Coleman v. Ortega

Who will the DFL back to take on St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly?

The DFL convention is tomorrow morning at Arlington High School. By most accounts the contest between Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega and former city council member Chris Coleman remains a toss up.

Coleman has garnered support from many of the city's political heavyweights, most notably former mayor George Latimer and retired police chief William Finney. The conventional wisdom from the outset has been that Coleman stands the best chance of raising sufficient cash to go toe-to-toe with Kelly in November.

Ortega has countered by tacking to Coleman's left, running on a populist, progressive message. His lefty rhetoric is undoubtedly more in tune with most of the DFL faithful who will be attending tomorrow's convention. Ortega seems to have picked up momentum as the campaign has progressed, handily defeating Coleman at the final ward convention.

The Pioneer Press had a nice rundown of the race in today's paper. I'll have a post-mortem in next week's City Pages.