Last November I began a campaign for Minneapolis Mayor by raising issues that are important to the future of our City. I wanted to bring a point of view to this election that wasn’t even being considered at City Hall. I wanted to focus attention on helping homeowners before they became victims of foreclosure, addressing the causes of crime, continuing to invest in improving our neighborhoods, providing pre-school education to every Minneapolis child, and improving the financial management of our city.

Although I would have liked to vigorously continue this effort, changes in my family situation have made it impossible for me to put forth the time and effort that this campaign deserves. I am, therefore, immediately suspending my campaign.

I’d like to thank those who supported me financially, at the caucuses, and with their volunteer hours. Your efforts have been greatly appreciated and helped to bring my message of resident empowerment coupled with responsible and responsive government to the Minneapolis electorate.

Sincerely,
Bob

In response to an interview request shortly before the DFL caucuses in Minneapolis early this month, Miller’s campaign staff told the Minnesota Independent that Miller’s availability was restricted due to a family medical situation.

But who’s behind it? … many are unsure — but they’re trying to find out. Diction is being dissected, typefaces tracked, prose pounced, and links looked at hard.

The Scoop provides some sleuthing of its own (absent the medallion-hunt’s hints in rhyme). But the Minnesota Independent was already on the case with a novel approach: asking mystery blogger “Scorned in Saint Paul” who he or she is.

I sent “Scorned in Saint Paul” an inquiring e-mail after MyMayorIsCheatingOnMe.com linked to a MnIndy post about Coleman’s efforts to keep his staff’s budget communications private. Here’s the reply I got:

I have been involved in community issues for several years and am very familiar with the Mayor and his staff as I have had numerous interactions with them through my involvement over these issues. I am appalled at the mismanagement of our city by someone who was elected on a progressive platform. Actually, any platform for that matter.

Chris Coleman has a history of being vindictive and I don’t want this to be about me (and also for me, my current employment negates my ability to be public). I want this to be about the issues I am talking about at the blog. All across St. Paul, from all sorts of groups, there is a lot of private discontent with Mayor Coleman.  This blog is about starting a public dialogue about the conversations that are already, and have been for some time, taking place in private. Chris is running unopposed in a one party town — this is not conducive to critical dialogue and creating the best city possible. If he’s on top of the City DFL hierarchy, who’s going to challenge him from within the party? My last post touched on this oligarchy. He’s also runing for a job he wants to leave behind. In every possible way but publicly stating it — he’s running for governor already. Is this the best for St. Paul? See my post regarding Arne Carlson’s comments on good governance.

So I want this blog to really address the issues: Chris not being honest about running for governor, the rnc, the budget, the hockey rink proposal, libraries,etc. A stronger and more critical public dialogue needs to take place in our one party town.

I admire the work you and others do at The Minnesota Independent.

To be clear, I am a DFL party member.  However, I am not working for any political party or for any individual campaign for office at this time.

Governing, a trade journal of sorts for the — um, how else to put this? — governing classes, typically puts a person’s face on the cover only twice a year, one of those occasions being its “Public Officials of the Year” issue (which this is not). That should make this a rare honor indeed for hizzoner.

However, Rybak’s star turn marks the fourth month in a row, beginning with November’s “Public Officials of the Year” issue, that an individual’s smiling or near-smiling face has graced the cover of Governing. So is Rybak now the national figure in the field of public governance he seems to be, judging by the cover of Governing, or merely the lucky beneficiary of a new design approach?

By e-mail, Governing Editor John Martin clarifies:

While it’s a bit of a fluke that we’ve had four covers in a row picturing individuals, we do expect to be doing more along those lines. … [W]e are always looking for leaders to profile who are doing things that are of interest to other government people, especially including things that are kind of out there on the edge, pushing the envelope, thinking outside the box (did I leave out any cliches?).

As for the cover story, titled “Radical Renewal,” it’s an interesting read that takes as its theme Rybak’s approach to public involvement with private development:

It’s only a slight exaggeration to say Rybak is trying to rewrite the rules of urban economic development. He is trying to prove that it’s possible to be a left-leaning mayor of a left-leaning city and still be both a fiscal conservative and a friend to business and development.

