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:

In winning the most votes by a slim margin, Franken is “tainted,” according to Republican state Sen. Geoff Michel. And while Michel won’t find an argument with that assertion from the Wall Street Journal’s editorial writers (from whom he may have taken inspiration for his choice of words), history suggests that a slim winning margin won’t hurt Franken at the polls six years from now.

Eric Ostermeier, writing at his Smart Politics blog from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, takes a look back at past victors in Minnesota elections to the U.S. Senate and finds that “there is virtually no difference in the re-election success rate of those who won narrowly and those who won by large margins.”

In fact, Ostermeier reports, senators who won by double-digit margins did slightly worse in the next election cycle than those who won by narrower margins. His conclusion:

In short, if past is prologue (and all things being equal), should Franken prevail and choose to run in 2014, he would seem to have about a 67 percent chance of winning reelection, as 15 of 22 Senators have done before him.

If it seems a bit early (or even a bit nutty) to run the numbers already on Franken’s chances in 2014 on a day when senators of his own party thought better of even trying to seat him a first time — well, it was early. A date-stamp reveals that Ostermeier posted his electoral research on Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 2:38 a.m.