Think of the Djurgården Boys - A Co-Operative Wikibox TL
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^Good catch & fixed. Maybe it's noticeable that I finished this at around 4AM Swedish time. 
He'll be featured in a future update, just wait.
He'll be featured in a future update, just wait.
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As long as the PC's pick someone sensible, then there's a chance they can make a comeback.
A possibility. But even voters were willing to make Hudak leader of the opposition.
There's always a possbility.
And if you look at the seat count the Liberals only have one seat more than the Tories in spite of having 8% more of the vote, so obviously the Tories have a better vote distribution compared to that of the Liberals. Though I guess we'll just have to wait and see which party will be able to form the most successful opposition to the NDP.
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Layton isn't McGuinty or Wynne. And Hudak was feared as many believed he was a reactionary.
Regardless, I don't think the Ontario Tories are stupid enough to nominate him.
IOTL they picked Patrick Brown right after the two-election Hudak disaster, so you might be giving them too much credit.
Especially since in this scenario it's very possible that most of the moderates have left the party for the Liberals or the NDP.
Ok this update turned into a bit of a infodump of general history about Umeå, but since I doubt non-Swedish (and some Swedish) readers have extensive knowledge about the place, I felt it was necessary.
"In Norrland we have an India within our own borders", Lord High Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna once said in the 17th century upon the discovery of silver deposits in northern Sweden, the part of the country known as Norrland. While the silver soon ran out, the quote nonetheless comes to symbolize the Swedish state's attitude towards the north in the following centuries. Settlers were offered benefitial land deals to move up north so that the state could exploit the bountiful natural resources stretched across the vast wilderness, be it iron, timber or precious minerals. Along the way the native Sami who had lived and worked on the land for centuries were pushed back and subjugated, while an entire infrastructure designed to shuttle out natural resources from the north as quickly and as efficiently as possible was developed. Small towns popped up around the various mines or paper mills, while at the mouths of some of Norrland's great rivers important port cities which shipped cargo south grew into significant population centres. One such port city was Umeå (Ubmeje in the native Ume Sami), located in the county of Västerbotten by the Ume River and today the largest city in Norrland.
Politically it would be easy for one to think of Umeå as just yet another northern city, where the Social Democrats have dominated municipal politics since about 7 seconds after the Big Bang, however a quick glance at Umeå's history shows how erroneous that would be. Unlike other coastal cities in the north, like Sundsvall with its saw mills or Luleå with its steel industry, Umeå did not grow around one single type of industry. Umeå was primarily an administrative centre and a military town, and this combined with the strong pentecostal presence in Västerbotten meant that for most of the 20th century Umeå was a city with a strong centre-right lean compared to the rest of Sweden. Even during the boom years of the post-war period, when the Social Democrats were achieving victory after victory all across the country, Umeå remained a steadfast centre-right isle in the red waters of Norrland. The municipal amalgamations of the late 60s which made the surrounding countryside, along with the port town Holmsund and the mill town Hörnefors part of Umeå municipality did little to dent the overall centre-right lean. Although the inclusion of additional rural areas combined with the green wave of the 70s meant that the city's dominating political force of that decade was the Centre Party, not the Liberals as before. However by the end of the decade as the right won another majority in the Riksdag, Umeå once again bucked the national trends and took a shift to the left when socialist parties won a majority in the Umeå City Council for the first time in history.
In reality, the demise of the right's domination of Umeå's politics had begun some years earlier with the creation of Umeå University and subsequent demographic changes. By establishing Umeå as the home of the only university in Norrland the city became an attractive place to move for young people from all across the north who wanted to study. These people often came from smaller working class towns with strong Social Democratic traditions, and more often than not a significant Communist presence as well. The influx of these leftist youths combined with the radical atmosphere present at the university, like so many other universities in Sweden and across the world at the time, was the real starting point for the growth of the radical left in Umeå. Over the coming decades Umeå became well known for it's fair share of fringe leftist groups. During the 1970s students at Umeå University that were active in the Social Democratic Youth League (SSU) founded the entryist Trotskyist faction Offensiv, which would be marred in battles with the rest of the youth league for the remainder of the decade until they were expelled in the early 80s. The Trotskyists in Umeå nonetheless soldiered on, and in 1991 they were elected to the City Council under the Socialist Justice banner, making Umeå one of the few cities in Sweden with a party in the City Council that was actually to the left of the Left Party/New Left. The 90s in Umeå was also the decade when the city became famous (or infamous) all around Sweden for it's militant vegan movement which grew strong as part of the Straight Edge subculture that surrounded the hardcore punk bands Final Exit and Refused, and grew notorious with arson attacks against the meat processing company Scan and attacks against local fast food vendors.
