Watch out, R.T.

Pitching great Satchel Paige used to tell his teammates to never look back, “because something may be gaining on you.” This is great advice, especially if you are R.T. Rybak and Don Samuels is the guy gaining on you. Why? Because key Minneapolis political insiders increasingly view Mayor Rybak as a “sound bite” schmoozer and Don Samuels as a real leader.

One City Hall wag told me that the mayor has never met a side of a political issue he doesn’t like. When Rybak ran against two-time incumbent Sharon Sayles-Belton, he portrayed himself as a grassroots leader diametrically opposed to subsidizing fat cats like Target and Carl Pohlad. During an MPR debate, Rybak unequivocally said no to any public stadium funding. Then, six months after using the stadium-funding issue to pummel incumbent Sayles-Belton, Rybak, tag-teaming with Hennepin County Commish Mike Opat, decided public money for a stadium was not so bad if it was popular with the right folks.

According to one Minneapolis council member, Rybak’s greatest weakness is that he is deathly afraid of making people mad at him. “R.T. talks in sound bites. Why? Because he is a schmoozer who wants everyone to like him. Politics does not work that way. If you are going to lead, you’ve got to take strong positions, which means you are going to piss some people off.” Former mayoral candidate Lisa McDonald goes even further. “R.T. waits to see the lay of the land before he jumps into any political debate. He never takes a stand early on. Just look at how he approached whether Minneapolis should go ahead with the new library. He held off taking a position until the last possible minute.”

At first blush, Samuels and Rybak appear to be cut from the same cloth. Both are attractive, polished men who started their political careers at the grassroots—Rybak battled jet noise; Samuels put his life on the line taking on the gangs who were terrorizing his Jordan neighborhood. Over time, Samuels gained the gangs’ grudging respect. That, however, is where the similarities end. Samuels is not afraid to call it as he sees it, and say things that will anger his supporters. Last summer, when a routine police arrest escalated into a riot, Samuels confronted Jordan residents spoiling for a fight and told them to act responsibly and go home. Samuels then became a key bridge between shell-shocked city officials and gangsters. In fact, some political observers said that Samuels’ virtuoso performance set the stage for his quick political rise a few months later.

From the moment Don Samuels beat the once-mighty DFL machine and succeeded the disgraced Joe Biernat, he became the Next Great Thing. Remarkably, Samuels did so by carrying much of “Nordeast,” historically a part of Minneapolis that Archie Bunker would be proud to call home. Just like Sayles-Belton in her salad days, Samuels showed that he had “crossover” appeal. Samuels, however, has something that Sayles-Belton never had—genuine charisma. When he speaks, he sounds authoritative and articulate. Samuels uses words that, because they are unambiguous, are not going to please everyone. And he readily admits he doesn’t really care, “if that is what it takes to build a real community.”

Samuels does not support public funding of sports stadiums and does not intend to change his position just because it suits the prevailing political winds. “I believe that all politicians have to have a moral foundation—one cannot lead without one.”

However, one of his Minneapolis council colleagues says that “he gives excellent soliloquies in council chambers… but he can be mighty weak on the details.” Even Samuels’ supporters concede that he is more of a “big picture kind of guy.” He’s been known to make dramatic statements at meetings without the statistical firepower to back it up. His staff, a hodgepodge of Biernat holdovers and newcomers—do not always provide effective cover for their boss, making him ripe pickings for City Hall barracudas that do know the details.

There is no question that Samuels must get his administrative groove on before he can effectively challenge the political juggernaut that propelled R.T. Rybak into City Hall. He needs to learn the minutiae of the budget process and Robert’s Rules of Order. But these are relatively minor adjustments. If Don Samuels does his homework, he will be ready for prime time.