Mayor of St. Paul, MN. It may sound like an insignificant race in the grand scheme of things, but to those of us in the smaller of the Twin Cities, it's gearing up to be a pretty big deal indeed.
First some history. In 1993 a charismatic young lawyer with a charming family was elected the Democratic mayor of our great capital city. His first term looked promising until he pulled an about face and switched parties. Then he ran for governor and, fortunately, lost to Jesse Ventura. He wasn't stopped there, though. In 2002 he decided to run for Senate. Dick Cheney personally called his biggest opponent in the primary and asked that the former mayor be given the limelight. And when a devastating accident claimed the life of Paul Wellstone, this former mayor became Senator Norm Coleman.
Now we have another Democratic mayor, Randy Kelly. Sadly, he's continued in Coleman's tradition of betraying our party and the people of St. Paul. Despite the fact that all but two of St. Paul's precincts voted for Al Gore in 2000, Randy Kelly decided to endorse Bush this year. Our very own Zell Miller, right here on the banks of the Mississippi. Kelly says he was motivated to endorse Bush because of a bumper sticker - he saw an anti-Bush slogan and got to feeling sorry for the guy. But some see other motives. Norm Coleman endorsed Kelly in his mayoral run and there's plenty of rumblings in the community that it was payback time. Randy Kelly is a traitor to the party and the city of St. Paul. And now he's up for re-election.
Which brings me to my endorsement. I may not be a public figure or an important person at all, but here's my soapbox. I hereby endorse Rafael Ortega for mayor of St. Paul.
Ortega has a nice site with lots of detail on his background, so I won't get into it here. But I think the Endorsement section of his position papers merits special attention.
I am a life-long Democrat, and I am proud to say that I have carried my party's endorsement in all three of my elections to the County Board of Commissioners. I am the only candidate in this race who supported all three of our endorsed candidates in the past five years: Betty McCollum in the 2000 primary, Jay Benanav for Mayor in 2001, and John Kerry and 2004.
Former Councilmember Coleman (another primary opponent) ran against Betty McCollum after she was endorsed in 2000 and supported Randy Kelly in 2001 against endorsee Jay Benanav. Mayor Kelly enjoyed the benefits of DFL endorsement for more than twenty years in the state senate but ran against our endorsement in 2001, could not bring himself to support our great Senator Wellstone against Norm Coleman in 2002, and was one of only a handful of democrats in the country to betray their party and support George W. Bush in 2004.
As a progressive Minnesotan, my beliefs are grounded in the strong principles of the DFL. I have always supported DFL-candidates and will continue to do so.
I like a lot of things about Ortega - his background as the head of one of the Twin Cities most prominent Latino social services organizations, his commitment to public transportation and housing, and his willingness to stand up to Bush and Pawlenty to get our city the resources we need, just to name a few. But the most important thing about Ortega is that he is a loyal, progressive Democrat. He supports the nominees of our party. We need to reward good behavior and elect someone like Ortega who understands what it means to work with and for the party.
Twin Citians: if you're in St. Paul or you have friends and family who are, I urge you to pay attention to the mayor's race for the benefit of our city and to prevent another Coleman/Kelly debacle. Precinct caucuses are this coming Tuesday, March 1. This is the kind of man I want as my mayor, my governor, my senator, or my President. Everyone else: thanks for reading.