As expected, the bill to change the Minnesota state primary date from September to August was passed by both houses, and yesterday Gov. Pawlenty signed it into law, as reported by media such as the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press.

The new primary date is August 10th this year. For Maplewood, this means August 10th is also the date for the special election for Mayor Rossbach's former council seat. The Citizen Services department has informed the City Council that, based on the new date, the filing period for special election candidates begins on May 18th.

Labels: campaign 2010, media

Posted by John Nephew at 3/04/2010 10:01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Former Maplewood mayor Diana Longrie has announced that she will be running as a Democrat against Congresswoman Betty McCollum. Apparently she and her friends, who have a long history of DFL-bashing, are taking their "MN OPERATION CHAOS" to a new level.

Two years ago they targeted Minnesota Rep. Leon Lillie. Longrie filed to be on the DFL primary ballot (even though she was still listed as an officer on the website of the local Republican party unit), while her long-time ally Bob Zick ran as an Independence Party candidate. As the only IP candidate on the ballot, Zick (who had previously run as a Republican) was able to receive a major party public subsidy payment, to the tune of $3,458.87 (as you can see on his 2008 campaign finance report). He used these public subsidy funds to produce and mail an oversize postcard for the September primary, even though he had no primary challenger of his own. The postcards attacked Lillie and encouraged people to vote against him in the DFL primary -- i.e., for Longrie.

Longrie was obliterated in her primary against Lillie, and there's no reason to suppose she'll do any better in a primary against a popular, competent incumbent congresswoman. It seems equally difficult to imagine she can hijack the 4th Congressional District DFL convention the way she did the local Independence Party last year. But it will be interesting to see what schemes she and her merry band of political misfits hatch in an effort to sow chaos and, if nothing else, attract viewers to their cable access TV shows.

Labels: campaign 2010

Posted by John Nephew at 2/22/2010 12:55:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

On that goofy Bob Zick cable show last week, Zick referred to Diana Longrie as "the real mayor" and stated that he does not recognize Mayor Rossbach as anything more than "chairperson." I suppose that's cute, but I'm getting reports that at least one person seems to take it seriously — the former mayor herself. I've been told that she has been seen at meetings sporting a name tag that identifies her as Mayor of Maplewood. And a resident recently complained about an announcement that played on cable TV:

There was a spot on Channel 15 public access tonight [Feb. 15th], Diana Longrie had an “ad” or a spot that was about 30 seconds, encouraging citizens to join her in asking the State Auditor to audit Maplewood’s financial records. Her name and “Maplewood Mayor” were flashed on the screen...

What in the world is going on? Does she have a delusion that she is still the mayor, never mind that democratic process that took place last November? Does she so crave the attention and deference that she enjoyed while bearing the title, she's unable to let it go? Or is this a political ploy to confuse the electorate or somehow sway them as part of her campaign for the council seat in the special election?

Labels: campaign 2010, council politics

Posted by John Nephew at 2/17/2010 09:21:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tomorrow, February 2nd, is precinct caucus day for the major political parties in Minnesota. Caucuses are a great way to meet your neighbors and get involved in politics at the grassroots level.

You can get a primer about precinct caucuses on the League of Women Voters website, or the FAQ on the Minnesota Secretary of State's site. The Secretary of State also offers a caucus finder.

If you live in Maplewood, these are the caucus locations tomorrow night, depending on your political party of choice:

Constitution Party:
The Miracle Centre Church
125 21st Avenue S
South Saint Paul MN

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party:
North High School
2520 E. 12th Avenue
North St Paul MN 55109

Green Party:
White Bear Lake City Hall, upstairs meeting room
4701 Highway 61
White Bear Lake MN 55110

Independence Party:
Mahtomedi District Center
1520 Mahtomedi Ave.
Mahtomedi MN 55115

In addition to the "in person" caucuses, the Independence Party is holding an online caucus (see their website for more information).

