Sep 3, 2008 6:35 am US/Central
House That Norm Built' Gets Convention Spotlight
ST. PAUL (AP) ―
John McCain may be the star of the show, but no one at the Republican National Convention will feel more at home in the Xcel Energy Center than Norm Coleman.
As St. Paul's mayor in the 1990s, Coleman spearheaded the push to build the downtown stadium that lured professional hockey back to Minnesota seven years after the North Stars left for Dallas. Now the state's senior senator, Coleman said he counts that as a highlight not just of his political career but of his life.
"The Xcel is more than just a structure," said Coleman, who dropped the puck at the first Minnesota Wild game in 2000. "It was a symbol of revitalization for a city that was really hurting."
Several Republican senators locked in tough re-election fights chose to skip the convention in order to focus on their races. Not Coleman, who has a prime time speaking slot Wednesday as he's locked in his own tight race against comedian-turned-Democratic candidate Al Franken.
As Franken has sought to tie Coleman to unpopular Bush administration policies, Coleman has returned to his crowning accomplishment: "He brought hockey back," goes the refrain in a Coleman TV commercial that aired for several weeks this summer.
"I think you have to give him a big share of the credit for that one," said Jerry Blakey, who as a St. Paul councilman cast the lone vote against the city's financing plan for the Xcel. "I still think these stadiums should be privately financed, but it clearly has been a good thing for the city."
Xcel Center anchored a wider overhaul of downtown St. Paul, which had long been a drag on the city's vitality. Today, downtown streets bustle when the Wild play or the arena is booked for concerts, and nearby bars and restaurants get a big boost on their bottom lines.
Critics, while acknowledging that Wild attendance has exceeded projections, point out that downtown St. Paul still has a reputation as a ghost town on nights when the team isn't playing and the arena doesn't have a big concert.
Others think the city took on too much debt with the arena, money that might have gone to "schools and housing -- real investments in the long-term health of the city," said state Sen. Sandy Pappas, who lost the mayor's race to Coleman in 1997.
"All this spinoff they promised from the Xcel hasn't happened," said John Manillo, a St. Paul developer who's known Coleman since they attended college together in New York -- and is one of his biggest critics.
"It did bring hockey back -- and Norm has certainly been good at taking credit for that," Manillo said.
But Coleman gives others credit, too, including city staff, the original owners of the Wild, and then-Gov. Arne Carlson. St. Paul may still have challenges as a city, but it would be far worse off without Xcel's shot in the arm, Coleman said.
"Just overall, the sense and feeling about St. Paul is worlds different," Coleman said.
If St. Paul benefited from landing its first pro sports franchise, Coleman's political career got a boost too. In 1998, a year after the stadium push, he ran for governor but lost to pro wrestler-turned-independent candidate Jesse Ventura.
After that, Coleman finished the three years left on his term as mayor. He mounted a second stadium bid, pushing to get a new Twins stadium in downtown St. Paul, but voters overwhelmingly rejected it a citywide referendum.
In fact, the voters that twice made Coleman mayor haven't exactly bought in on his higher ambitions. Among the voters of liberal St. Paul, he trailed both Ventura and the Democratic candidate in the '98 governor's race. And in 2002, he was elected to the U.S. Senate despite losing every single St. Paul precinct to the Democratic candidate, former Vice President Walter Mondale.
At a political rally at Xcel days before that election -- which saw Mondale step in as replacement after Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash -- President Bush referred to the building as "the House that Norm Built."
With Coleman's political future again on the line, the Republican National Convention means a showcase for an accomplishment more concrete than most. And while Coleman is speaking, he says he's also leaving plenty of room on his schedule away from the Xcel.
"The focus is on November," Coleman said. "Not being at a party in St. Paul."
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
