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3.10.13 00:21 
33 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY - MAYORAL CANDIDATE #17: JOHN LESLIE HARTWIG (INDEPENDENT)

Hartwig, 76, is another enigma, having no website and no email address, but I can tell you that this isn't his first mayoral run - he also ran for mayor in 2001, again as an independent, where fell juuuuust short in the primary, receiving 107 votes and finishing 16th out of 22 candidates. Perhaps he thinks ranked choice voting will give him a better shot this time around!

In 2001, when he decided to run after being robbed, he told MPR he was a 64 year old real estate broker - I reckon this time around he's either a retired real estate broker or a 76 year old real estate broker. And really, those two options can't be that far apart, can they? (BOOOO STOP BEING SO AGE-IST) OK, let's move on.

It's actually eerie listening to his 2001 interview - MPR could run it today in 2013 and you wouldn't know it was 12 years old because all his answers probably wouldn't have changed. Sadly, that says something about Minneapolis over the past twelve years and what's REALLY happened during Mayor Rybak's tenure...not a whole hell of a lot.

BY THE WAY, I don't see MPR bothering to talk to every candidate THIS time around...wait, I said I was moving on...

He lives in East Calhoun two blocks from the lake, as he did back in 2001. He was the only candidate to file on August 7.

He made a bit of a scene at one of the "big" debates at the Minneapolis Club and felt compelled to respond to a rather inflammatory statement Cam Winton had made about "non-serious" candidates - in particular, himself and Merrill Anderson, who had also "crashed" the debate, albeit with some help from Mr. Cohen (by the way, you probably didn't hear about ANY of this intrigue in the papers, but it's a good yarn - check out Mr. Carney's report on e-Democracy.org) and was forcibly removed from the front of the room by the Sergeant at Arms.

Uh...anything else? His block lettering is very nice and his signature is ... also nice. Sorry, that's all I've got! These challenges are usually the most fun, but I usually get a lot more than I did this time so I feel like I've let you down....I'll get over it.

I honestly can't tell you if I'd be a better mayor than this guy or not - I still barely know anything about him! - but I have a suspicion I might be! Am I right or wrong? It's YOUR vote!

NEXT: A much higher profile candidate (who will probably be much less fun to research)
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