In spite of all this radicalism amongst the younger generations, city politics remained relatively calm during the 1990s, aside from the constant bombastic speeches and attacks from the Socialist Justice Party directed towards all the other parties. After winning back power in the 1994 election the Social Democrats under Lennart Holmlund had eschewed the traditional option of working with the Left/New Left in favour of forming a broad majority with the rightwing parties. In general the politics of the 1990s had a rather pragmatic tint as expansive and significant city beautification projects and road construction projects were passed with wide majorities in order to modernise Umeå, along with the construction of the new neighbourhood Nydalahöjd around Lake Nydala to meet the increased need for student housing. Although the plans to modernize the riverside by the city centre which went under the project name "The City Between the Bridges" never moved forward due to the cost and since the parties were unable to find a project they could all agree on. In 1997, when faced with a weakened right unwilling to risk alienating their voters by continuing to work with the Social Democrats, Lennart Holmlund opted to form a majority with the New Left which had attained their best result yet. Though initially successful the pact collapsed two years into the term after a row over municipal taxation, which meant that the Social Democrats were back to seeking broad majorities with the right. Yet Lennart Holmlund did not remain at the helm for long, as his reputation as a capable negotiator and administrator able to get things done had brought him to the attention of national politicians, and in 2000 he was appointed Minister for Business and Growth in Wanja Lundby-Wedin's first cabinet. Although his national career was very much shortlived as he was forced to resign due to scandals surrounding racism and misogyny, a new Mayor (or more correctly, Chair of the Board of Municipal Commissioners) had to be chosen.
Initially Eva Andersson, Chair of the Social Affairs Committee and of the local Social Democratic Party was considered a definite shoo-in for the job, especially as she ha the support of her predecessor. Therefore it came as a great surprise when she ruled herself out of the topjob, and it became an open question who would follow in Holmlund's footsteps. On a day long meeting on the first saturday in June the Social Democrats elected their nominee for Mayor, and the results even managed to make it to the national news. Ibrahim Baylan, the former Chair of SSU Umeå and only 28 years old, was elected by a comfortable margin and thus not only became the youngest Mayor of a major Swedish city, but also one of the most powerful immigrant politicians in the country over night. To say that his election shocked people would be an understatement, as few people would've thought that a man at his age who had been known to be unafraid of coming into conflict with Lennart Holmlund at times could ever be his successor. But that he was, and in the subsequent election he succeeding in getting an actual mandate to govern, in spite of slight drop for the Social Democrats. Although the rightwing parties once again looked unwilling to work with the Social Democrats after the election, and like Holmlund Baylan was forced to look to the left for partners and formed a majority with the New Left and Greens.
"In Norrland we have an India within our own borders", Lord High Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna once said in the 17th century upon the discovery of silver deposits in northern Sweden, the part of the country known as Norrland. While the silver soon ran out, the quote nonetheless comes to symbolize the Swedish state's attitude towards the north in the following centuries. Settlers were offered benefitial land deals to move up north so that the state could exploit the bountiful natural resources stretched across the vast wilderness, be it iron, timber or precious minerals. Along the way the native Sami who had lived and worked on the land for centuries were pushed back and subjugated, while an entire infrastructure designed to shuttle out natural resources from the north as quickly and as efficiently as possible was developed. Small towns popped up around the various mines or paper mills, while at the mouths of some of Norrland's great rivers important port cities which shipped cargo south grew into significant population centres. One such port city was Umeå (Ubmeje in the native Ume Sami), located in the county of Västerbotten by the Ume River and today the largest city in Norrland.
Politically it would be easy for one to think of Umeå as just yet another northern city, where the Social Democrats have dominated municipal politics since about 7 seconds after the Big Bang, however a quick glance at Umeå's history shows how erroneous that would be. Unlike other coastal cities in the north, like Sundsvall with its saw mills or Luleå with its steel industry, Umeå did not grow around one single type of industry. Umeå was primarily an administrative centre and a military town, and this combined with the strong pentecostal presence in Västerbotten meant that for most of the 20th century Umeå was a city with a strong centre-right lean compared to the rest of Sweden. Even during the boom years of the post-war period, when the Social Democrats were achieving victory after victory all across the country, Umeå remained a steadfast centre-right isle in the red waters of Norrland. The municipal amalgamations of the late 60s which made the surrounding countryside, along with the port town Holmsund and the mill town Hörnefors part of Umeå municipality did little to dent the overall centre-right lean. Although the inclusion of additional rural areas combined with the green wave of the 70s meant that the city's dominating political force of that decade was the Centre Party, not the Liberals as before. However by the end of the decade as the right won another majority in the Riksdag, Umeå once again bucked the national trends and took a shift to the left when socialist parties won a majority in the Umeå City Council for the first time in history.
