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Don Wins!

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Congratulations Donny!

It's interesting to look at the precinct by precinct breakdown of the vote. Bell won all of the western precincts and Ness took the rest. While I didn't hear a lot of east/west rhetoric it obviously was in play.

The final count was:

CHARLIE BELL13,99447.30%
DON NESS15,39852.05%
WRITE-IN192.65%

I had predicted a Ness victory with 1000 or less vote margin and the percentages at 51% and 48%, so it wasn't quite as tight as I predicted, but I was in the ballpark.

By the way, this is PDD post number 2000.

Comments

Come see the new mayor's script performed in Renegade's Out of the Hat on Saturday night!


GUFFAW!

great pic.


Whoever makes these pictures need to make about 100 more, I laugh everytime I see them!!!! Way to Go Donny!!!!


Nik, I made this one, but was inspired by Barrett.


gratz Don


Can someone please explain why I can't view this video after downloading the plugin?

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/video/index.cfm?videos=36_ness1106&app=duluth


I can't explain it, but it certainly isn't doing anything for me either :-) I blame the DNT.


is peter rabbit in that picture too?


Bravo!

As a distant Cheesehead but frequent visitor of family in town, this bodes well for Duluth. Best of luck to Don.


You where a mite closer than I was I1. Yeah that map showing who won what precinct was almost scary in a way. Looking at the actual numbers in each was interesting, there where a few that where godawful close, and handful of votes one way or another. And, I'm proud to say I live in the precinct with the most voters, right next to the second highest, Anyone know what the official voter turn out % was?


adam, you and i gotta stop reading that crap. it's just too depressing, and it makes me hate the people in the line at the grocery store, since i'm convinced they're all insane.

it's skewed, SKEWED, i tells ya.

and congrats, Donny. i'm so relieved.


just to clarify: i don't hate insane people, at least not the ones who aren't also EVIL, like the people who hang out on the DNT comments sections. i wish i believed in hell, so i could imagine them there.


For Heidi -

"Hell is other people." - Sartre

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here." - Shakespeare

"The problem with hell is that we immediately wish to populate it with those around us." - (I thought Kierkegaard said this, but it may have just been me.)


Ya--

It's pretty bad when the DNT comments section starts to make the Duluth Citizen's Blog look moderate.


Not surprising though...viewpoints aside, the DCB mods do a fairly decent job filtering out the type of rants that are flying around the DNT...

though i must say that their hatred is matched only by my desire to punch Kid Rock in his big fat head for ripping off Warren Zevon.

what a fucking hack.


edgeways, I saw on the news where it was just over 50 percent. I think they said about 2 percent below the last election. Ya, man I can't believe the hate some people have for Ness. Almost scary. Of course he brings a history into the office many times a new mayor is....well just new to everyone. Personally I could care less. To me they are all the same. More taxes, more fees, more red tape, more, more, more........


The most important issue that everyone here is ignoring is: How did Mr. Nice do so poorly? I smell conspiracy.


Adam, Duluth Citizen's Blog is gone......


Way to go, Duluth.

I gotta say, I'm amazed that you guys cleaned house with the city council.

Too bad you couldn't have REALLY seen the job through and kept Ness out too.

Makes me glad I moved out of Duluth years ago.


i hope he throws a rave duluth can be proud of at at venue tba on pdd


It makes us glad, too.


ditto on Adam. why is it, Mr. PartsGuy, that so many of you who hate Duluth so much, are so glad to have left, complain so bitterly about its politics, its supposed lack of jobs and imaginary hippie-dom--WHY do so many of you insist on keeping one foot here by complaining/bitching on blogs and comments that have nothing to do with the place you now live???

i beg of you. please get involved in your current place of residence and forget we ever existed. we don't think of you, so kindly do us the same courtesy.

i used to live in Chicago. love the place; glad to leave. but you don't see me trolling the Tribune comments etc. with a constant refrain about how much i'm glad i don't live there anymore.

this sort of behavior, along with those who live here and profess to hate it, leaves me completely befuddled.


