Duluth, MN - “Mayor Doty must go!” has become the rallying cry for poor people in this Northern Minnesota port city. “He does not work for low-income people or people of color,” states Marvella Davis, of Low Income People Organized for Power (LIPOP). “He's a snake in the grass who serves the rich.”

Aiming to get Mayor Gary Doty removed from office in the November elections, LIPOP is mobilizing and carrying out voter registrations in Duluth's low income community.

Derrick Parker of LIPOP says the struggle to get rid of Doty is part of the fight for living wage jobs. “He's not for living wage jobs...he has to go,” said Parker.

Parker points out that in Duluth, people of color are locked out of city and county jobs that pay enough to raise a family.

Doty says that 9000 new jobs have been created, but LIPOP argues that many of these jobs are in the tourism industry, jobs as maids or cooks, with minimum wages.

The Duluth economy is dependent on iron mining, timber and transport, which means that every economic downturn has hit the city hard. Doty's strategy to deal with this is to throw subsidies at big business and create low paying, part time jobs.

LIPOP also charges that Mayor Doty refuses to deal with police brutality. “He does not believe that the police department is brutal,” states Anabelle LaClaire. This comes on the heels of a sharp controversy over the pattern of disrespect and brutality that police aim at youth of color.

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