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.