The profile, by staff writer Josh Goodman, includes comments from the mayor and several others who have good things to say about him. ”He matches Minneapolis’ self-image,” Neighborhood Development Center Director Mike Temali told Goodman. “Fit and hip.” Goodman recounts the many redevelopment sights he saw while on a ride-along with Mike Christenson, Minneapolis’ Community Planning and Economic Development director.

But it’s not all positive. The Midtown Public Market, where the story opens (and which Temali’s nonprofit runs), got ”some of the same kinds of public subsidies Rybak tends to disparage elsewhere,” Goodman writes. “[T]he jury is still out on the Global Market. The number of people visiting the market is exceeding expectations. Sales, though, aren’t.”

One blistering quote comes from former City Council Member Jim Niland, though without noting his critical role in helping Rybak get elected in 2001. Niland, now legislative political action director for the Minnesota Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, has nothing good to say: ”He’s definitely not been a friend of organized labor. He hasn’t lifted a finger for union members.” And City Council Member Lisa Goodman succinctly puts Rybak in his place within Minneapolis’ weak-mayor system of goverment: “I love the mayor. I think he’s great. But the people that do the work here are the City Council.”

One thing the article doesn’t get into is Rybak’s political future, from running for re-election this year to his interest in running for governor in 2010 — an ambition that being on the cover of Governing magazine can’t hurt.

For your reference, here’s the company Rybak just joined. Governing’s cover boys and girls in recent years:

North Carolina Speaker of the House Joe Hackney (Jan. 2009)
New Haven, Ct., Mayor John DeStefano Jr. (Dec. 2008)
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins (Nov. 2008)
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, (July 2008)
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (Feb. 2008)
Christine O. Gregoire, governor of Washington state (Nov. 2007)
Massachusetts Chief Information Officer Peter Quinn (May 2006)
Salvatore F. DiMasi, speaker of the Massachusetts House (Nov. 2006)
L. Douglas Wilder, mayor of Richmond, Va., and former governor of the state (June 2005)
Thomas Frieden, MD, New York City health commissioner (Nov. 2005)

Instead, Obama told Rybak he wanted a grassroots movement in which even his Inauguration Day would be a celebration of people beyond himself, Rybak recalled. Rybak, who is seated only 40 rows from where Obama takes the oath of office today, is sometimes said to be the first mayor to have endorsed Obama for president.

Last week Rybak announced his intention to run for re-election this year, ending speculation that he might get a new job in Obama’s administration, but pointedly not ending speculation that he might run for governor in 2010.

Meanwhile, Rybak’s chief challenger in the race for mayor, Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program Director Bob Miller, issued a special campaign email for today’s occasion:

Happy Inauguration Day! On this historic day I join President Obama in celebrating the progress we’ve made and looking forward to the work ahead. Over the next seven weeks, I will highlight my plans in key areas for Minneapolis’ future.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s announcement Tuesday that he’ll run for re-election means there’ll be a two-man race for the DFL endorsement, at least according to the other man: Rybak rival Bob Miller.

Miller’s prediction was borne out, for now anyway, by City Council Member Ralph Remington, who confirmed he won’t run for mayor now that Rybak’s in the race. (Note: Miller’s calculation doesn’t factor in perennial candidate Dick Franson.)

Rybak’s announcement surprised few, Miller included. “I expected nothing less,” he said after learning that Rybak had made it official.  ”That was the case back in November.” (Miller announced his own candidacy Nov. 13.)

As for the city’s dire financial straits, “it’s going to be pretty pitiful,” said Miller, acknowledging a looming budget gap that would cramp any mayor’s style.

But that doesn’t keep Miller from contrasting his approach with Rybak’s.

“We have differences on how we think citizens should be involved in their local government, how we would manage the finances of the city, the kinds of initiatives that we would focus on,” he said.

Indeed, the crashing economy can put their differences in higher relief. For example, Miller said, as a mayor during hard times, “you don’t put money in for consultants to try to sell your water” — a reference to Rybak’s marketing effort to sell municipal water to more of the suburbs that surround Minneapolis.

