Danny Does Duluth.

Danny has a pod cast called Danny Does Duluth. He asked if I would like to take part in the show and I said yes . Now the show is mostly a play on local media but he will do politics from time to time. By the way he has an open invite to all 35 that put in for Rienert's seat.

I want to thank Danny for having and I hope more people take part in the show. I have to say he was very pleasant and fair. I believe he will be with everyone that would take part in the show.

After first interviews.

Well now that the filing is closed for Rienerts seat it is on to interviews. After tonight's meeting nothing seems clear except for the first part. There will be interviews Dec. 11th starting at 6pm all the people will be interviewed.

After that it now seems it could be unclear as to what happens next as a councilor raised a concern about how to and how many people should be in the final vote. Well the chair of the committee thought she may have had it figured out it may not be. With question asked by councilor Fedora. He asked how many rounds of vote there would and when the final vote was up how many would there be left. Gardner said that would be five or six. Councilor Fedora thinks there should be more.

There for at this point tell it is all worked it is unclear as to what will go on. The other thing we do is that there will be at least one more interview process.

Jack Shepard interview.

The Jack Shepard interview scheduled for today will go on. He is giving me a call around 10 this morning. I hope to have it up both here and on the interview page around noon if not before.

Update 2: Jack called back and left a message. Giving me a little background of him self. You can find more out about Jack if you wish on his web site. Listed in a previous post.

update: The interview with Jack is not going to happen. He called and was not the friendliest Person so I just thought it was best to not conduct the interview. He was combative right off the bat. This is something I don't believe in. I am always fair and not combative with those that I interview. I expect the same back.

Interview

I will be interviewing Jack Sheperd tomorrow morning. I am grateful that Mr. Sheperd has agreed to the interview. I have told him that I don't agree with him but that does not mean I can't be fair. I have done a number of interviews with people I don't agree with and we walk away friends most of the time.

If you have a question you would like me to ask him you can leave a comment here or email it to me at duluthneedshelp@yahoo.com . As always I will have finale say on the question.

Mr Sheperd is running against Norm Coleman in the republican primary. Once the interview is complete I will post it here and on the interview page.

posting.

I will be posting as news comes up. Also as things that I think are importain pop up as well. However for now I will be consentracting on the interviews.

Check back and see what is new with DP.

Interview number one: Don Ness (Mayor's Race)

Personal information (name, interest, ECT…..)?


Don Ness, 33, husband and father of two. I work for the Zeppa Foundation as their Director of Programming and Policy. I am a life-long Duluth resident and I currently own a home just 5 blocks from where I grew up in the Hillside neighborhood.


Do you have any special interest supporting you? If so which groups?

We have endorsements from two organizations the Duluth Building Trades and the local DFL party.


Do you believe crime is a major issue facing Duluth? What can be done to solve it?


Safety in our neighborhoods has long been a strength in Duluth. We need to be sure that it remains a true advantage in the competition for jobs, investment, and people. Community policing is my primary funding priority in city government because it allows for pro-active police work that is vital in protecting our quality of life.


What can you do to bring business to Duluth? What industries should we focus on?


I believe that by creating and investing in a workforce development system in Duluth that we can create real value for employers in our area. The strength and talent of our workforce will become our most prominent advantage in attracting business to Duluth and to encouraging growth in our core industry sectors: aviation, health care, and light manufacturing.


How should the unfunded health care liability be solved?

I'm proud of my leadership role in establishing the Retiree Health Care Task Force and my advocacy of implementing that plan in a timely basis. There is still much work that needs to be done and I'm committed to putting the full plan in place by the end of 2008.
What can we do to keep our young people in Duluth?


So much of our future success in Duluth will be determined by the quality of young people that we are able to convince to make their home in Duluth. We should be deliberate about identifying those young people who will bring real value to their work place and their community and convince them to invest themselves in our community. We need to do a better job of providing opportunities - economic, cultural, and social opportunities - so that those talented young people don't feel a need to leave Duluth to find them.


Note: Don may pass more along to me. If he does I will post it here.

Interview update.

I have heard from two candidates so far. I think I what I am going to do is get questions together and email them to those who have already replied and get them up asap. Also don't forget you can have your question asked here as well. You can email me the question(s) you have and I will ask them.

Interviews.

I have emailed every remaining council candidates and mayor candidate for interviews. I hope they will take part. I also hope you will as well. If you have a question you would like to ask please email me at duluthneedshelp@yahoo.com or just leave a comment here.

Here is a copy of the email sent out tonight to the candidates.

Hi everyone:

John Rathe here, I wanted to again say congrats to you all for making it passed the primary. Regardless of our political believes every one of you is an out standing person. I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know you all better. I also enjoyed the debate and conversation on how to make Duluth better. I hope that is what your campaigns will focus on.

Now on to the point of my email. I am writing because I would like to know if you would be interested in doing an interview on my blog. Many of you know by now that I run a blog called Duluth Politics, the web address is http://www.duluthpolitics.blogspot.com/.

The interview will be a number of questions that I will send via email. The interview will not be changed in any way. This includes spelling and grammar. I don’t want to be accused of altering an answer. The interview will include questions that I have. It will also hopefully include questions from the readers of the blog,

I hope you see this to be a great opportunity to reach even more voters. I also hope you see this as a fair process.

Please get back to me ASAP. I am drawing up questions now and will start sending them out soon. I will be doing this in some order. What it is not sure yet. We will have a few days on the mail page for each council race and mayors race. It will then be put on the interview page were people can still read the interview. Again I hope you are interested in this process. Please let me by email, duluthneedshelp@yahoo.com

Sincerely:

John Rathe

I am also looking to gives this opportunity to the school board candidates. I need email address for them however if any one knows please email that to me as well. The process will be decided after I get a response from people so I know who I have and don't have to do a spotlight on.