The first to fall was St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. In late August he hired an impressive campaign staff vastly overqualified to help him walk to re-election. “But with a primary barely two weeks away and little buzz about the race,” Jason Hoppin wrote at The Political Animal, “there’s no doubt the team is in place to help with Coleman’s expected bid for governor.”

Then, barely six weeks later, Coleman announced he wouldn’t run for governor after all.

Next was Brian Sullivan. On Election Day, Mary LaHammer wrote on her TPT blog “There’s a lot of talk (PIM and MPR) that businessman Brian Sullivan may indeed enter the race for governor.” LaHammer’s headline: “Brian Sullivan Buzz.”

Now, seven days later, Sullivan has emphatically declined to run.

That gives a different cast to Charley Shaw’s headline at Politics in Minnesota last Friday: “Buzz about a Norm Coleman run for governor is getting louder.” To make matters worse, Shaw writes that “journalist Barry Casselman told PIM he has noticed the uptick in buzz about Coleman.”

Could a Norm Coleman non-candidacy be the next shoe to drop in the great gubernatorial buzz-kill of 2009?

The board announced the rulings today, but reached its decisions at a meeting on Thursday — the same day Rybak registered a gubernatorial campaign committee. He won re-election to a third term as mayor on Tuesday. The rulings were prompted by complaints filed by the Republican Party of Minnesota.

The board also heard evidence about Rybak driving to events around the state meant to showcase candidates for governor — with mileage costs that Rybak bore personally but that the Minnesota GOP said constituted an in-kind gift.

But it was the survey costs that the board focused on, and they didn’t buy Rybak’s defense that the polling work was on behalf of his mayoral campaign against much lesser-known challengers:

The response on behalf of Mayor Rybak contends that the survey was to support a re-election bid for Mayor of Minneapolis. But this response does not persuasively explain why a survey to support the Mayor’s re-election would have a geographic calling area that included metro area residents that are not eligible to vote in Minneapolis.

The board found the survey questions revealing:

As an example, the survey asks if the respondent voted in 2006, (the last time the office of Governor was on the ballot), and if the respondent intends to vote in 2010. The office of Governor is on the ballot in 2010, the office of Mayor of Minneapolis is on the ballot in odd numbered years (2005 and 2009).

The board ordered Rybak to form a gubernatorial campaign committee (which he did), which must transfer to his RT for Minneapolis mayoral campaign the cost of the conducting the survey last May.

The board also ruled (pdf) on whether St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman violated state statute by failing to register a fundraising committee while exploring a bid for governor. The complaint from the Minnesota GOP noted that Coleman had participated in gubernatorial forums with other candidates and openly discussed his plans for the state if elected to the office. The board determined that Coleman was indeed a candidate for governor earlier this year and spent personal funds in excess of $100 to support his campaign.

The Board considered possible reasons why Mayor Coleman would travel to locations throughout the state to participate in gubernatorial candidate forums and present information on what actions he would do if elected Governor. In the Board’s view the only reasonable explanation for those actions is that Mayor Coleman was seeking nomination or election to the office of Governor.

But the board also ruled that Coleman did not improperly use funds from his mayoral campaign to support a gubernatorial bid. Coleman has since announced that he will not be running for governor, but the board stated that that decision did not alter its findings in the matter. The administrative body ordered Coleman to submit a detailed accounting of his expenditures on behalf of his gubernatorial campaign by February 1, 2010.

“Our work is not done here,” Coleman told supporters gathered in a ballroom at the St. Paul Hotel shortly after the polls closed. “We’re on the verge of something great here in old St. Paul.”

Coleman’s margin of victory was almost identical to four years ago, when he ousted incumbent Randy Kelly. Ng was endorsed by the Republican party — a mark of dubious distinction in a town dominated by Democrats.

Coleman openly flirted with a run for governor next year. But he surprised supporters and political observers last month when he announced that he would not seek the state’s top post.

In St. Paul’s school board contests, incumbent Elona Street-Stewart was the top vote-getter, with support from 22 percent of voters. She’ll be joined by fellow Democrat John Brodrick and newcomer Jean O’Connell. Incumbent Tom Goldstein fell fewer than 400 votes short of retaining his post. O’Connell was the only candidate in the field to be endorsed by the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, a distinction that likely helped put her over the top.

In the contest to fill a two-year post on the school board created by the departure of Tom Conlon midway through his term, Democrat Vallay Moua Varro defeated Republican Pat Igo by a 59-40 percent margin.

St. Paul residents narrowly voted to adopt instant-runoff voting for municipal elections. The ballot measure drew support from 52 percent of voters. Given how contentious the contest was between the pro- and anti-IRV advocates, it seems likely that the result will be challenged. Minneapolis utilized the instant-runoff system, whereby voters rank candidates in order of preference, for the first time on Tuesday.

