This blog.

Hello everyone, wanted to check in here and let you know this blog is not done. That said I am only going to post here for big news and longer blogs. It may not be very often. To follow us daily please go here, http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/groups/duluthpolitics/. You will have to ask to join the group.

Union endorsments for the Duluth City Council.

Interesting, the union endorsements. They endorsed Sharla Gardner in district three who does not have any one running against her. They did not endorse Jay Fossile in the 5th district who is a union member, he also has no one running against him.


DULUTH
CIITY COUNCIIL
At-Large
Linda Krug
Emily Larson
District 1
Jennifer Julsrud
District 3
Sharla Gardner
District 4
Jackie Halberg
Please Vote
in Tuesday,
September 13ʼs
Primary Election
and Tuesday,
November 8ʼs
General Election

Chip Cravaak v.s. Duluth.

There was a rally today in Duluth, the rally was held because the unions want to send a message to U.S. congressman Chip Cravaack. The message was hold a town hall meeting here. They say he does not come the largest voting population of the district enough.

Their facebook page encourage people to bring signs and pots and pans to make noise. I have a better use for those pots and pans they could hit each other over the head with them. Lets be honest this rally was such a joke. Fact is Cravaak has been to Duluth twice before the rally and in fact was in Duluth the tonight (the night of the rally) this being his third visit sense his election.

Well my support for Cravaak is less today then when he started cause of his lack of voting for the debt ceiling compromise, I still support him at about 60%.

The Duluth DFL wonders why he has not held a meeting here, all you have to do is look at meetings he has held around Duluth. They sent people to be confrontational to Deer River,MN. They Pack town hall meeting with hecklers. They care not to hear what he says they only want to yell and scream.


Let me add I have been at democrat events where the republicans have heckled as well I don't like that at all.

That did not last long.

Dennis Anderson is coming out of retirement. WDSE channel 8 has named Anderson as the co-host for almanac north. Anderson was the long time WDIO news anchor in Duluth,MN.

So does this mean Dennis Anderson has pulled a Brett Favre?

Jeff Anderson's mis-leading comment.

Jeff Anderson mis-leads voters on his face book page. Anderson said Bachman and Cravaack stick together. The story was about the Boehner's plan to raise the debt celling. Cravaak was no vote on the plan because he wanted more cuts and a balanced budget plan in it.

Bachman on the other hand is leading the charge to not raise the celling at all. Cravaak does not believe in that at all. He wants to raise the celling but wants a "better" plan. Cravaak in fact calls Bachman's stand "the nuclear option".

I wish Anderson would have read the story first, if he would have he would have noticed the big difference in Cravaak and Bachman. I guess it is to much to ask for someone running against Cravaack. Jeff maybe you should tell us what your plans are.

Unconfirmed report.

I have an unconfirmed report of a stand off between the Duluth Police department and person in side of a house near wheeler feild. More information to come if this is true.  A source contacted Duluth Politicts about 15 minutes ago.  We are working on finding out info. 

Test

Doing a test on a new way to post.

Duluth has three uncontested seats.

This years election for city councilors and Mayor of Duluth is right around the corner. Filling have now closed, and three seats this year will go uncontested.

They are as follows:

Mayor: Duluth Mayor Don Ness will not have an opponent in this years election. This is the first time in the history of Duluth the Mayors race has not had at least two people running for the seat. A poll was done and Mayor Don Ness has a 86% approval rating. The same survey had the Duluth city council approval rating up 10% from last year to 78%.

He would have been hard to beat should some one have choice to ran against him. I think he has done a pretty good job of running our city. Well I don't always agree with him, he has had to make some tough decisions many of which have gone against what one would think he would normally stand for.

3rd District council seat: Sharla Gardner will also not be running against anyone. For me this is to bad. The first major thing she put forward after she was elected, was chickens. Yes we can now have chickens in the city of Duluth. There are so many issues facing our city and she was her first accomplishment and really her only to this point. Thanks Sharla!

(Disclaimer) I ran for the seat in the last election. I was unable to run this time.


5th district: Jay Fossilie will also not be facing anyone for his seat.

