibility is that, like Norm Coleman, he sees his pro-life position as an impediment to rising any further in the DFL anyway, so he's preparing the way for a Republican crossover.
BTTT!
When you consider that Collin Peterson is a more reliable pro-life vote than Jim Ramstad (and Jim Oberstar is probably to the right of Ramstad on abortion), coupled with pro-life majorities in both Minnesota legislative houses, maybe some of the more perspicacious Democrats are starting to realize it's a death wish to be the pro-death, pro-perversion party.
The mayor of Westminister, CA changed her party from Democrat to Republican.
This is hometown to many proud Vietnamese-Americans, who are majority Republicans.
This woman mayor said dems aren't the same party as when she joined 54 years ago.
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