Photo: governor.state.mn.us

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman caps off the long version of his new TV ad by quoting hockey great Wayne Gretzky’s advice to skate to where the puck will be. It’s a quote Gov. Pawlenty has been using for years, as Brian Bakst of the Associated Press notes. Indeed, it’s a favorite among consultants, businessmen and politicians, including former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. But Gretzky wasn’t the first to say it, and in any case it’s of dubious value as advice, according to people who know their way around a rink. 

Here’s how Coleman rephrases Gretzky’s maxim (at the 3:54 mark):

I really feel like the mayor of the City of St. Paul has to be a leader of all the people. We need to look to the future. We need to think about where the puck is going to be.

Pawlenty has been using the quote at least since his first year as governor. He found global meaning from Gretzky’s words in 2003, according to the University of St. Thomas Aquin (pdf):

Pawlenty compared the progress of Minnesota to his favorite hockey player, Wayne Gretzky. Pawlenty said Gretzky attributed his success to the fact that he didn’t care where the puck was; it was where the puck was going that mattered. “It’s a great metaphor for the times we live in,” he said. “We’re living in a world with enormous change, and it’s an exciting time.”

St. Paul’s other mayor named Coleman, Norm, said Gretzky’s wisdom could help the nation defeat terrorism. He cited them in 2006 to open two days of hearings as chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on investigations:

In the words of the hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, a good hockey player plays where the puck is; a great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. In other words, we cannot safeguard a post-9/11 America by simply using pre-9/11 methods. If we think that terrorists are not plotting their next move, then we are mistaken.

Given how frequently Gretzky’s words are repeated, it’s surprising a key fact about them is often overlooked: they’re actually his father’s, according to an extensive 2000 investigation by Fast Company magazine’s Consultant Debunking Unit.

Walter Gretzky’s original version: “Go to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

Fast Company probed further, asking the elder Gretzky whether the adage is actually advice he’d give to pros, or the movers-and-shakers who like to cite it.

“Mama mia, no!” Walter says. “That advice is strictly for little kids. It’s just simple basics, like the ABCs. You have to know the alphabet before you can write. And naturally, going to where the puck is going is something that pros take for granted — or they wouldn’t be playing professionally.

The younger Gretzky wouldn’t give Fast Company the time of day, but his idol Gordie Howe took a swipe at the quote:

It’s not really the greatest piece of advice I’ve ever heard. Besides, sometimes you don’t want to be where the puck is going. One time, I was anticipating a pass from [Ted] ‘Teeder’ Kennedy and was leaning over to get in the way of it, when Kennedy, following through, swung his stick in my eye. I had double vision for two months and had to sit out the rest of the season.

A clear-eyed look at the saying by the late Herb Brooks, who coached Minnesota’s Golden Gophers and North Stars, resulted in a similar conclusion:

You’d have to be a real idiot to skate to where the puck used to be. On the other hand, if everyone skated to where the puck is going, you’d have one big train wreck. Sometimes your job on the ice is to take the pressure off of the guy who’s headed for the puck by drawing players away. And sometimes you want to skate to where the puck is, not to where it’s going. When you shoot the puck into the zone, it’s up for grabs — and you have to chase it.

Photo: wikipedia

Twenty years ago, a dream of being inside a movie-studio limousine when revolution breaks out made filmmaker Michael Moore swear off limo rides. It was a similar wrong-place, wrong-time nightmare that led St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman to swear off gubernatorial pursuits. ”I had a vision of me at a bean feed somewhere while the Central Corridor was collapsing,” Coleman told KSTP-AM today.

A sense of mayoral obligation to see the Central Corridor light-rail transit project through is one of the main specifics Coleman has been offering for his surprise decision yesterday: to leave outstate bean feeds to the remaining gubernatorial contenders and stick to current his job in St. Paul, for now.

But on KSTP, Coleman had another, newly minted explanation: “I thought that I’d be winning the Nobel Peace Prize.”

It was supposed to be a “done deal,” Coleman joked, that would leave him too busy running around the world on Peace Prize business to attend to affairs back home — a possible jab at Republicans who griped that Coleman listed statewide travel as mayoral rather than gubernatorial campaign expenses.

GOP complaints had no role in his decision not to run for governor, Coleman repeated on the radio. He also denied that his dropping out of the race was meant as any kind of shot at Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who remains a candidate (unannounced) in the field for governor in 2010.

Coleman said he probably wouldn’t back another candidate for governor in advance of the DFL Party endorsement.

As for whether he would agree to another debate with his Republican opponent Eva Ng (besides an election-eve public radio date), Coleman said, “We’ll see.”