In reality, the demise of the right's domination of Umeå's politics had begun some years earlier with the creation of Umeå University and subsequent demographic changes. By establishing Umeå as the home of the only university in Norrland the city became an attractive place to move for young people from all across the north who wanted to study. These people often came from smaller working class towns with strong Social Democratic traditions, and more often than not a significant Communist presence as well. The influx of these leftist youths combined with the radical atmosphere present at the university, like so many other universities in Sweden and across the world at the time, was the real starting point for the growth of the radical left in Umeå. Over the coming decades Umeå became well known for it's fair share of fringe leftist groups. During the 1970s students at Umeå University that were active in the Social Democratic Youth League (SSU) founded the entryist Trotskyist faction Offensiv, which would be marred in battles with the rest of the youth league for the remainder of the decade until they were expelled in the early 80s. The Trotskyists in Umeå nonetheless soldiered on, and in 1991 they were elected to the City Council under the Socialist Justice banner, making Umeå one of the few cities in Sweden with a party in the City Council that was actually to the left of the Left Party/New Left. The 90s in Umeå was also the decade when the city became famous (or infamous) all around Sweden for it's militant vegan movement which grew strong as part of the Straight Edge subculture that surrounded the hardcore punk bands Final Exit and Refused, and grew notorious with arson attacks against the meat processing company Scan and attacks against local fast food vendors.
In spite of all this radicalism amongst the younger generations, city politics remained relatively calm during the 1990s, aside from the constant bombastic speeches and attacks from the Socialist Justice Party directed towards all the other parties. After winning back power in the 1994 election the Social Democrats under Lennart Holmlund had eschewed the traditional option of working with the Left/New Left in favour of forming a broad majority with the rightwing parties. In general the politics of the 1990s had a rather pragmatic tint as expansive and significant city beautification projects and road construction projects were passed with wide majorities in order to modernise Umeå, along with the construction of the new neighbourhood Nydalahöjd around Lake Nydala to meet the increased need for student housing. Although the plans to modernize the riverside by the city centre which went under the project name "The City Between the Bridges" never moved forward due to the cost and since the parties were unable to find a project they could all agree on. In 1997, when faced with a weakened right unwilling to risk alienating their voters by continuing to work with the Social Democrats, Lennart Holmlund opted to form a majority with the New Left which had attained their best result yet. Though initially successful the pact collapsed two years into the term after a row over municipal taxation, which meant that the Social Democrats were back to seeking broad majorities with the right. Yet Lennart Holmlund did not remain at the helm for long, as his reputation as a capable negotiator and administrator able to get things done had brought him to the attention of national politicians, and in 2000 he was appointed Minister for Business and Growth in Wanja Lundby-Wedin's first cabinet. Although his national career was very much shortlived as he was forced to resign due to scandals surrounding racism and misogyny, a new Mayor (or more correctly, Chair of the Board of Municipal Commissioners) had to be chosen.
Initially Eva Andersson, Chair of the Social Affairs Committee and of the local Social Democratic Party was considered a definite shoo-in for the job, especially as she ha the support of her predecessor. Therefore it came as a great surprise when she ruled herself out of the topjob, and it became an open question who would follow in Holmlund's footsteps. On a day long meeting on the first saturday in June the Social Democrats elected their nominee for Mayor, and the results even managed to make it to the national news. Ibrahim Baylan, the former Chair of SSU Umeå and only 28 years old, was elected by a comfortable margin and thus not only became the youngest Mayor of a major Swedish city, but also one of the most powerful immigrant politicians in the country over night. To say that his election shocked people would be an understatement, as few people would've thought that a man at his age who had been known to be unafraid of coming into conflict with Lennart Holmlund at times could ever be his successor. But that he was, and in the subsequent election he succeeding in getting an actual mandate to govern, in spite of slight drop for the Social Democrats. Although the rightwing parties once again looked unwilling to work with the Social Democrats after the election, and like Holmlund Baylan was forced to look to the left for partners and formed a majority with the New Left and Greens.
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I may not have a great understanding of the politics, but I know an excellently written work when I see it.
