{"id":771,"date":"2007-05-04T07:23:06","date_gmt":"2007-05-04T13:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/index.php\/2007\/05\/04\/democracy-in-action\/"},"modified":"2007-05-04T08:39:57","modified_gmt":"2007-05-04T14:39:57","slug":"democracy-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=771","title":{"rendered":"Democracy In Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saint Paul is having City Council elections this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The usual suspects are lining up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the “Saint Paul Information Forum” – a long-running email discussion group on Saint Paul politics – a thread started the other day about the voting for the group’s executive board.\u00a0 My longtime political sparring partner Erik Hare – West End transit activist, recent NARN guest and proud amateur wonk – responded to me as I responded to a jab at my habit of writing my pets into uncontested races:<\/p>\n

\u00a0>Oh yeah, one last thing, I was going to ask if one of the write in
\n> votes was Mitch’s dog.\u00a0 He does that you know. <\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0I do.\u00a0 I write in pets, friends and kids, usually into uncontested races (usually involving candidates I don’t like), so that I can easily ensure that my vote has been counted.<\/font>\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0>\u00a0\u00a0My pets would make better office-holders than
\n> most of the DFL’s endorsees.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A long-time political sparring partner (West End transit activist, one time NARN guest and gadfly without portfolio Erik Hare) wrote:<\/p>\n

\u00a0> Oh, but what have you done about it?<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Erik has sown the wind.\u00a0 He shall now reap the whirlwind.\u00a0 A whirlwind of dog hair.<\/p>\n

Saint Paul’s city council is up for election this year.\u00a0 Now, in some of Saint Paul’s seven wards there might actually be some choice – an actual GOP or at least semi-conservative DFLer in the Randy Kelly tradition, one of the “pro-life, pro-assault rifle” wing of the East Side DFL – it’s fairly clear that in my own ward, Ward 4, there will be no meaningful difference.\u00a0 In the Four, we’ll have our choice between someone just like crypto-Maoist Jay Benanav, the current, outgoing rep, a man so left-of-center he made Paul Wellstone blanche in muted horror, or someone just like him who wears a Patagonia<\/a> skirt.<\/p>\n

Until now.<\/p>\n

No, I’m not running for the St. Paul City Council.\u00a0 In my DFL-throttled ward full of retired union guys, state employees and teachers union members, I’d have as much chance of winning as I would of getting a called third strike\u00a0on Torii Hunter.\u00a0 Oh,\u00a0I could<\/em> be a protest candidate, all right – but then I’d have to drop the show.\u00a0 Frankly – and I don’t think <\/em>this is ego speaking – I think I do a lot more good for regional conservatism on the air than pounding futile pavement in the Saint Paul Four.<\/p>\n

But my dog doesn’t have a talk show.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

(portrait of the candidate as a puppy<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clu Berg has everything one really needs to serve on the Saint Paul City Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. She barks loudly at intruders, which would make her the only genuine law and order candidate on the Council.<\/li>\n
  2. She has soft, pettable fur, which will do more for peoples’ health than anything the City Council has proposed recently.<\/li>\n
  3. She pees and poops outdoors, rather than dropping legislative turds like the “city income tax” in the Council chambers<\/li>\n
  4. She curls up around your feet on cold nights.<\/li>\n
  5. She has a better sense for avoiding unintended consequences of things like “city income taxes” than any of the currently-sitting Councilpeople.<\/li>\n
  6. She’ll have me for a chief of staff.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    And so I hereby announce the (write-in) (probably) candidacy of Clu Berg for Ward Four of Saint Paul’s city council!\u00a0 She’s running on the “Dog\/Human Consensus” party ticket, so as not to siphon away crucial (also nonexistent) party funding from any GOP candidate who might step up.<\/p>\n

    Come election day, remember; Every Dog has her Day – and today is Clu’s!<\/p>\n

    UPDATE:\u00a0 Yep, I’m stuck in the past.\u00a0 Benanav is leaving.\u00a0 I changed the post, above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Saint Paul is having City Council elections this fall.\u00a0 The usual suspects are lining up.\u00a0 On the “Saint Paul Information Forum” – a long-running email discussion group on Saint Paul politics – a thread started the other day about the voting for the group’s executive board.\u00a0 My longtime political sparring partner Erik Hare – West […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-st-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}