Then in commenting on Ng, he mistakenly slipped back into statewide-campaign mode for a moment: “She needs to present her vision for the state — er, the city.”

“My work is here,” Coleman told reporters during a press conference at City Hall.

There were abundant signs that the Democrat was seriously entertaining a gubernatorial bid. He hired the DFL’s communications director to oversee a re-election campaign that looked to be a cakewalk and brought on high-powered political consultant Mandy Grunwald to assist with the effort. His lawn signs conspicuously failed to mention exactly which office he was seeking. And Coleman participated in a couple of candidate forums with the 10 other potential Democratic candidates.

But apparently he will be content to seek a second term as mayor. Coleman claimed to have only made the decision not to run for governor this morning. He will face Republican-backed Eva Ng in next month’s general election.

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

ST. PAUL: Bachmann hard on ACORN, easy on birthers. She asks Gov. Pawlenty to investigate the community-organizing group but won’t diss people who doubt President Obama’s American birth. [Associated Press; CNN]

SAUK RAPIDS: Did he need a photo ID to file? Then how do we know it’s the real Republican state Rep. Dan Severson who is eyeing DFLer Mark Ritchie’s secretary of state post? [St. Cloud Times]

ST. PAUL: Mayoral rivals debate. Republican Eva Ng attacked Mayor Chris Coleman on taxes and fees, which she’d freeze “right now.” [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

MINNEAPOLIS: “Nothing like a pissed-off woman.” That’s how city council candidate Lennie Chism explains away an assault charge as a setup. [Star Tribune]

ST. PAUL: One in five, baby. A state report agrees with Jim Morrison of the Doors: That’s the proportion of Minnesota banks and credit unions on a watch list for failure. [Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal]

MINNEAPOLIS: “It’s like the Metrodome is an obsessed girlfriend, refusing to let the Twins leave.” Sports-romance analogies: You can’t live with ‘em, you can’t live without ‘em. [WCCO-TV; @DeRushaJ]

Both mayors have made time for gatherings of gubernatorial candidates, prompting a complaint from the Republican Party of Minnesota that they’re not filing financial reports for their unannounced campaigns for governor in 2010.

Here’s Rybak on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” on Monday (interview starts at the 1:10 mark):

What I hope is that all the investigative reporters from around the country come out here to Minnesota. We’d love to have you here. And spend a few years and do your very best to find a single thing that this guy has done as governor.

Rybak also had harsh words on MSNBC for former Minnesota Viking Randy Moss — who, like Pawlenty, isn’t one of Rybak’s rivals for mayor of Minneapolis.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning … 

ST. PAUL: Seifert tops GOP straw poll. State Reps. Marty Seifert and Tom Emmer and former state auditor Pat Anderson are the state party’s preferred global-warming deniers for governor. [ECM Publishers]

WINONA: A town hall on Afghanistan. U.S. Rep. Tim Walz will host it Friday. [Winona Daily News]

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Somalia prez speaks. Sharing the stage with Sharif Sheik Ahmed at Northrop Auditorium were U.S. Sen. Al Franken, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and state House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher. [Minnesota Daily]

MINNEAPOLIS: Nazis go home. “Triumph of the Will” it was not, as counter-protesters made the Midway YWCA safe for a seminar about white privilege. [Twin Cities Daily Planet]

TWIN CITIES: St. Paul Pioneer Press congratulates Star Tribune with full page ad. Because Hallmark doesn’t sell “Getting out of bankruptcy” cards. [Minnesota Public Radio]

MINNEAPOLIS: Rosemary Williams is D.C.-bound. She’ll bring her foreclosure protest to a demonstration outside the National Building Museum today for World Habitat Day. [Minnesota Public Radio]

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

DULUTH: Surveyed residents circle the wagons in support of hometown. But it’s a Gallup Poll, not a “gallop poll.” [Duluth News Tribune]

MOORHEAD: Roving for student voters? Karl Rove speaks at Concordia College tonight before heading to St. Olaf College for another speech Thursday. [Morris Sun Tribune]

ST. LOUIS PARK: That new furniture smell. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s anti-formaldehyde bill was inspired by a cheap, foreign-made cabinet she bought on moving to Washington, D.C. [Bemidji Pioneer]

ST. PAUL: Republicans expand complaint. Now the state GOP is fingering Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak as well as St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman for running undeclared campaigns for governor while seeking re-election to their current jobs. [Star Tribune]

ST. PAUL: Mayoral rivals set election-eve debate. That throws a wrench in Coleman’s plans to crisscross the state the night before the election. [City Hall Scoop]

ROCHESTER: More kicking and punching. This time it was an airplane, not a goose statue, that took the abuse. [Associated Press]