I hate to throw a wet blanket on anybody's parade, but let's stop and think about the 50%ish voter turnout for a second here. My question is: might have a few more folks seen fit to take an active interest in the politics of their community if at least one of the candidates had been, oh, I dunno, something other than your standard smarmy pro-business politicians? It's great that so many folks on this blog are happy for Ness, I like to see people happy, it makes me happy too. But practically, there are very few political differences between Bell and Ness to begin with. Don said so himself - he wants to work closely with Charlie in City Hall.

Maybe someday there will be a real choice at election time, rather than the Coke-or-Pepsi choice our generation is so accustomed to as to not even think twice about. Maybe someday a candidate who really represents the interests of regular people, who could stand up to corporations and bloated-budget "nonprofits" rather than kowtow to them, will inspire people enough to overcome the obstacles that keep politics dependent on the deep pockets of business and/or a mainstream party machine.


Seeing as I live in Superior and still have family in Duluth, well, work it out for yourself.

Then again, maybe I'll pull a Bergson, move to Duluth, and run for mayor myself. Might be fun.


and here I thought Bell was supposed to be a card carrying member of the KKK and now you say Ness wants to work closely with him in city hall. Go figure......


who said anything about the KKK?


I think it may be possible that Donny may have just have been trying to be gracious in victory. First off I highly doubt that Charlie would accept a job working under Mayor Ness. He does pretty well in his current one, and doubt he would give it up to work for peanuts under the guy who beat him. I'm finding all the haters just as exhausting after the election as they were beforehand. Why don't you at least give Don a week or two as Mayor before you write his administration off as some sort of epic failure of near biblical proportions.


Oh yeah and I almost forgot my new favorite line....You lost get over it!
This used to really piss me off as I heard it constantly after the 2000 and 2004 elections. But now I see what a succinct and satisfying line it truly is.


touchy, touchy zzzzzzzzzzz


I have to say: call me immature, but it was too, too funny when Sharla G waswalking around Carmody's Tuesday night with a Ness sticker hanging off of her ass.


rediguana: At one point there were 12 candidates running for mayor (excluding Mr. Nice) and I didn't witness a massive surge in involvement on the part of voters aside from some lawn signs. I truly think that people on the fringes who speak loudly and truly vote their conscience find themselves marginalized not simply because they don't like the front-runners but because they can't agree with each other. If greens, socialists, libertarians, etc., could unite behind a candidate that would have some appeal with the general public you may have a shot. But not only do those groups disagree on key issues, they also are relatively small.

Ultimately, people are given the "Coke or Pepsi" choice because people like Coke and Pepsi. Why bash the person that over 1/4 of our city's adults just voted for? If you have a better idea, put it on the line and see how many votes you get.

I get frustrated at times with politicians that attempt to be pro-business and appeal to conservative voters but at the end of the day I have to accept this is a representative democracy and though I may fight to change people, I'm am not the average voter and thus I shouldn't expect a politician to represent my personal interests.

Politicians are there to represent large groups of people and if a politician can manage to inspire people along the way, that's great, but ultimately they are in office to represent the prevailing viewpoints within the voting public. Most people (in my opinion) don't want to take on big business or "bloated-budget nonprofits" in any way that requires any amount of effort. Most people (myself included much of the time) prefer to ignore things like that because it's usually a waste of time and I don't see a city administration solving those kinds of problems in the first place.

Don Ness is inspiring for the same reason he is frustrating to some on the left - he represents his constituents regardless of whether he agrees with them. He's probably the most honest and least politically idealogical politicians I have met. As much as my base instincts desire him to seize power and work only on behalf of those who voted for him, he's not going to do that. That make me proud to say he's our next mayor.


Yep duluth is in goooood hands. BTW I didn't like some of the people behind bell kinda like I don't like some of the people behind ness. I just have to hope both bell and ness are better people than some of those supporters. Both the left and the right continue to ruin duluth.


Hey PartsGuy...looks like you really moved up...wow Superior! Good for you! I'm jealous you live in such a great place.


I must add one more thing here where it may be read by at least one more person. For me this was the best election duluth has ever had. I've waited 30 years to see the look on Meg Bye's face when she realized here whole idea of running for mayor was a joke to almost every voter in duluth. Then when we dumped Johnson that was icing on the cake. What a great day duluth not perfect but great.


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