All others seats will have a primary, 1st district, 4th district and two at large. The at large seat will be open as the current holders will not run for re-election.

A wise move?

8th congressinal district Congressmen Chip Cravaak moving to New Hampshire. He will retain a house in the district and stay there every Saturday, well most sundays will be in NH with the kids. The move is sited because he wants the family to be closer to him when he is in DC.

We all know that former Congressman Jim Oberstar did not live in Minnesota for a long time that said I am not sure this is a wise move on Cravaak's part. Time will tell what the voters feel about it. I am a bit worried that this gives the strong DFL party of the northland something to run with. What are your thoughts.

DFL endorsment for 8th congressinal district.

There has been some talk as of late about who will receive the DFL endorsement to run against Chip Cravaak for the 8th CD district. As of now there are three people in the running, Duluth City Councilor Jeff Anderson, carpetbagger Terryle Clark and Rick Nolan.

The noise I have heard is that is it all but Jeff Anderson's endorsement. Anderson has a strong following in Duluth and around the Duluth area. He has been working the district pretty well also. So from what I hear it is his to lose. Here is how I think it will go when the process takes place, Anderson will get the endorsement Nolan will be second and Clark third.

What will that mean? Most likely Nolan will then drop out, as he needs the endorsement to keep moving on. This putting Anderson and Clark in a primary. Clark has the money, and the knowledge to raise a lot of money. Can she buy the primary like Dayton did? I don't think so, the voters here will support Anderson.

Rick Nolan lives in the southern part of the district, again where Cravaak won and seems to still be popular. Cravaak also resides in the southern part of the district.

If Nolan wants to get the DFL endorsement he will have to come to the Northern part of district and get votes.

The place she maybe able to make up ground is the southern part of the district, but that part of the district voted for Chip Cravaak in the last election, and the southern part of the district seems pleased with how he is doing.

I think Anderson wins the primary with 54% of the vote. This putting him against Cravaak depending on what goes on with re-destructing, but I think it will stay the way it is now. Cravaak also knows he needs a good percentage of the vote in the northern district to retain the seat in the next election.

Week two.

So here we are in the second week of the State shut down. I have heard little progress being made, in fact the Governor seems unwilling to talk right now. The republicans don't seem to be in much or a hurry up mood either.

Former Governor Carlson and former Vice President Mondale said they where coming up with a plan that would hopefully resolve the issue, it seems to me neither side was interested in hearing from them.

We sit in the second week of the shut down losing millions of dollars a day, not to mention those out of state travelers that may never come back, as they look at the mess that is the Minnesota Government at this point.

Duluth Politics had a live chat with Tom Horner on Friday, and he summed it up best saying "nothing good can come of this" when asked about the shut down. As the state loses money and focus on what it is suppose to be doing.

Jeff Anderson live chat.

We where to have a live chat on facebook with democrat candidate for the 8th congressinal disdtrict Jeff Anderson. We where as close as setting a date and time, then I got an email today saying the campaign has re-considered the live chat.


They said at this time Jeff is meeting with DFLers and is unable to do a live chat. They did say it may be posible to do it later in the campaign.

I am disappointed the campaign has chose this route but I hope we will get a chance to have the live chat some tiem soon.

Live chat.

Even if you are not from Minnesota you can still take part. We have lots of people who use to live in our city and state check out the blog. If you do live in Minnesota I hope you will take the opportunity to take part in this event.

I am excited to do the first ever live chat on my face book page, search the new duluth politics group page to find it on face book. We will have a discussion with former candidate for Governor Tom Horner July 7th at noon, we will discuss the Government shut down and how we got to this point. You can ask questions and let Tom know your thoughts.

I hope you will join us July 7th at noon!

Scare people.

Here we are in the second full day of the government shut down in Minnesota. The democrats are using scare tatics to try to get Minnesotains to see it there way. They say kids and elder will be hurt by the cuts. Lets face it these are not cuts they are in fact increases to programs, just not what the groups want. After all this Governor set forward the largest budget in State history.