On the national level Sweden is certainly a country with a high degree of tribal voting. You vote Social Democratic because you're from a working class family, because your parents voted for them too, you vote for the Centre Party because you're a farmer, you vote People's because you come from an academic family, and so on and so on. Generally this is the case in municipal and county elections as well, but now and then some places just go completely against established convention and vote in ways which does not follow the usual Swedish party system. Usually it's because of some controversial local issue which causes people to split their vote between the natonal and local level, or at times it could have a lot to do with the local personalities in charge of the parties. That's how you get the Worker's List nearly winning a majority in Kiruna municipality in 1991, that's how you get coalition consisting of the New Left, Greens and the four centre-right parties banding together to defeat the Social Democrats in Strömsund municipality in 2005, and that's how the local Gotland Party became the county's second largest party after the Social Democrats and formed a majority with the centre-right in 2009. And it's also how you get the City Council elections of 2005 and 2009 in Umeå.
The 2001-05 Council term was tumultous to say the least. Local strongman Lennart Holmlund had left city politics for a national career which would ultimately end in disgrace, and Umeå had gotten its youngest Mayor ever in Ibrahim Baylan (28 at the time of his accession). Initially Baylan got off to a good start by succeeding in winning an election in his own right, but the unstable majority he formed with the New Left and the Greens was shaky at the best of times, and soon he came to experience just how difficult it could be to be the man in charge. The real trouble began in late 2002, as the City Council was getting ready to approve a new housing development by the southwestern shore of Lake Nydala in the fast-growing locality of Tomtebo. For most people it seemed like a no-brainer, Umeå was one of the fastest growing cities in Sweden, in desperate need of new housing, and with good transport links to the rest of Umeå and beatiful nature, Tomtebo would be a perfect place to build new family housing. But the Greens weren't most people; too concerned with disturbing the nature around the lake and encroaching on the city's still very extensive green spaces, they vehemently opposed the project and put forth an ultimatum to the Social Democrats; either drop the plans or lose the Greens as a budget partner. This left Baylan and his party little choice because the housing plans enjoyed wide support from all parties except for the Greens and the always oppositional Socialist Justice Party. They couldn't very well drop the plans when the city was in such dire need of housing and it was difficult enough already finding areas fit for construction. So in the autumn of 2002, after Baylan clearly said no to the Greens' demands, the party left the budget deal. Fortunately for Baylan he could still pass his budget as a minority with support from the New Left, as the rightwing parties and the Greens were unable and unwilling to band together and form a united front.
Then in 2003, things would get even worse for Baylan. Lennart Holmlund had been a popular if controversial Mayor during the latter half of the 90s, a person who seemed less driven by ideological convictions and more by a sense of pragmatism and dealmaking. Though never one to shy away from tough debates with his political opponents and notable for sometimes referring to everyone he disagreed with as communists, he was politician focused on results rather than battles. In 2000 he made the jump to the national scene after Wanja Lundby-Wedin made him Business Minister, but that career soon died after a series of scandals surrounding racism and misogyny forced his resignation. His career seemed as dead as the Dodo and he returned in shame to his home in Umeå, keeping a low profile for the next few years. But then, come late 2002, he returned to local politics in full force, first by writing some scathing about the Greens' opposition to the housing developments, second by announcing his candidature for the chairmanship of the local Social Democratic upon the incumbent Eva Andersson announcing she would step down. His return to politics was controversial to say the least, as his forced departure was still very much at the forefront of a lot of people's minds, especially among a significant part of the Social Democrats. The events surrounding his resignation meant that the local chapters of the youth league, students league and women's association could not support his candidature, while the appetite for his candidature among the local party leadership was not particularly strong. The big fear was that a more prominent role for Holmlund would push away voters and damage the party in the upcoming election. Of course Holmlund knew much of this, but he thought he had an ace up his sleeve in that Ibrahim Baylan would be too afraid to alienate him and his supports; the older white working class men who Baylan had difficulties reaching. However Holmlund overestimated Baylan's willingness to placate his supporters, as Baylan thought that backing Holmlund for the chairmanship would be far more damaging than if he didn't. Little did he know what was about to happen.
