Campaign for St. Paul's Future

During St. Paul mayoral candidate Chris Coleman's primary victory party Tuesday night, his wife pulled their eighth-grade daughter aside to say: It's great to be happy about your dad's triumph, but prepare yourself because "people can say mean things, especially if they're desperate in a campaign."

Coleman's wife, Connie, and daughter, Molly, aren't the only ones in St. Paul bracing for a gloves-off, seven-week duel leading to the Nov. 8 general election. Mayor Randy Kelly finished a distant second to barely survive the primary and is now scrambling to save his job.

He already has paid nearly $40,000 to a Republican media consulting firm from Dallas with ties to Karl Rove, President Bush's key campaign strategist. Scott Howell & Co. produced commercials for Bush, U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and other well-known Republicans.

Howell used to serve as Rove's political director.

That is only one sign that Republicans are aligning themselves with Kelly, a lifelong DFLer who broke from his party to endorse Bush in 2004. A political action committee called Campaign for St. Paul's Future was launched last month by Joe Weber, a well-known Republican activist in Minnesota and brother of former Republican U.S. Rep. Vin Weber.

The group has hired Michael Brodkorb, a former state Republican spokesman, and paid him $4,000 so far to do issues research, according to campaign documents filed this month. The group's first $5,000 donation came from a Kelly backer Bruce A. Larson, who contributed $500 to the mayor in January.

Coleman said Wednesday that Brodkorb and Weber are Kelly's Republican "surrogates and they're clearly gearing up to run a negative campaign" even though the mayor has pledged to stay positive.

Kelly disavowed any connection with the group Wednesday and pointed to a fair campaign pledge he signed but Coleman didn't. He said candidates can't control what outside parties send out, adding that he had seen negative campaign material sent by the state DFL and other groups on Coleman's behalf.

"If Chris is concerned about this being a dirty campaign, he ought to sign the clean campaign pledge," Kelly said. "I have never run a negative campaign."

Brodkorb said the Campaign for St. Paul's Future is a "separate entity" from the Kelly campaign and aims to educate voters on Coleman's record as a former City Council member. He said they hope to generate enough money to pay for ads during the campaign.

And money is one factor Kelly has going for him despite his lopsided loss in Tuesday's primary. According to the latest campaign finance reports filed this month, the current balance in Kelly's campaign account is 16 times more than what Coleman has on hand -- $400,000 to $25,000.

However, that edge in dollars didn't keep Kelly from becoming the first sitting St. Paul mayor in 33 years to lose a primary. Unlike Mayor Charlie McCarty's fourth-place ouster in 1972, Kelly came in second and can retain his office if he wins in November. Kelly did it four years ago, losing the primary to City Council Member Jay Benanav before narrowly edging him out in November.

"I came in second in the 2001 primary and won the general election," Kelly said. "The fact is that my campaign has not been geared toward the primary. We are focusing on a November election where we are going to reach out to a broader group much different than the partisans who come out and vote in primaries."

Erich Mische, a key adviser to Norm Coleman and Kelly, said Tuesday's low turnout shows that Chris Coleman isn't getting his message out. DFL activists angry about Kelly's Bush endorsement voted, but they won't be enough to carry a general election, Mische said.

"Everybody was saying the voters were going to punish this mayor, so why did 35 percent fewer come out than four years ago to supposedly punish him?" Mische said.

Added Kelly: "If his message was resonating, we would have seen 50,00 or 60,000 voting, not the worst showing in recent years."

Former Police Chief William Finney -- who once worked for Kelly but never hid his disdain for the mayor -- is among those expecting things to turn nasty over the next seven weeks. A Coleman supporter, Finney said Wednesday: "Power is, for some people, a powerful narcotic and it's difficult for them to give it up even when the voters and citizens reject their style of politics. He's not a nice man, and if Randy were to get involved in mud-slinging and dirty tricks, it would not be unexpected."

Kelly shrugged off the shot.

"I used to be a boxer," he said. "I like going one-on-one. I always like being underestimated."