The republicans went over it and said we can't afford this, which at this time the state can't. The republicans went over the budget and issues "cuts" to programs and services, they where still however increses from last year in most cases. The two sides also disagree on taxes the Governor wants to increase taxes on the wealthy and business. Well the GOP says that will hurt employment and jobs.

The democrats run on scaring people and they should be ashamed of them selfs.

Here we are!

So here we are, the clock has hit midnight and we start July in a shut down for Minnesota government. There has been no deal on the Minnesota budget. It has been reported that the GOP did send a proposal to the Governor but neither side is confirming that report.

Shopping at Wal-Mart

So Saturday July 2nd is do not shop at Wal-Mart day across this country. Some one even made an event for it on facebook. Instead the page asked that you shop at a local shops. Well I agree with that and I do when possible, I also shop at Wal-mart and such stores because they are simply cheaper on some things by a lot.

I for one will make sure to shop at Wal-Mart on Saturday July 2nd and I encourage others to do the same. I am not one for boycotting business.

Breaking news- - - Talks break down

The budget talks have ended today just an hour after they started. There was no explanation as to why the talks ended. Both sides refused to talk to reporters.

State grid lock on the budget.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and Republicans continued to meet about the budget yesterday, and will again today. Both sides have said they don't want to have the state government shut down. That will happen on July 1st should they not be able to strike a budget deal.

I personally don't see how the two sides could come to deal before July 1st. The two sides ran on totally different view points, the Democrats ran on increasing taxes to the rich and trying to hold the line, well the republicans ran on less government and taxes. With the way things went I don't see a coming together on this issue, as if there is settlement that deludes either sides position it would be a big to that party.

If the government does in fact shut down, it then lays in the Governors hands to call a special session to work on the issues facing the state.

County board survey.

So the county sent out a survey to people who live in the community, the county sent out 1,961 only 738 where returned. The county said they where mailed out randomly.

The survey asked about police and safty issues along with taxes. The Duluth News Tribune would like you to believe the county is split and sends no clear message on taxes. The head line reads county residents split on taxes, feel safe living here. Yet if you read the article that is not true, 26% strongly opposed taxes increase well only 9% was for an increase 44% favored some type of tax increase. . The message is clear DNT and it is not what you are portraying. Residents would rather see a reduction in services or programs that may not be critical.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness to kick of his re-election campaign.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness will kick off his re-election campaign next week. I don't yet know specifics of his kickoff yet, but will pass them on as I hear of them.

Ness seems to have a lot of support in the community. There has not yet been a challenger for his seat but there is still time if someone is interested. Ness has the backing of some pretty strong unions. I also don't think that Mayor Ness has done a horrible job. He deserves credit, he has done well in a couple of areas. He also has had to deal with tough union issues. Taking stands many times the unions don't like.

Right now with no body running against him he has 100% of getting re-elected lol. If some one does run against him I would say at this point it would be his race to loss. Giving him a 65% chance of re-election.

It's Grandmas Marathon Weekend.

It's a big weekend for Duluth. Tomorrow is the running of Grandma's Marathon. A lot of money comes to Duluth for the weekend. It has a huge impact on our economy and is a great event. It is a top notch ran race. I don't know the figures off the top of my head of what it brings in to Duluth but people from all over the world are in town.

With the race a lot of roads will be closed for most of the day so make sure you know where you are going and if you can get there.

Good luck to all the runners and if you have a chance go cheer them on.

Former Governor Tim Pawlenty--- Glitter bombed.

Former Minnesota Governor and republican candidate for President Tim Pawlenty was at an event in California yesterday. Well speaking he was glitter bombed. It has been happening to the republican candidates running for president, at events. Glitter "bombs" are dropped or tossed at the person, full of glitter and feathers.

It is said that people think this is funny or makes a point, it does not. I am okay with people disagreeing with a candidate and bringing up why that is but this act is so childish. If you are going to pull something like that stay home. Please be respectful of all candidates weather you like them or not. I have been to many events where I don't agree with the person but would never do something like this, it's very disrespectful.