While Baylan officially remained neutral in the chairmanship race, everyone knew that he had made his opinions regarding Holmlund's candidacy clear to the nominating committee. So when the committee announced their proposal for new chairman as Marie-Louise Rönnmark and Lennart Holmlund was only included as a substitute member of the party's executive board, few doubted that Baylan preferred Holmlund with as little power as possible. Normally in Social Democratic circuits failing to get the support of the nominating committee meant that you'd gracefully withdraw your candidature and support their nominee. This wasn't the case with Holmlund as he carried on with his candidature all the way to the annual conference of the the local Social Democratic chapter (or Worker's Commune as the municipal chapters are referred as) in March 2003, where he subsequently lost by a hefty margin to the committee's proposal, Marie-Louise Rönnmark. After the conference he went to the press and railed against the "Stalin-esque tactics" of Ibrahim Baylan, said that the local party had been taken over by left-wing extremists and announced that he would not participate in any more local Social Democratic politics, though said that he was still a social democrat at heart. With that Baylan and the rest of the local leadership thought that the nuisance was over and they could move on to more pressing issues without having to worry about Holmlund and his gang. They had no idea just how presumptuous they were.
In May of 2003 Holmlund made his big announcement; he was leaving the Social Democrats and forming his own political party that would only focus on what's best for Umeå and no pointless ideological issues, according to Holmlund himself. The new party, the Umeå Democrats, took a not totally insignificant chunk of Social Democratic members with it as it was founded, along with three Social Democratic members of the City Council. Obviously it was the latter part which was most concerning. With the three new "Umeå Democrats" the Social Democratic and New Left budget would now be completely tied with the four centre-right parties if they united. If they got the Greens back they would be bigger, but without a majority, and if they got Socialist Justice on board they would also be bigger but... that would be a fantasy world because Socialist Justice would only work with another party if it was led by the resurrected corpse of Leon Trotsky. This chaotic situation meant that the right was smelling blood in the water. During the summer of 2003 the four centre-right parties worked hard to reach an agreement to present a joint budget as an attempt to topple Baylan and the Social Democrats. In spite of a multitude of disagreements, eventually their work payed off and the four parties could agree on the framework for a joint budget. But there was still one thing missing; they needed at least one other party to support them in the vote. Socialist Justice was of course right out, and the Greens weren't seen as reliable so all throughout the late summer and early autumn feelers were put out to the new Umeå Democrats to get them on board. Unfortunately for them Holmlund was too smart and he knew that if he supported the right his chances of getting disgruntled Social Democratic voters in 2005 would be greatly reduced, so the right's offer was sharply but politely rebuked.
All hope for the right to take back power seemed gone when a glimmer of light finally emerged. The Greens were ready to deal, and in exchange for money for new bike paths in Umedalen, Ersboda and Teg they could support the budget. With the relatively small amount of money needed to be reallocated for the bike paths, it was not a difficult choice for the four parties and in November of 2003 the Christian Democrat-Moderate-Centre-Green-People's budget defeated the Social Democratic-New Left one. Ibrahim Baylan announced his intent to step down as Mayor and on January 1st 2004 Anders Sellström became the new Mayor. He also became the first Christian Democrat Mayor of a city with more than 100 000 inhabitants, as well as the first Christian Democrat Mayor in Norrland.
The subsequent year was one of great animosity between the two political blocs in Umeå politics. The Social Democrats accused the the Christian Democrats (and Greens) of being disrespectful of democracy, the Christian Democrats accused the Social Democrats of being arrogant and feeling entitled to power, and so it went on and on and on and on. Meanwhile Lennart Holmlund and the Umeå Democrats stood on the sidelines and played the referee by smugly talking about how both sides placed their own ideologies ahead of what's best for Umeå. The 2005 election was fought on these terms and it was not a particularly good election for any party other than the Umeå Democrats, because they could once again portray themselves as above the fray. The Social Democrats of course tried to draw Holmlund into the fire with their harsh rethoric, because they would like nothing more than defeating him, but the public generally saw it as the Social Democrats being bitter and angry over Holmlund leaving the party (often rightly so).
The results on election night spoke for themselves. The Social Democrats had been routed, Baylan was humiliated, the Christian Democrats dropped like a stone in accordance with their national performance, and in the middle of it all you had Lennart Holmlund. He went from being a disgraced politician who no one wanted anything to do with to being the leader of Umeå's largest party. And thank's to the Moderate, Christian Democrat, Green, People's and Centre parties he was also once again the Mayor of Umeå.
