AlonzoMourning23
10-07-2006, 12:31 AM
He once wanted the City Council seat, but changed his mind after getting a new job
BY DAVE ORRICK
Pioneer Press
Anyone but me, candidate tells Blaine voters
Paul Herold wants to be a loser.
Yet somehow, the Blaine political candidate advanced in his primary race despite hard campaigning against himself.
The information-technology worker and father of two recently got a job with St. Paul Travelers that will demand too much traveling for him to be a decent public official. Now, as the Nov. 7 general election approaches, he's stepping up a City Council campaign message: Don't vote for him.
Since the first-time candidate got his new job after the July 20 deadline to remove his name from the ballot, he appears to be in a pre-election paradox.
If he wins on Election Day, his only remedy would be to simply blow off his swearing in. City officials say that would force a special election. That could cost at least $30,000, they say.
"That's the last thing I want because it would cost Blaine money," said Herold, who has no good theory on why anyone voted for him in the primary. "Maybe my name stuck out? I don't know. I tried my best not to get any votes."
Speculation in town as to how the political newcomer did so well has ranged from voters essentially playing pin-the-tail-on-the-candidate in the voting booth to blind name recognition for Herold after he wrote a letter to a local paper pleading for nonsupport. He had offered to drive friends and neighbors to the polls to vote for anyone but him.
He faced incumbent Katherine Kolb and challenger Jon Chlebeck in the primary.
Only a pittance of Blaine's 30,000 registered voters made a selection in the city's sole primary race Sept. 12. Kolb was the top vote-getter, with 472 votes. Herold got 186, edging out Chlebeck by 31 votes.
Elections officials say that's tough luck: A winner is a winner, and two winners advance to Nov. 7.
"Unfortunately, once he's on the ballot, there's nothing we can do," said City Clerk Jane Cross.
State election laws, which are intended to avoid pre-election shenanigans by faux candidates, aren't friendly to fickle office-seekers. Several years ago, Blaine upped its filing fee to $50 — the maximum allowed under state law — to weed out the faint of heart, Cross said. On Wednesday, she proofread the actual printed ballots, and Herold's name was there, spelled correctly.
Herold said he's found a few exceptions in state law, but none is applicable.
"Here are the only ways I can get off the ballot: A. I'd have to die; B. I'd have to move out of the district," he said.
He denies he's actually a politico-virtuoso playing a brilliant gambit of reverse psychology.
"This is absolutely not a campaign tactic," he swears. "I really don't want to win."
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/15672298.htm
BY DAVE ORRICK
Pioneer Press
Anyone but me, candidate tells Blaine voters
Paul Herold wants to be a loser.
Yet somehow, the Blaine political candidate advanced in his primary race despite hard campaigning against himself.
The information-technology worker and father of two recently got a job with St. Paul Travelers that will demand too much traveling for him to be a decent public official. Now, as the Nov. 7 general election approaches, he's stepping up a City Council campaign message: Don't vote for him.
Since the first-time candidate got his new job after the July 20 deadline to remove his name from the ballot, he appears to be in a pre-election paradox.
If he wins on Election Day, his only remedy would be to simply blow off his swearing in. City officials say that would force a special election. That could cost at least $30,000, they say.
"That's the last thing I want because it would cost Blaine money," said Herold, who has no good theory on why anyone voted for him in the primary. "Maybe my name stuck out? I don't know. I tried my best not to get any votes."
Speculation in town as to how the political newcomer did so well has ranged from voters essentially playing pin-the-tail-on-the-candidate in the voting booth to blind name recognition for Herold after he wrote a letter to a local paper pleading for nonsupport. He had offered to drive friends and neighbors to the polls to vote for anyone but him.
He faced incumbent Katherine Kolb and challenger Jon Chlebeck in the primary.
Only a pittance of Blaine's 30,000 registered voters made a selection in the city's sole primary race Sept. 12. Kolb was the top vote-getter, with 472 votes. Herold got 186, edging out Chlebeck by 31 votes.
Elections officials say that's tough luck: A winner is a winner, and two winners advance to Nov. 7.
"Unfortunately, once he's on the ballot, there's nothing we can do," said City Clerk Jane Cross.
State election laws, which are intended to avoid pre-election shenanigans by faux candidates, aren't friendly to fickle office-seekers. Several years ago, Blaine upped its filing fee to $50 — the maximum allowed under state law — to weed out the faint of heart, Cross said. On Wednesday, she proofread the actual printed ballots, and Herold's name was there, spelled correctly.
Herold said he's found a few exceptions in state law, but none is applicable.
"Here are the only ways I can get off the ballot: A. I'd have to die; B. I'd have to move out of the district," he said.
He denies he's actually a politico-virtuoso playing a brilliant gambit of reverse psychology.
"This is absolutely not a campaign tactic," he swears. "I really don't want to win."
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/15672298.htm