Mayor Randy Kelly, a lifelong Democrat, stunned the heavily Democratic city of St. Paul on Aug. 1 by endorsing Bush for the presidential election. Less than three weeks later, two St. Paul residents, brothers Dan and David Duddingston, announced that they were spearheading a movement to recall Kelly, claiming that Kelly put his own interests ahead of the city’s with the endorsement.

“We can’t see any benefits to St. Paul in this endorsement,” Dan Duddingston said. “I don’t want the Democratic nature of St. Paul and this state to be compromised by Kelly, who appears to be in this for his personal and political gain.” In the 2000 presidential election, only one out of St. Paul’s 119 precincts voted for Bush.

According to an Aug. 2 article in The Pioneer Press, Kelly denied that he is using the endorsement “to run for higher office.” He said he made the decision to get behind Bush because he does not support an administration change during the Iraq war.

Kelly did not respond to The Mac Weekly’s attempt to obtain further comment.

The Duddingston brothers and their supporters quickly developed a statement and petition and set out to collect the signatures needed to recall Kelly. The St. Paul City Charter stipulates that in order to prompt a special recall election, the petition must be signed by 20 percent of voters from the last mayoral election, which means that the Duddingston brothers need about 12,000 signatures.

The brothers originally directed about 50 active volunteers in a door-to-door campaign, but soon realized that bringing petitions to busy street corners was more time efficient. As such, the group, which calls itself “Recall Randy,” shifted its focus to bustling intersections in especially liberal areas of the city. Volunteers said they have found the intersection of Grand and Snelling to be a key area for gathering signatures.

So far, the Duddingstons have collected about 8,000 signatures and said they would like to tally 15,000 before sending their petition to the city. According to the City Charter, the city clerk has 30 days to verify the signatures. If the clerk deems enough of the signatures on the petition to be valid, Kelly will have five days to resign, or the city has ten days to call a special election. Last weekend, county officials announced that the deadline has passed to put a recall question on the ballot in November, but Dan Duddingston said that he’s not discouraged.

Dan Duddingston told The Mac Weekly that failing to meet the deadline for general elections doesn’t mean failure for the recall effort. Duddingston said that the local media has been falsely portraying the effort as failed. The group will continue to collect signatures until Election Day.

“A winter special election is actually more beneficial to us because it’s a cold weather election with more true believers going to the polls,” Dan Duddingston said.

According to Dan Duddingston, the community response has been overwhelmingly positive. Last Saturday, he stood at Grand and Snelling in front of Breadsmith, logging dozens of signatures, talking with passers-by, and wearing a t-shirt reading “What was Kelly thinking?”

Two women walked by early in his shift. One smiled and said, “I’ve already signed it.” The other shook her head and said, “And I’m not going to.”

Others thanked him for his effort and voiced their agreement. “I get lots more thumbs-up than middle fingers,” Dan Duddingston said.

Tamara Olson ’06 said she signed the petition to show her disappointment in Kelly, not to support a recall effort that may not get off the ground. “I don’t think [Kelly’s] mere endorsement of Bush realistically warrants a recall,” she said. “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t disappoint me, as it seems that [Kelly] may have indeed used the DFL ticket for his own personal gain.”

Not all Macalester students support Recall Randy. Mac Republicans chair Kramer Lawson ’05 called Kelly’s Bush endorsement “fantastic” and said he was displeased with recall efforts.

“I can understand liberal Democrats being upset that Kelly would endorse the president, but I am shocked by how far their actions have gone,” Lawson said. “The recall crowd seems to be motivated more by its hatred for the president, rather than a disagreement on policy with the mayor.”

Zach Teicher ’07, the co-chair of Mac Dems’ Kerry campaign and the co-coordinator of Minnesota College Students for Kerry-Edwards, said he was disappointed by Kelly’s endorsement but that he doesn’t support the recall.

“I believe that recalls for purely personal and political reasons have no basis in our society, and that proper procedures exist to remove elected officials when necessary,” Teicher said.

MacDems co-chair Braham Ketcham ’05 called the recall movement a distraction. “I think it’s a waste of effort,” he said. “I'm focused on the presidential race and on winning back the Minnesota House, and I encourage other students to focus on those races too.”

Ketcham said that concerned voters should look beyond Recall Randy and put their energy into the Kerry campaign. “[St. Paul residents] should ignore Kelly until his election next year,” Ketcham said. “Anyone who is really upset... should be inspired to work that much harder to turn out the Democratic vote in St. Paul.”