The 2001-05 Council term was tumultous to say the least. Local strongman Lennart Holmlund had left city politics for a national career which would ultimately end in disgrace, and Umeå had gotten its youngest Mayor ever in Ibrahim Baylan (28 at the time of his accession). Initially Baylan got off to a good start by succeeding in winning an election in his own right, but the unstable majority he formed with the New Left and the Greens was shaky at the best of times, and soon he came to experience just how difficult it could be to be the man in charge. The real trouble began in late 2002, as the City Council was getting ready to approve a new housing development by the southwestern shore of Lake Nydala in the fast-growing locality of Tomtebo. For most people it seemed like a no-brainer, Umeå was one of the fastest growing cities in Sweden, in desperate need of new housing, and with good transport links to the rest of Umeå and beatiful nature, Tomtebo would be a perfect place to build new family housing. But the Greens weren't most people; too concerned with disturbing the nature around the lake and encroaching on the city's still very extensive green spaces, they vehemently opposed the project and put forth an ultimatum to the Social Democrats; either drop the plans or lose the Greens as a budget partner. This left Baylan and his party little choice because the housing plans enjoyed wide support from all parties except for the Greens and the always oppositional Socialist Justice Party. They couldn't very well drop the plans when the city was in such dire need of housing and it was difficult enough already finding areas fit for construction. So in the autumn of 2002, after Baylan clearly said no to the Greens' demands, the party left the budget deal. Fortunately for Baylan he could still pass his budget as a minority with support from the New Left, as the rightwing parties and the Greens were unable and unwilling to band together and form a united front.
Then in 2003, things would get even worse for Baylan. Lennart Holmlund had been a popular if controversial Mayor during the latter half of the 90s, a person who seemed less driven by ideological convictions and more by a sense of pragmatism and dealmaking. Though never one to shy away from tough debates with his political opponents and notable for sometimes referring to everyone he disagreed with as communists, he was politician focused on results rather than battles. In 2000 he made the jump to the national scene after Wanja Lundby-Wedin made him Business Minister, but that career soon died after a series of scandals surrounding racism and misogyny forced his resignation. His career seemed as dead as the Dodo and he returned in shame to his home in Umeå, keeping a low profile for the next few years. But then, come late 2002, he returned to local politics in full force, first by writing some scathing about the Greens' opposition to the housing developments, second by announcing his candidature for the chairmanship of the local Social Democratic upon the incumbent Eva Andersson announcing she would step down. His return to politics was controversial to say the least, as his forced departure was still very much at the forefront of a lot of people's minds, especially among a significant part of the Social Democrats. The events surrounding his resignation meant that the local chapters of the youth league, students league and women's association could not support his candidature, while the appetite for his candidature among the local party leadership was not particularly strong. The big fear was that a more prominent role for Holmlund would push away voters and damage the party in the upcoming election. Of course Holmlund knew much of this, but he thought he had an ace up his sleeve in that Ibrahim Baylan would be too afraid to alienate him and his supports; the older white working class men who Baylan had difficulties reaching. However Holmlund overestimated Baylan's willingness to placate his supporters, as Baylan thought that backing Holmlund for the chairmanship would be far more damaging than if he didn't. Little did he know what was about to happen.
While Baylan officially remained neutral in the chairmanship race, everyone knew that he had made his opinions regarding Holmlund's candidacy clear to the nominating committee. So when the committee announced their proposal for new chairman as Marie-Louise Rönnmark and Lennart Holmlund was only included as a substitute member of the party's executive board, few doubted that Baylan preferred Holmlund with as little power as possible. Normally in Social Democratic circuits failing to get the support of the nominating committee meant that you'd gracefully withdraw your candidature and support their nominee. This wasn't the case with Holmlund as he carried on with his candidature all the way to the annual conference of the the local Social Democratic chapter (or Worker's Commune as the municipal chapters are referred as) in March 2003, where he subsequently lost by a hefty margin to the committee's proposal, Marie-Louise Rönnmark. After the conference he went to the press and railed against the "Stalin-esque tactics" of Ibrahim Baylan, said that the local party had been taken over by left-wing extremists and announced that he would not participate in any more local Social Democratic politics, though said that he was still a social democrat at heart. With that Baylan and the rest of the local leadership thought that the nuisance was over and they could move on to more pressing issues without having to worry about Holmlund and his gang. They had no idea just how presumptuous they were.
