Four big endorsements and one big malt.
Leaving Gordy's warming house after finishing off a chocolate malt (Gordy's Hi Hat is closed until April.) (I'll be back). A great finish to a morning in northern Mn that included getting endorsed for Governor by for Mayor Ness and Council members Jeff Anderson, Dan Hartman, and Pat Boyle. Also proud to get the endorsement of local activist and environmentalist Will Munger and Ed Gleeson owner of Carmody's Irish Pub (they're now brewing their own beer which I did not try before the press conference).
This campaign has not been based on endorsements. We've been spending
our time talking to voters and activists. It's a tremendous honor
having the support of Mayor Ness and City Councilors Anderson, Hartman,
and Boyle. I've followed their work closely as they tackled head-on the
same type of challenges I've had in my job. Great things are going on
in Duluth right now thanks to their leadership. I'm really looking
forward to working with them so Duluth finally has the support they
deserve from the Governors office.
Mayor Ness, the Councilors and I spent some time talking about how we
can work together, starting with being partners in helping to keep
police and firefighters on the street, improve our roads and other
basic services, and keep property taxes down. I was really struck by
how forward thinking Mayor Ness and these City Councilors are about how
to reinvent the way we deliver services for people and stay on the
cutting edge of creating jobs and improving neighborhoods.
I also had a great conversation with a MnDot traffic engineer about the
new upgrade to 35W coming into Duluth. This project will eventually
make it easier to bring express busses to downtown from surrounding
cities. This project is similar to what we are doing on 35W between
Lakeville and Minneapolis. I'm excited to compare notes between the
two projects and see how these two important transportation
improvements can make traffic flow better.
Afte the meeting I joined Mayor Ness at the monthly regional mayors
meeting in Cloquet City Hall. We were joined by the mayors of Cloquet,
Proctor, Two Harbors, Superior, WI, and Ashland, WI. These meetings
are similar to the ones we have with the Regional Council of Mayors I
helped start in the metro area. Our conversations today might seem
pretty wonky to some: government aid, personnel and how to provide
regional fire services. But it's conversations like these between
local government leaders looking for new solutions that can really make
people's lives better.
I want to bring that perspective from the local level into the
Governor's office. More on that later. Right now I'm going to slurp
the last two drops out of my malt and pretend its a warm summer day and
I'm having a burger at Gordy's.