City Council Elections 2011

Well it has been a while since I posted on this blog and I am planning on posting a lot more. Posts will be coming more since the City Council races are coming up. I need to give kudos to the 1st District City Council candidate Jennifer Julsrud and her Campaign team for bringing in the big gun for their fundraiser. On July 7th from 5 pm to 7 pm at the Zeitgeist Arts Cafe, There will be a candidate meet and greet with Jennifer Julsrud hosted by Lt. Governor Yvonne Prettner-Solon. Now that is a way to kick things off. Jennifer will be running against current 1st District City Councilor Todd Fedora in November.

In 4th District news - Jackie Halberg is human and I for one am ashamed of the Duluth News Tribune for writing a attack piece on the current 4th District Councilor. Councilor Halberg is one of hardest working city councilors out there and I think she deserves a little more respect then that.

So its been a while.

Well there is not much going on now there has been stuff going that I will just highlight here and talk about later.

Jeff Anderson will run Oberstars old seat now held by Republican Chip Cravaak

Tim Pawlenty is in the running for the Republican nomination for President.

State government could shut down.

Bulldogs are champs.

The U.M.D. Bulldogs are natinal champs. The dogs beat Michigan for there first ever chamoionship in hockey. It was an outstanding game that went into overtime. The dogs came out on top 4-3.

U.M.D trailed 1-0 at the end of the first. In an opening session they out shot Michigan but coulld have been down by more then a goal. The dogs came out played a great 2 nd but rthe game was tied at two at the end of the2 nd. The third say more of the same, with each team getting a goal. This bringing on overtime with the game tied at three.

U.M.D had to feel good about overtime, as they played a number of overtime wins in the session. Michigan was not as good in overtime play. The bulldogs played hard and got a great by Kyle Shmid and won 4-3.

This giving the scool there firdt ever division championship. It was ther schools second national championship this year. The football team won a d2 championship earlier. It was the football teams second in thee years.

Great year for U.M.D. sports.

Voter I.D.

Is voter i.d. nedded in the Minnesota election process. Easy and quick answer is YES. You dont have to go back far for reasons why. Look at the last governors race and the Coleman Fraken races. Thousands of votes where despeted. Thousands where lodt and found.

Let me gice you a personal story he as well. My gtandpa died a while yet his name remained in voter registration for two elections after he passed away. I or anyone for that matter could have voted under his name as we dont cuurrently have to proof who we are. Not only that but currently for people to vote all you have to do is bring sone one to the poll with you and say they just moved in to the area a few months ago and i know them and where they live. They can now vote, how is that not flawed?

Voter id just checks to makw sure you are who you say you. It is simple show a legal id. It will not slow down the process.

Rumor mill

The talk is City Councilor Jeff Anderson will not seek re- election to the council. He plans on running against Chip Cravaak for Oberstars old seat. That is what i am hearing anyway.

It also looks like Tony Cuneo also will not for re-election. If this is true there will be two open seats come the end of there terms.

I have also heard that Dan Hartman may seek a higheer office.

Has anyone heard anyting in 3rd district?

Mayor Don Ness

Duluth Mayor Don Ness will be a guest on the Duluth Politics radio show, next week. Mayor Ness will discuss the state of the city address along with his plan to increase Duluth population to 90 thousand by 2020.

State of the City.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness will deliever his State of the City speech tonight. It is expected he will lay out a plan to grow Duth. He said eaier this year he wants the citles populantion to 90 thousand. Now would be his time to lay out his plan to grow Duluth by more then 5 thousand people.

Cirrus sold.

One of Duluth largest private sector employers has been sold, to an over seas company. Cirrus avation was sold to a company based in china. The sale is expected to take full affect in a couple of month.

What does it mean for the Duluth and North Dakato plants. Accourdind to the local CEO, nothing. Jobs and work force will stay in the two cities. The new comanpy understands the strong work force in the communities and is commmitted to keeping them there he said.

In todays star tribe.

Duluth Politics was asked to comment on Chip Carvaak by Minneapolis star tribune reporter Kevin Diaz. The story focus on his first 104 votes. Did he vote against what he ran on? Check the paper out today.

Will have follow up later.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness wanted help.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness was looking for help Sunday. He turned to facebook for that help. He was writting his State of the City address and was looking for funny one liners. He said his speech already had enough negive comments in it.

