Mayor R.T. Rybak has descended from another Election Night crowd surf -- this one with his mom, no less -- and now faces the quadrennial questions about his future.
Namely, will he seek a fourth term? Or, after months campaigning for Barack Obama, is he headed to Washington?
Following a press conference about new single-sort recycling bins Thursday, Rybak said he'll make a decision on the first question before Jan 1. As for an administration post, which he was rumored to be up for four years ago, Rybak said he hasn't sought or been offered one.
"If I was going to go to Washington I would have gone four years ago," said Rybak, who has served as mayor for nearly 11 years. He hasn't ruled it out, however.
But if he does get an offer, MPLS may have to do some digging to find out about it. "Nothing's come in," Rybak said. "But don't expect me to say, 'Oh gee, I got a call today and I'm thinking about it.'"
As for a fourth term, Rybak doesn't believe Obama's re-election has changed his "calculus."
"My family and I are just going to get together, probably over the holidays, and decide," Rybak said. The mayor's son, Charlie, works in marketing in Washington, D.C. His daughter, Grace, will soon graduate from Columbia University in New York.
Running for a fourth term would put Rybak in the running for longest-serving mayor in Minneapolis history. That record is now held by Donald Fraser, who served for 14 years until he left office in 1993. But, Rybak noted, "This isn't like a hot dog eating contest."
Rybak said he never expected to run for a third term, let alone a fourth. But he feels that the last term "wound up being far and away the one that I enjoyed the most, and got the most done."
He added: "But there's a lot left to be done."