In May of 2003 Holmlund made his big announcement; he was leaving the Social Democrats and forming his own political party that would only focus on what's best for Umeå and no pointless ideological issues, according to Holmlund himself. The new party, the Umeå Democrats, took a not totally insignificant chunk of Social Democratic members with it as it was founded, along with three Social Democratic members of the City Council. Obviously it was the latter part which was most concerning. With the three new "Umeå Democrats" the Social Democratic and New Left budget would now be completely tied with the four centre-right parties if they united. If they got the Greens back they would be bigger, but without a majority, and if they got Socialist Justice on board they would also be bigger but... that would be a fantasy world because Socialist Justice would only work with another party if it was led by the resurrected corpse of Leon Trotsky. This chaotic situation meant that the right was smelling blood in the water. During the summer of 2003 the four centre-right parties worked hard to reach an agreement to present a joint budget as an attempt to topple Baylan and the Social Democrats. In spite of a multitude of disagreements, eventually their work payed off and the four parties could agree on the framework for a joint budget. But there was still one thing missing; they needed at least one other party to support them in the vote. Socialist Justice was of course right out, and the Greens weren't seen as reliable so all throughout the late summer and early autumn feelers were put out to the new Umeå Democrats to get them on board. Unfortunately for them Holmlund was too smart and he knew that if he supported the right his chances of getting disgruntled Social Democratic voters in 2005 would be greatly reduced, so the right's offer was sharply but politely rebuked.
All hope for the right to take back power seemed gone when a glimmer of light finally emerged. The Greens were ready to deal, and in exchange for money for new bike paths in Umedalen, Ersboda and Teg they could support the budget. With the relatively small amount of money needed to be reallocated for the bike paths, it was not a difficult choice for the four parties and in November of 2003 the Christian Democrat-Moderate-Centre-Green-People's budget defeated the Social Democratic-New Left one. Ibrahim Baylan announced his intent to step down as Mayor and on January 1st 2004 Anders Sellström became the new Mayor. He also became the first Christian Democrat Mayor of a city with more than 100 000 inhabitants, as well as the first Christian Democrat Mayor in Norrland.
The subsequent year was one of great animosity between the two political blocs in Umeå politics. The Social Democrats accused the the Christian Democrats (and Greens) of being disrespectful of democracy, the Christian Democrats accused the Social Democrats of being arrogant and feeling entitled to power, and so it went on and on and on and on. Meanwhile Lennart Holmlund and the Umeå Democrats stood on the sidelines and played the referee by smugly talking about how both sides placed their own ideologies ahead of what's best for Umeå. The 2005 election was fought on these terms and it was not a particularly good election for any party other than the Umeå Democrats, because they could once again portray themselves as above the fray. The Social Democrats of course tried to draw Holmlund into the fire with their harsh rethoric, because they would like nothing more than defeating him, but the public generally saw it as the Social Democrats being bitter and angry over Holmlund leaving the party (often rightly so).
The results on election night spoke for themselves. The Social Democrats had been routed, Baylan was humiliated, the Christian Democrats dropped like a stone in accordance with their national performance, and in the middle of it all you had Lennart Holmlund. He went from being a disgraced politician who no one wanted anything to do with to being the leader of Umeå's largest party. And thank's to the Moderate, Christian Democrat, Green, People's and Centre parties he was also once again the Mayor of Umeå.
I found this slightly amusing because I remember me and the chair teasing my CLP's youth officer for calling it a "chapter" because of how secret society-ish it sounds when she came to her first party meeting and was checking she was in the right place.
Also are local party leaderships normally this, well, contested is the wrong word but I can't think of a better one, in Sweden? In my CLP it's been at the AGM "chair vacates chair, secretary temporarily assumes, nomination and seconding one candidate (the incumbent for the last four years, though he's said he's standing down next year), move that nominations be closed" for chair as long as I've been a member (there was almost a contest in 2011 back before I joined), and scrabbling for people willing to fill them for the other posts afterwards.
After the 2006 midterms, Republicans were energized and inspired - 2008 would be the year in which they took back the White House and brought sanity, fiscal responsibility and American values back to Washington D. C. At least, that's what Judd Gregg, Mike Pence and other Republican leaders would tell you if you asked them, and they didn't mind being asked. President AuCoin wasn't a new Jimmy Carter, but he was definitely no Ronald Reagan either. Most of all, he seemed like... a new Dick Gephardt. On paper, AuCoin should have been in great shape; the economy was doing OK all things considered, and he didn't lack charisma. He was, however, a stubborn man. Therefore he had a hard time realizing, and even less accepting that his signature issues - abortion and environmentalism - wouldn't result in much progress, being as they were either up to the states or blocked by nervous Southern and Midwestern Democrats facing a torrent of Republican and conservative media, leaping at the chance to enrage the Joes the Plumbii of the flyover countries. Indeed, well into 2007, most of his speeches focused on his plans for a Green New Deal, exciting fewer each day as the fallout from the incident that brought AuCoin to power fell out of people's minds. People like the idea of tax cuts more than spacey projects, who'd have thought? Add to that AuCoin's perceived aloofness when it came to the short-lived Mexican cholera epidemic in late 2007 and growing worries about the tensions between South Africa and Zimbabwe, and you had the recipe for an environment that didn't exactly bode well for the incumbent party.