A couple funny things, I am not sure why you would turn to facebook, as it just opens the door to comments that don't help. That is what happend for the most part.

checking in

It's been pretty quite as of late. Not alot to report on. A couple things we will have here soon. Mayor Ness askes for help with State of the City. wisconion news and new Governor Scott Walker.

Duluth Politics is also doing a radio show. Find it at blogtalkradio.com and search duluthpolitics.

Wisconsin

I guess Wisconsin has become the new Egypt. Governor Scott Walker and the Republican Led Legislature put together legislation that got a lot of people up and moving. Tons of people are taking over the capitol in Madison, Standing at the Superior Courthouse and even here in Minnesota, plans are underway for a rally to stand in solidarity. 14 State Senators from Wisconsin up and left the state so that business couldn't take place. More updates as things happen but right now if I was Scott Walker, I would be trying to work out something.

Sir. Elton John

Did ya hear yet? The new amsoil arena has landed its first big concert. The leak came out yesterday, as it was not to be announced till today on a radio station.

Elton johns tickets average over one hundred dollars.


Boy I j, wait yes I can I will pass.ust can't wait to go to this huge concert

Sir. Elton John

Did ya hear yet? The new amsoil arena has landed its first big concert. The leak came out yesterday, as it was not to be announced till today on a radio station.

Elton johns tickets average over one hundred dollars.


Boy I j, wait yes I can I will pass.ust can't wait to go to this huge concert

Brargrrase winner.

Ryan Anderson has won his first brargrease. Last years defending champ fished just behind. It was one of the closes races. The two where side by side just out from the fish at billys bar.

Four time champion Jamie Nelson got off to a fast start but it proved to be to fast and ran her self out of the race early.

Dp will try to get some reaction from the users. Most seem to really enjoy the run this year on a fast track.

Update Nelson who ran her self out of contention for, still looks for strong 3rd place finshes

Beargrease neck and neck.

The beargrease winner should be in soon. Two mushets are in a tight run. Defending champ and one other vie for top spit. Well a four time chaps runs to fast early. More later.

Citizens In Action

Citizens in Action 2011 happened this weekend. It was the 13th Annual event and it was at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth. Now this is the biggest event for local officials to meet with the voters. It was so packed this year people needed to pre-register because of the demand for a spot in this workshop day. I missed seeing a lot of school board members and I noticed just a few city councilors were missing. It was nice to see elected officials from all over and Yvonne Prettner Solon was a great opening speaker. It is nice to see our Lt. Governor coming back and visiting the great citizens of Duluth. After the 4 workshops talking about being involved in all different ways there was lunch. The Citizens in Action say is one that people leave full of knowledge and of good food. The Conversation piece was a little different this year with the large amount of people. Each group had the chance to talk to a elected official about whatever they wanted. The whole thing was done with a great respect for the voter and the elected official. If you missed Citizens in Action day, you missed something amazing. Winona Laduke was the closing speaker and did an great job. After the event Winona stayed to talk to everybody who wanted a word with her.

Run for 3rd district council seat.

As many of you know I ran for the 3rd district council seat almost four years ago now. As it becomes time to look for candidates to run, I have been asked if I will run this time.

I had great support in the last election, and over the past four years the support has only grown. I appreciate and thank everyone for there work on my previous bid at that council seat and the continued support.

At this time however I will not seek the third district council seat this election season. I love Duluth and will work to improve our fine city over the next four years. It will not be at the council level at this point.

Family issues are the main reason, also my current work schedule makes it hard to represent the district to the fullest.

I will be looking forward to see who may run for the third district seat.

Town Hall meeting.

Freshman congressman Chip Cravaak held a town hall meeting yesterday. About 9,000 people in the district took part in the meeting. Where in the district did it take place? Was it right here in Duluth, no it took place from his office in Washington D.C.

The town hall meeting took place via phone, the calls where random and people did not know they would be getting a call from cravaak. However it did appear the calls where isolated to the southern part of the district, where he lives and did well in the election.

The meeting went well according to his spokes person. Most of the people stayed on the line for at least three minutes, and a good amount stayed for the entire 15 minute conference.