“It may be a great idea if you’ve got all kinds of resources available to you [but not now],” Miller said.

Rybak’s initiative hit one snag when the city’s water, drawn from the Mississippi River, experienced an ill-timed run of malodorousness in the midst of the marketing. And today comes word that plans for a major upgrade to the city’s water works is likely to be canceled to forestall rate increases.

Better management of public funds is one of Miller’s pledges. “I don’t think that’s fiscally sustainable, keeping on raising property taxes by 8 percent a year and raising the fees on city services,” he said.

Miller is a former Rybak backer, he points out.

“I was a strong supporter of his when he ran for the first time,” Miller said. “But he made commitments to me that he hasn’t followed through on, and that has caused me to have second thoughts.”

Rybak and the city council are folding the city’s longstanding Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) that Miller now directs into a community engagement program that doesn’t measure up to NRP  in Miller’s estimation.

Despite his deep roots in neighborhood development, Miller’s campaign won’t reprise Rybak’s first run eight years ago as a community activist, he says, in part because Rybak benefited from well-heeled backers motivated to eject the power bloc then in place.

“We’re not going to be a high-buck campaign,” Miller said. “We just don’t have the resources.”

A Web site, house parties and other events will carry him through the DFL convention. Should he not prevail there, he’ll abide by the endorsement and not work against the victor, he said.

Ralph Remington

Council Member Remington was ready to weigh his own bid for the mayor’s job when Rybak announced.

“If R.T. didn’t run I probably would have taken a strong look at running,” he said. Now he’s in Rybak’s corner.

“He’s been great for the city. I’m going to support him. … The reason why I’m not running is that we’re mostly in sync on things. … Sure, we hold different viewpoints on strategies and on certain matters dealing with the police. But we’ve got a relationship built up over the last four years. I can go to him” with concerns, for example, about law enforcement.

Remington hasn’t yet decided whether to run for re-election to his council seat — or any other, he said.

“There is no other race that I’m looking at,” he said.

However, he is, like Rybak, in contact with the Obama administration and will be leaving Saturday to attend the presidential inauguration. (Council Members Robert Lillegren and Sandy Colvin Roy will also make the trip, he said.) He was invited to so many different inaugural week events, he said, he’s going to have to pick and choose which to attend.

As for any word of new job prospects for him on the Obama front: “No news,” Remington said, somewhat coyly.

“Politics is not an exact science,” said the German and Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck on more than one occasion (sometimes adding, “It is the art of the possible”). But another masterful politician whose name ends with the letter K might beg to differ — with the “not exact” part, anyway.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who announced his candidacy for re-election yesterday, told me this about his relationship with the Obama administration last week (and these were his exact words): “This is working out exactly as I would want it.” Something similar he said yesterday about his job satisfaction ended up in a Southwest Journal headline: “I live exactly where I want to be, and I don’t want to go anywhere. … I am exactly where I need to be right now.”

A Lexis search reveals that, more than Mr. Minneapolis or Mr. Mayor, Rybak is actually Mr. Exact. See Rybak’s litany of exactitude after the jump.

“From what I’ve seen from [Los Angeles] Mayor [Antonio] Villaraigosa, he’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing.” (Nov. 18, 2008)

“During this time of economic uncertainty, Crown Center [in Northeast Minneapolis] is exactly the kind of revitalization we need.” (Oct. 22, 2008)

“In the coming days, we will learn more about exactly what happened yesterday” about protests and policing during the first day of the Republican National Convention. (Sept. 2, 2008)

“When the bridge fell, I was shocked, but I knew exactly what to do, because we’d done all that planning.” (Sept. 1, 2008)

Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden is “exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.” (Aug. 23, 2008)

New Minneapolis fire chief Alex Jackson is “exactly the kind of leader we need to keep our strong fire department moving forward in the right direction.” (June 9, 2008)

“His energy and passion for this issue are exactly what we need to keep this extremely important initiative moving forward.” (About Bass Zanjani, who Rybak appointed as Youth Violence Prevention Coordinator, April 14, 2008)

