Voters in St. Paul decisively turned against incumbent mayor Randy Kelly, a conservative Democrat who crossed party lines to endorse George W. Bush in 2004. In a three-way primary race between DFL-endorsed Chris Coleman (no relation to Senator Norm Coleman), Kelly got a paltry 27% of the vote. A strong showing by Green Party candidate Elizabeth Dickenson at 19% complemented Chris Coleman's 52%, leaving the sitting mayor with the weakest showing by an incumbent in years.
The race garnered little attention, and turnout was down. Party affiliation and gender seemed to be the biggest issues, with the DFL (Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor party) uniting behind former councilmember Coleman. Coleman, who was a pro-business moderate when on the council, managed a majority despite nearly 1 in 5 St. Paul voters choosing Dickenson, a former pro-choice lobbyist who was heavily outspent.
Kelly made national news when he endorsed Bush in 2004, sharing the stage with him in several of the visits Bush made to this supposedly battleground state. Kelly has been repaid with record out-of-state fundraising, pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars from normally Republican donors. Despite this advantage, and the backing of the powerful Chamber of Commerce, Kelly enters the general election campaign badly wounded.
The strong showing by Dickenson, who had run another close third in a City Council race the previous year, represents a major shift in St. Paul politics. She had secured a major union endorsement in her Council race, and her nearly 20% indicates a powerful progressive movement in the capitol city. She was separated from Kelly by less than 2,000 votes.
The Green Party also did well in Minneapolis, where there are currently two Green City Councilpeople, Dean Zimmermann and Natalie Johnson-Lee. There, the party has met with some heavy resistance. The 2000 redistricting map, driven by Democratic party insiders, moved Zimmerman a half-block out of his ward and another Democratic incumbent into the ward, and Johnson-Lee had another councilmember moved into her ward - forcing the only two black Minneapolis council members to run against each other. Johnson-Lee did not face a primary challenge, and Zimmermann is operating under the onus of a peculiarly-timed FBI investigation which included a raid of his home and the seizure of his campaign files.
Nevertheless, Zimmermann survived the primary, as did three other Green Party candidates, meaning there will be 5 council races with Greens come November. Green Party mayoral candidate, Farheen Hakeem, came in third, resting comfortably in double-digits at 14% behind two DFL'ers; incumbent mayor R.T. Rybak and powerful Hennepin County Boardmember Peter McLaughlin.