Yes it’s true. I went to a party hosted by his assistant this weekend (classmate, nice woman) and she told me about a month or so ago that he was planning on running. His opponent will be the future father-in-law of another classmate of ours.

More grist: his "float" (I think it was a fire truck, actually) at the G.O.D. parade yesterday had a banner saying "Bennenav for Ramsey County Judge" on it.

I think this is well beyond the rumor stage.

Gosh, if this means he'd leave the city council, I'd say go, Jay, go. At least as a judge he might be subject to censure of some sort.
I don't suppose he'd have the decency to resign at once from the city council so he could devote his time to campaigning, and take Dave Thune with him as a campaign advisor or something.

Who's going to tell Mayor Coleman what to do? I'm glad it's Ramsey County. Feel free to keep him all to yourselves.

Here are my predictions for the race:

1) Jay will pump money out of every entity that does business with City Hall, such as business interests and labor unions. And why wouldn't they give to Jay. Even if he loses, they will have gotten a return on their investment because Jay will still have his seat in City Hall. Follow the money on this one!

2) The DFL machine will put a lot of its own money and effort into this supposedly non-partisan race. The irony is that DFL elites decry partisan endorsement in judicial elections. This will give them the best of both worlds, in terms of their hypocrisy: They'll be able to decry partisan judicial elections on one hand while putting their partisan resources into Jay's judicial campaign on the other hand.

3) Look for me (and others) to start up the jokes making the rounds when Jay had his affair a couple of years ago with a peace-nik. Some examples: You can't blame Jay for cheating on his wife? He just wanted to give peace a chance." "Jay's mistress wanted him to leave his wife. She got mad when he told he neeeded to consult with France and Kofi Anon first."

OOPS...

I forgot to mention that GOP state representative Scott Newman is running for district court judge in his home area of Hutchinson. (This is in Minnesota for you Crocus/Lowry Hill types.)

I can't understand (tongue firmly in cheek) why this isn't getting the same kind of press. Or any press for that matter.

Newman's area of the state is only one of the fastest growing parts of Minnesota while Jay's area is one of the flattest growing areas. You would think that (tongue still firmly in cheek) the dead tree media would be falling over itself to report events in the fast growing parts of the state.

No Jack, they're too busy examining the work habits of certain MOBsters...

The fact that Benanev is a dedicated moron aside, he doesn't have an ice cube's chance in hell of being seated on the bench.

This guy has made a career out of milking the public cow, but he hasn't got five minutes experience in jurisprudence.

Before he hung his star and sickle in a city council office, Jay headed up the WRCA (Workers' Compensation Reinsurance Association) which is a quasi-public scam by which the state forces private companies to purchase a little extra insurance to make sure there's plenty of cash on hand when some union gob gets his foot run over while sleeping under the road grader.

I for one welcome the opportunity to watch this bug squirm under the spotlights when he is unable to use the Saint Paul DFL machine's cover.

Preved Medved

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Thanks!!! furniture Very nice site.I enjoy being here.