The Strib dives into the mayoral race this weekend with side-by-side profiles of R.T. Rybak and Peter McLaughlin. Fine work, but we’re most interested in their version of the quick interview series [Rybak's and McLaughlin's] that includes a query on “Favorite St. Paul Restaurant” (Cossetta’s and Yarusso Brothers Italian Restaurant, respectively). And don’t worry about a divisive political year — both candidates answer “Favorite TV Show” the same: The Daily Show. Fake news wins!
Rybak V. McLaughlin
Oct 24 2005 — 2:00am
6 Reader Comments
5:31 pm
31 comments for Mary Lucia, and none on the dem mayoral candidates? where are all the snarky comments to help inform my vote?
6:43 pm
i was wondering why there were no comments on this either. i think rybak has it in the bag, though, so maybe it doesn’t really matter.
i like how they both took the politician’s both/and response on the dog/cat question. and they both were pretty pc on who they’d invite to dinner dead or alive. i wonder if they’d really answer that way. i don’t always like the way kaszuba writes, and i personally think that detracts from mclaughlin’s message straightaway.
remember to exercise your franchise and go to the polls on November 8~
6:49 pm
katie, i think it’s a testament to how boooring the whole thing is. give me Marcus Harcus!!
p.s., i don’t think The Daily Show answers are odd, but both reading Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies; maybe it’s just me, but, what, are they in the same book club or something?
7:21 pm
The race really comes down to the public safety issue being hammered by McLaughlin. Sadly, the breakdown of support seems to be between high-crime neighborhoods (for McLaughlin) versus low-crime neighborhoods (for Rybak). That would seem to suggest that McLaughlin knows what’s best regarding crime, but does anyone think that a mayor talking tough and throwing cops at any problem will reduce the murder rate, which has larger external causes?
Anyway, since Rybak is already adding like 70 cops next year, I think that largely negates McLaughlin’s own prescription. I actually like that Rybak doesn’t have the police union’s support. Plus, McLaughlin has gone negative against Rybak in an unseemly manner; and he has appeared to flip-flop on the smoking ban.
10:18 pm
Downtown Journal tackles the same issue as Simon.
12:46 pm
In my mind, the real issue in the mayoral race (and probably the least sexy issue in the history of politics) is the sorry state of the Minneapolis public pensions. A few journalists (Scott Russel from SW Journal comes to mind) have admirably tried to explain the problem, but nobody gets very excited about it.
Long story short: the pensions have been horribly managed (bonus payouts, unsustainable increases, and terrible investment decisions), are now seriously underfunded, and Minneapolis taxpayers are left holding the bag.
The pensions are the 800 pound gorilla in the city’s fiscal room. If a solution can be worked out, it frees up money for other things, or at least raises the possiblity that the city’s property tax levy may increase by less than 8% per annum as far as the eye can see.
To get back to the mayoral question, I simply cannot trust McLaughlin to negotiate these pensions. He is so utterly beholden to the public unions that he will be unable to negotiate for the best interest of the broader public. Look at his list of endorsements.
This is a huge, complicated issue, and hardly anybody gets it. Please read up on it before you decide on your vote, and also note that Phyllis Kahn is part of the problem, not part of the solution (contrary to what she’d have you believe).