Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Eagan's new mayor Vic Ellison - 11/12/1987
a an s new mayor sees
g f h
as si n o c an e
election ,
By Conrad deFiebre dent-Republican who once served as and came to politics after four yearsy
Staff Writer press secretary to former Minnesota of writing about it as a reporter for l
House Speaker David Jennings. the Mankato Free Press.
To Vic Ellison, his landslide election
last week as Eagan's mayor repre- Blomquist said her defeat after eight "I'd watch the clowns at the City
cents a watershed in the brief history years as mayor was "a relief' because Council or Planning Commission
of Minnesota's fastest-growing city. it should end questions about cut- and think, `Boy, I could do a better,
rate leases granted to her family busi- job,"' he said. t,
mitely a mandate giv- ness by Eagan's biggest commercial
"There was def
en that Eagan will never again be the developer. After he went to work for Jennings
and moved to Eagan, he applied to
way it was: allowing uncontrolled
growth with the old township power Ellison said he plans to serve no serve on the Planning Commission
structure leading a city of 43,000 peo- more than eight years as mayor be- but twice was rejected by the Blom-
ple," he said. "It's time to involve fore possibly considering other politi- quist-led City Council.
the new era of Eagan citizens in poli- cal opportunities. Undaunted, he won election to the
cymaking."
He answered campaign criticism that council in 1985 after knocking on
Ellison, 32, figures he embodies the he was using the Eagan mayoralty as 5,000 doors in six weeks.
new Eaganite. Indeed, the contrasts a steppingstone to higher office by
between him and Bea Blomquist, the promising to run for reelection in "I ran on the same issues then as l
four-term incumbent he trounced at two years. now," he said. "Keep taxes and ,
the polls after a bitter mayoral cam- spending down, concentrate on quali-
paign, are striking. "Right now I'm not looking to do ty growth rather than quantity, treat
anything else," he said. businesses fairly."
Blomquist, 49, is a grandmother
whose involvement in Eagan politics But Ellison's youth and connections He said he is considering delivering a 1
goes back before the city's incorpora- to Jennings, the preeminent Indepen- "state of the city" address after his ti
Lion in 1974. Ellison, the father of dent-Republican of this decade, inauguration Jan. 1.
three young children, moved to Ea- clearly mark him as a political com
PP at-zrN n nmvrn vote-getter. He also may draw on his journalism
p -
winning 63 percent of the ballots as a experience to over a mayor s wiuu-
Blomquist is a small-businesswoman record 39.6 percent of Eagan voters to local newspapers. And he prom-
with ties to the DFL Party; Ellison, a went to the polls. ised to conduct regular neighborhood
public relations executive for a hospi- meetings to solicit citizen opinion.
Vic Ellison, mayor-elect of Eagan.
?al group, is a conservative Indepen• Ellison grew up in south Minneapolis