Melanie Ford blows her first impression

Melanie Ford was offended by the action of the St. Louis County Board, and I can't blame her. The board voted to remove $100,000 from her budget, potentially grant outgoing County Attorney Alan Mitchell 4 consecutive one year $70,000 contracts to negotiate county health car benefits and give her a starting salary of only about $95,000 a year.

I don't blame her for being offended. Who wouldn't?

However, she blew the public relations game when she decided to sue to county board for all of the above reasons.

How does the media play it?

Even though she doesn’t take office until January, Ford said it would have been common courtesy for the board to inform her of why it was taking such actions.
No one did, she said, until Frey met with her on Dec. 14 to tell her commissioners had removed $100,000 from her budget, told her she would be paid a base entry-level salary of $95,000 and told her she would lose one position in her office, according to her affidavit.
Ford said her starting salary is based on a schedule established in the mid-1980s and would be about $40,000 to $45,000 less than some county attorneys earn in Minnesota with similar size staffs. Source: Duluth News Tribune.

Ford would have won the PR war if she had accused the county board of trying to nullify the election result by slashing her budget and contracting out with the old county attorney to provide services to the county.

However, she sued for all of the above and to raise her salary.

Of course, the media played up the fact that she was suing because she will only be paid $95,000 a year.

How does she expect the average resident of St. Louis County to sympathize?

My late fall/early winter break

I took a break from blogging for awhile. I switched jobs, and it took awhile to get acclimated to the new schedule. In addition I spent almost all my off time playing with my daughter and spending quality time with the family.

I'm not about to end the focus I've been putting on the family, but will start up posting again. It's unlikely I'll be as prolific as in the past, but I'll try to keep up rather regular postings.

An accurate preview of Duluth's 2007 Mayor's race?

So far, the only announced candidate for Mayor of Duluth is Charlie Bell. However, this post will focus on who I think are the unannounced candidates. Actually, I'll focus on two: Don Nes and Steve O'Neil.

Don Ness

Ness has erased any doubts I had about whether or not he will run for mayor with his recent actions. Ness has voted for the Kroc Center while publicly expressing doubts, voted against the 2007 city budget which included a significant propery tax increase, and very publicly proposed, then pulled off the table, a resolution to eliminate the utility and tax increases in 2007 because the city's unions have failed to come to the table with concessions.

I think Ness is looking at the potential mayoral field and coming to the same general conclusions that I have. There is a significant gap in the ideologically center-right to center-left section of the electorate. He sees potential candidates like Steve O'Neil, Greg Gilbert, Tom Huntley and others who can all place a claim on the far left/union bloc. Instead of fighting it out for the far left wing of Duluth voters Ness is positioning himself to appeal to Duluth's moderate and fiscal conservative voters. He's betting conservatives will see Bell as unelectable after his disasterous finish in the 2003 campaign, believe Stauber is to identified as a republican to win, and decide that Ness is the only non-extreme liberal candidate in the race.

If he can get through the primary with support from Duluth's conservative and middle of the road voters he can then move left and, assured of conservative support from voters terrified of Steve O'Neil, handily win a general election.

Steve O'Neil

I beleive Steve O'Neil has been eyeing this election ever since Bergson announced he won't seek re-election. His statement that he will run if no other progressive is in the race gives him lots of room to define "progressive" however he wants and use that as a reason for being "forced to run."

The recent publicity spike he's getting over the St. Louis County smoking ban issue is his way to raise his profile, appeal to the intellectual/medical inteligensia community, and appeal to Duluth's elderly voters who voted overwhelmingly for Duluth's city smoking ban. I expect O'Neil to push the smoking ban hard in early summer to leapfrog himself into the left-wing frontrunner position in the primary race.

What do you think? What are your predictions for which candidates will face off in the general election?

Duluth News Tribune recognizes local bloggers

The DNT recognized Time's selection of bloggers, video bloggers, and other citizen "journalists" as it's Person of the Year with this editorial. The headline ran:

Our View: Any of you in Duluth want to take credit for choosing ‘you’?

It quote Time Magazine's passage saying:

In a column explaining the process, Stengel said he posted a videotaped call for nominations on YouTube. He identified one respondent as “Tom from Stamford,
Conn.”
The editor then wrote: “The people who sent in nominations were from Australia and Paris and Duluth.”
He probably meant to say “from places including Australia and Paris and Duluth.” But he didn’t. That places Duluth shoulder-to-shoulder with the City of Lights, the entire continent of Down Under and Stamford, for whatever that’s worth, as was responsible for one-quarter of the decision.

I'll take the opportunity to name some of the local bloggers/websites that the News Tribune failed to name.

Duluth Politics

Duluth Citizen's Blog

Connect Duluth

Perfect Day Duluth

Duluth Chamber of Commerce Blog

8-1

Russ Stewart was the lone "no" vote against the Krok Center.

New cargo for Duluth's port?

Does anyone remember the proposals Rod Grams made for improvements for shipping in the Great Lakes? One of his key proposals was to create a general cargo terminal at Duluth's port.

It looks like others have decided it is a good idea.