“I’m extremely sorry to see Johan [Santana] go. But I believe this is exactly what this incredible franchise needs to do to sign the players who are key to our future, like [Joe] Mauer and [Justin] Morneau and [Michael] Cuddyer, and build the pitching staff that has tremendous promise.” (Jan. 30, 2008)

“Having this [Juvenile Supervision] Center will help us better connect with young people heading in the wrong direction to get them back on track with exactly the right kind of support and opportunities they need to succeed.” (Jan. 18, 2008)

“We are sending that exact message today by removing Bonnie Bleskachek as Fire Chief.” (Dec. 22, 2006)

“Tim Dolan knows this community, he has the confidence of our police and he is an innovative leader who knows exactly what we need right now to make our city safe.” (Sept. 11, 2006)

“We are putting significantly more money into public safety and that is exactly what we need to do right now.” (Aug. 15, 2006)

“The new Juvenile [Crime] Unit is doing exactly what it was created to do: focus on troubled youth.” (July 20, 2006)

“Let’s be clear: our chance of success here is lower, but that’s exactly why we need to be here [in north Minneapolis].” (April 18, 2006)

“Making this happen takes work, which is exactly why we added three new city planners to engage citizens in areas like Downtown and Uptown.” (Feb. 28, 2006)

“STEP UP is doing exactly what I had hoped when I launched it in 2004 and I am very thankful for the business leaders who have helped provide jobs for our kids.” (June 24, 2005)

“Let me stop you before you finish, because I had the exact same idea.” (Said in agreement with former Police Chief Bill McManus as he explained that he was going to give Rybak a ticket for leaving his Prius running unattended, Feb. 24, 2004)

Police Chief Tim Dolan, Mayor R.T. Rybak, Council Member Don Samuels. Photo: MayorRTRybak.com

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak announced today he is running for re-election. The announcement took the form of a mayoral message on Twitter directing people to a video on YouTube, which in turn directed viewers to his new campaign Web site, where surfers can further connect to his Facebook page. Rybak’s only announced rival (aside from perennial candidate Dick Franson) is Bob Miller, director of the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program.

More, including Rybak’s still-stirring gubernatorial ambitions and the mayor’s re-election announcement video, after the jump.

Rybak’s social-media rollout recalls the highly praised campaign of President-elect Barack Obama, for which Rybak was working even before its inception, during the early “Draft Obama” movement. It also punctuates a period of speculation that Rybak would get a job in the Obama administration or would instead announce a bid to run for governor in 2010. Whether that punctuation is a full stop, a comma or a dash is another question.

UPDATE: Rybak tells MPR he’s still not ruling out running for governor. 

Here’s the mayor’s re-election announcement video:

[T]he best guy for the job may well be R.T. Rybak, the forward-thinking mayor of Minneapolis. He’s made sensible and sustainable transportation policy a hallmark of his tenure. … His is exactly the kind of proactive, big-picture thinking we need if we are to address our nation’s infrastructure problems and begin moving us toward smarter growth.

Wired credits Rybak with planning for streetcars, “robust” pedestrian policy, doubling the number of cyclists and even downtown’s residential turnaround — everything short of throwing himself bodily into a mass of consitutents to receive their adjulation and arms-aloft support. Wait — Wired’s endorsement gives Rybak props for his now-legendary crowd-surfing antics at the First Avenue nightclub.

It’s a red-tape-cutting position that seems better suited to R.T. than other possible Obama jobs floated recently for the mayor, who has striven to streamline city government through a 311 service, among other things, and whose support for Obama’s presidential run slightly predated the Big Bang.

Transcript excerpts and more after the jump.

Rybak appeared on MPR’s “Midmorning” program, along with Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and was soon gushing over the idea of a White House office of urban policy, which he said was partly his:

I worked with them on helping to develop this. … Here’s what they’re doing, and I think it’s incredibly smart — is to recognize that when you try to move something out of Washington and get a result, for those of us who are paying taxes, you need to figure out a way to take all the arms of the government and bring them together. … I have to do multiple stops within the federal bureaucracy. I’ve been at this for a number of years and I’m only now just beginning to get it. Wouldn’t it be great, and won’t it be great, to be able to pick up the phone and have that one person in the White House who can say to people who are trying to solve these issues at the local level. I’m going to pull all these elements together. … Different departments, this person’s the point person.

