The Weekly Wrap 11-9

It’s been a few weeks since I did The Wrap™, having been distracted by new polls the last two weeks. But The Wrap™ returns, to do it’s Wrapy thing once again and all of Minnesota Politicoland rejoices.

♣ First off, the unofficial election results from the elections on Tuesday in Minneapolis that had to go to rank choices to determine a winner:

Mayor: Betsy Hodges

City Council Ward 5: Blong Yang

City Council Ward 9: Alondra Cano

City Council Ward 13: Linea Palmisano

There were even more races in Minneapolis that utilized the ranking of choices, you can refer to the Minneapolis Elections site for that info.

♣ St. Paul also had a race, City Council Ward 1, that will have to move to the ranking of choices stage, which will happen Monday morning.

♣ Rep. Andrea Kieffer has decided against seeking re-election to her Woodbury seat. She was one of just four Republican house members to vote in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage during the previous legislative session, but says that vote had nothing to do with her decision:

I would say that would have been the most compelling reason for me to run again.

The district Kieffer is leaving is on the ragged edges of being competitive. Kieffer defeated Ann Marie Metzger in 2012 by an almost 10 point margin, which is right in line with the districts R+6 hPVI.

If the GOP nominates someone especially odious or the DFL nominates someone especially good, this seat could be in play, but otherwise it looks like a district that is likely to end up back in Republican hands after 2014.

Blois already has some possible names of GOP candidates:

Two names quickly emerged to replace Keiffer on the GOP side. First is MN GOP Deputy Chair Kelly Fenton the other is former Mrs. Minnesota Kelly Jahner-Byrne who was also then Secy. of State Mary Kiffmeyer’s 2002 campaign manager.

♣ If you’re one of those people who has been eagerly anticipating the inevitable announcement by one Marty Siefert of his future political intentions, you may not have to wait much longer. Via Blois:

Fmr. Rep. Marty Siefert is expected to enter the GOP Governor’s race on Nov. 18th.

I still haven’t seen an official word from Julie Rosen about what she plans to do, but she has also indicated that a decision is imminent.

As it concerns the race for the GOP nomination for Governor these two would likely be the final additions to the field, a field that currently includes such luminaries as; Jeff Johnson, Dave Thompson, Kurt Zellers and Scott Hounor.

♣ James Lawrence, a Minneapolis businessman, has apparently been conducting polling in Minnesota’s third congressional district to in an effort to decide if he wants to run for the seat or not.

Lawrence, 60, holds an impressive resume. He is listed as CEO of Global Investment Banking of Rothschild North America in New York. With business degrees from Yale and Harvard, he served as General Mills’ chief financial officer from 1998 to 2007. Prior to that he held the same post at Northwest Airlines. He was also a partner at Bain and Company, the consulting company where Mitt Romney was CEO.

♣ Rick Nolan’s 2014 challenger, Stewart Mills, outlines the four pillars of his campaign:

• The first pillar is … Obamacare.

Because of course it is.

Obamacare is clearly a thing that National Republican groups are now itching to make hey out of in 2014. If the problems with the website persist into next year, or other aspects of the roll-out become problems, they may be able to make that hey. But if things are going relatively smoothly in a few months, well, by the time the election rolls around no one will really care about the rocky roll-out.

• The other was a Main Street tax policy that was from the ground up. The 8th District is a Main Street economy, and I don’t believe that Washington D.C. creates jobs. If we’re going to create and sustain the jobs that our part of Minnesota needs, it’s going to be coming from Main Street businesses, from the ground up, businesses that are taxed at the personal level. If we want a sustainable economy, we have to look toward our Main Street businesses because the 8th District is not a place of big corporations.

I can’t find Mills position on mining anywhere, but talk of a sustainable economy and discouraging big business sounds like anti-mining talk to me. When Stewart Mills comes out in support of Polymet and Twin Metals than you’ll know that the above pillar is utter nonsense.

• Respect for the Constitution is my third pillar. Certainly I’m a hunter, I’m somebody who uses firearms recreationally, I’m a shooter, I shoot competitively, that is my golf. I know how guns work. I know that one gun is not morally superior or inferior to the next, and I also have read the Constitution, I believe that we should uphold and abide by the Constitution.

Constitution word salad, the GOPs favorite kind of salad.

And the point isn’t that one gun is morally superior to another, it’s that some guns are far superior at killing people than others and are therefor far more dangerous.

• Finally my fourth pillar is our national debt. $17 trillion is way too much. But the very fact that we keep kicking the can down the road and adding to our debt is endangering the future of our nation and our children’s future. We are passing on along to them a fiscal mess. Part of my hunting camp doctrine I’m running underneath is when you go to hunting camp or you go to a campsite in our part of Minnesota, there’s usually a sign that says leave it better than when you found it. I believe that we should do that.

Here’s a graph:

Something you may not be aware of Stewart, it’s people from your party that have run up the debt.

Just sayin’.

But good luck with those four pillars, I just hope that you don’t care too much about what it is you’re building on top of the pillars, because all four are resting on a shaky foundation.