Republican Party:
For House District 55A (Maplewood Precincts 1-11):
John Glenn Middle School
1560 County Road B E
Maplewood MN 55109-3609

For House District 55B (Maplewood Precincts 12-16):
Tartan High School
828 Greenway Ave. N
Oakdale MN 55128

Labels: campaign 2010, events

Posted by John Nephew at 2/01/2010 11:19:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

A Pioneer Press story over the weekend discussed our coming interim council appointment and the plan for the special election to coincide with the state primary.

Labels: campaign 2010, media

Posted by John Nephew at 1/25/2010 06:15:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Mayor Rossbach and Councilmembers Juenemann and Llanas took their oaths of office at a special council meeting held this past Monday, January 4th. We also declared the vacancy of Mayor Rossbach's council seat, called for a special election to be held at the same time as this year's statewide primary, and discussed how to appoint a councilmember to serve in the interim.

For the interim appointment process, we decided that each councilmember will put forward the name of a qualified and willing candidate. We will ask these nominees to fill out an application or provide their resume, and we will interview them all together and discuss the appointment at a special workshop on January 12th. There was consensus that we would like to appoint someone with past city government experience, preferably a former councilmember but someone with experience serving on a city board or commission would be considered as well. The other criterion suggested by Councilmember Juenemann (and with which Councilmember Llanas agreed) was that we select someone who does not intend to run in the special election. I didn't think this was essential, but I also don't have a big objection to it and so I included it in the motion.

Ideally this process will result in an interim councilmember appointed in time to join our goal-setting retreat with staff, which we have scheduled to occur on February 5th.

Labels: campaign 2010, council politics, process

Posted by John Nephew at 1/05/2010 04:56:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

On the agenda for Monday's special council meeting, after the staff's budget presentation and before public comment, is an alternate budget proposal from Mayor Longrie. The meeting packet is finalized and available online, yet the mayor's proposed budget is not in it.

My recollection from our budget discussion in September is that Mayor Longrie suggested that she had already worked out the budget cuts necessary to pay for the tax cut she proposed (in addition to the city's loss of state funds), but merely declined to share those with the rest of the council at that time. So I'm not sure why she has not yet provided that information, almost three months later.

Surely she does not expect the council to vote on her budget, without even giving us some time in advance of the meeting to review it? Or is the whole thing just another stunt, to create a campaign issue if, as she has threatened, she runs for office again in the future?

Labels: campaign 2010, council politics, finance

Posted by John Nephew at 12/03/2009 10:35:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

In last week's election, sitting councilmember Will Rossbach won the race for mayor. This will mean a special election in 2010. Numerous residents have asked me about the mechanics of this, so I brought it up at Monday's council meeting. Here is the discussion:



To summarize:

• When Rossbach takes the oath of office as Mayor, it creates a vacancy in his council seat.
• Since more than 6 months remain in Rossbach's council term, the 2005 ordinance requires that we hold a special election.
• There is some flexibility as to when exactly to hold the special election.
• The earliest it could be held is about 90 days after the vacancy is declared, in order to comply with all the relevant state laws (notice, filing periods, etc.).
  
• If we combine the special election with another election (such as the state primary), we can save the $26,000 we otherwise would have to spend on a stand-alone special election.
  
• Regardless of when the special election is held, the ordinance requires the council to appoint a person to fill the vacancy until the winner of the special election is sworn in, just as happened in 2005.

From what I've read and a recent conversation with a legislator, it sounds like it is very likely that the primary date will be moved up from September to August. This change was in the elections reform bill that was passed and vetoed last session, but it was not itself a controversial provision. (Besides having bipartisan support, it will be needed in order to comply with pending changes in federal election law.) The idea of moving it forward is to protect the voting rights of Minnesotans overseas, especially the deployed members of our military. General election ballots obviously can't be printed and mailed until the primary results are finalized (sometimes including a recount, as in one of the judicial primaries last year).

Labels: campaign 2010, council politics, video

Posted by John Nephew at 11/11/2009 05:18:00 PM | Permalink | Comments