At the end of the mayors’ segment, host Kerri Miller tried to connect the dots between her guests and the urban policy czar job. Franklin was fairly convincing in denying interest in it, at least until after her current term expires in 13 months. Then Franklin hung up the phone, and attention turned back to Rybak.

MPR: So you were one of the earliest backers of Barack Obama among the cities’ mayors. Are you interested in the job?

RT: Right now I have a great new job. It’s called being a mayor in Barack Obama’s America. And I can’t even believe how excited I am to be able to talk about this work right now. I’m going to be focused on that for a while.

MPR: I don’t think that’s answering the question. Are you interested? I mean, if they called –

RT: I’ve gotta tell you that anybody who asks anything yes-or-no about the Obama administration right now, they’ve put a massive gag order on anybody, whether you’re up or not, is to just stay out of that kind of conversation. I don’t want to get involved in that because I’ve got my hands full.

MPR: So if they called, you’d take the call …

RT: These are things that we’ll deal with way down the line if they ever happen, but I’m working in Minneapolis …

MPR: Maybe you’d rather be governor instead?

RT: I’ve told people that I have to make a decision in this next year about whether to run for mayor or governor and I’ll sometime have to make that. But right now I’ve got the job I wanted all my life, with the president I worked incredibly hard for for three years, and you know, I’m throwing confetti all around — in between pension meetings.

Rybak made an event of installing a new battery for his hybrid car last summer.

By Tuesday, two men had tiptoed onto Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s turf. The city’s revitalization chief, Bob Miller, says he’ll run for the mayor’s job next year, the Southwest Journal reported. And on Monday Gov. Tim Pawlenty, citing a U.S. Conference of Mayors’ study for his new economic initiative, made a move on the green jobs territory that Rybak spent years staking out.

Miller brought into the open ambitions for Rybak’s office that others likewise harbor, but Rybak is still deciding whether to run for mayor or governor — if his early backing of President-elect Barack Obama doesn’t earn him an administration job offer he can’t refuse. Rybak’s partner in a green manufacturing study last spring was St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, whose interest in Pawlenty’s post is another ill-kept secret.

Meanwhile, as Pawlenty gears up for a potential presidential bid in 2012, a different Minneapolis official threw his hat in the ring for governor today. State Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL) became the fourth official candidate in the 2010 race when he filed papers today.

But it was a possible Pawlenty-Rybak matchup for governor that seemed to be the subtext for what the Minneapolis mayor’s spokesman, Jeremy Hanson, said in response to the governor’s new environmental economic development initiative. Replying to a Minnesota Independent inquiry, Hanson e-mailed:

This is a good start, and it’s great to see Governor Pawlenty getting on board with a green jobs initiative. Mayor Rybak strongly believes that tremendous economic opportunity is offered by the growing green economy, which is why he launched a green manufacturing initiative with Mayor Chris Coleman more than two years ago. Mayor Rybak looks forward to working with Governor Pawlenty to grow green jobs, as he has been working with state legislators and mayors across the country. As details of the Governor’s plan come forward, we hope his efforts will be informed by the good work underway at the state’s Green Jobs Task Force and the Mayors’ Green Manufacturing Initiative.

Of course, there are concerns about attaching this plan to the JOBZ program, especially since the Legislative Auditor found that the JOBZ program was not meeting its intended goal of creating profitable, new jobs in Minnesota. The current JOBZ program should be fixed before spending millions of dollars to create another broken program.

Also, there doesn’t seem to be anything in the Governor’s plan that addresses the importance of the location of green business growth. This is important because where the business is located -– its proximity to transit, workforce, existing infrastructure, i.e., a “green site” -– is just as important as the green product made. This is exactly why Minneapolis, with its growing concentration of green jobs, existing infrastructure, strong workforce (with a stellar workforce training system), and access to transit (including bike commuter pathways), is well positioned to attract more green jobs to Minnesota than nearly anyplace else.