The technology for the congressman to hold such town hall meeting has been around for only about five years, it is getting more popular in D.C. as it gives the congress person a way to keep in touch with the voters with out traveling. My question is this, do u think this is good tool for the representativesin D.C?

I believe it is a good tool, that said I am not sure I like it. It takes out all the personal feeling and makes it easy for the representative to not need to come home. I think it is important that they remain close to who they represent and the best way to do it is travel to where they represent. That said I understand they can't always get away and this allowes them away to listen or he's a message out to the people.

I hope that Mr. Cravaak will get back to the distracted as much as possible. Now I must say this is something Overstated never did and at least Cravaak is keeping in contact with the voters. Something Overstated lacked.

Voting

Voting is like breakfast. it is a wonderful beginning to your day on election day as it was mine this past year. I was there at 7:06 am and I was the 7th voter in my precinct. But what happens after the election is what is happening now. We have new elected officials and if you want something done, we need to talk to them. That is the lunch portion of this story because We all know that a conversation is always better with food or drink. You have to do the first two if you wanna have anything on your dinner plate.

I am looking ahead to the 2011 and 2012 Elections. Here in Duluth, We will elect six city councilors and three school board members as well as a mayor. The 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th Districts and two at-large seats for the Council and the 2nd and 3rd Districts along with one at-large seat for the School District. in 2012, it will be a battle and the lines havent been drawn. Redistricting will change a lot all over so be ready.

I am Scott Yeazle and I thank John for this chance and I will be writing more. If you wanna know about me, I will put it in the next blog.

Breaking news--- Superior will be with out a Mayor

The Superior a City Council voted to not apoint mayor tonight. The seat will remain unfilled till April when there normal election happens. The seat was left open when mayor David Ross took a position with new Governor Scott
Walker
Supeior coucilmanDan Olson had concerns not filling the seat, saying it may leave them in a tough spot at times. Most of the people that are running for the seat however are happy with the decision,as it will not give anyone an advantage.

Breaking news--- no strike!

The county employees represented by the local teamsters union have accepted the counties offer and will not strike. The numbers of the vote are not available at this time. The union did say the vote was very close.

The contract will cover the rest of this year and 2011. The two sides have been on talks for more then a year.

strike update#2

The county employees that plow roads and do other maintence could go on strike at midnight tonight. The county has put together there final offer, and teamster employees are voting on it tonight.

Duluth Politics will have an update as we find out, what the out come of the vote is.

Strike update.

It seems likely that the teamsters union will go on strike. Well a date has not yet been set, the county and union have been meeting with no contract settlement in site.

The union filled an intent to strike a little more then a week ago. They could strike at any time. If a strike happens county roads could suffer greatly. As the teamsters represent all county snow plow drivers.


A source that is involved with the county said he could not see a strike right now. He said with the time of year and.the way the economy is, he could not see the union striking. He is the only person I have heard say a strike may not happen.

The issue seems to be focused on seniority.

I hope a strike can be avoided, we will have to wait and see.

County roads to suffer?

There could be a strike coming next week for those that plow our county roads.

150 workers represented by teamsters local 320 could be on strike by the middle of next week. two thirds of them are plow drives the rest work else where in the public works department for the county.

A strike could mean that the county roads would suffer because the lack of plows out. The county has some roads in side the city and countless roads out side of Duluth.

The county said they are preparing for the strike and have a plan in place, it includes managers and supervisors to take of snow plowing. However that only covers 25% of the current workforce.

There is another meeting between the two sides before the mid week strike could take place.

Its a new year.

After a year where some things came a long and I was not able to post much in 2010, and a Christmas and New years break it is time once again to devote time to this blog. Let me thank you all for the well wishes and for allow me the time i needed , as always I am grateful for the large readership of this blog. I just wish people would post.

With a new year comes a new contributor to the blog, Scott Yeazle will be joining our team. Scott is a great person and will offer a different prospective then I on most issues. It will also allow DP to cover more events.

Also new you may now call us if you have a news tip, community event or just a comment about the blog. You can reach by calling 218-260-0241, as always you can email us at duluthneedshelp@yahoo.com