It was therefore no surprise that the Republican primaries were to be crowded. Indeed, the first candidate jumped in before 2006 had even ended - not that the idea of President Richard Riordan excited anyone - but the point remains. As Labor Day came, no less than 11 candidates were in the running. The frontrunner was, of course, Tommy Thompson, being as he were the Vice Presidential candidate of the popular vote winner four years earlier. A close second, however, was the folksy and staunchly conservative Governor Perry of Texas, followed a bit behind by the third-tier candidates: Governors Allen and Coffman, and Senator Thompson (to the confusion of many), all to an extent struggling to break out in the saturated field. In the far-right corner, Gov. Bauer of South Carolina was the standard bearer, hoping for a decent score in Iowa before the home team advantage in South Carolina would propel him into the front. Rounding out the field were the also-rans: Bachmann, Johnson, Riordan, Chafee and Seastrand. By Iowa, the three last ones would be gone, leaving eight to duke it out. To no one's surprise, the conservative evangelicals of Iowa united behind their man in the field, as Gov. Perry ended up in front with 34% of the vote to Thompson's 23%. The major surprise was Gov. Allen, who overperformed the polls and ended third with 17%, not too far behind Thompson, thanks to a strong debate performance. Fred Thompson and Michele Bachmann realized that they had failed to stand out and quickly dropped out, as did Gary Johnson, the quixotic businessman who had failed to excite the libertarian-leaning wing of the GOP.
As expected, Tommy Thompson would go on to win New Hampshire by a decent margin - Perry was never expected to do well in secular New Hampshire. What fewer expected was that Perry would stumble majorly in the final New Hampshire debate, coming across as nervous and jittery (which would later be blamed on health issues), allowing George Allen to take second place. (Meanwhile, somewhere inside the papers, Gov. Coffman announced his endorsement of Thompson.) In the grassroots, few were excited by the prospect of the rather dull Thompson as their candidate, and as Perry left them unimpressed, Allen was gaining momentum. Indeed, he would earn a proper "ALLEN-MANIA" headline on CNN after his victory in South Carolina, as Gov. Bauer sapped enough Perry voters to allow Allen - despite not focusing much on the red meat social issues - to eke out a win. Perry scoring thin victories in NV and MI on the same night was not given as much attention at all, and Thompson underperforming predictions slightly but noticably even less so.
Of course, with every rise comes a fall, and Allen was now put under pressure like never before as Perry and Thompson began to air ads hitting Allen on being wishy-washy and trying to appeal to every Republican at once, with some unflattering videos of seemingly contradicting responses edited together to add to the point. While donations had started to pour in after his early successes, Allen now quickly felt the drawbacks of not being an early frontrunner, as his campaign simply wasn't well-oiled enough to counter as quickly as needed; even worse, it was far harder to get volunteers down to Florida and around to all the Super Tuesday states than the early states. Still, the closeness of Florida proved that Allen - along with his stature, resume and positions on the issues - was a candidate to reckon with, as it looked more and more like a two-man race between Perry the frontrunner and Allen the underdog, as Thompson fell apart like a balloon with a tiny hole in it as the primary electorate realized that no one really cared that much for the idea of President Tommy Thompson, and they were definitely not enthusiastic for Candidate Tommy Thompson. As always, Super Tuesday - perhaps more Super than ever, as even more states than usual had clustered their primaries - would prove crucial to the fight.
In the end, it wasn't that exciting, though. Allen's base wasn't that much smaller than Perry's, but it was spread out relatively evenly across the nation. Allen's main triumph was New York, but its allocation system meant that he didn't grab a commanding delegate lead out of the state. And unfortunately, his other victories were limited to Alaska, Rhode Island and Maine, as Thompson took Minnesota, Wisconsin and the rest of New England. Perry swept the rest with an average of 43% of the vote. By then, it was all but over, despite the rivals struggling along for a couple of weeks. "The next President of the United States", Elizabeth Dole announced to the convention crowd in Indianapolis, "JAMES RICHARD PERRY!"
It was therefore no surprise that the Republican primaries were to be crowded. Indeed, the first candidate jumped in before 2006 had even ended - not that the idea of President Richard Riordan excited anyone - but the point remains. As Labor Day came, no less than 11 candidates were in the running. The frontrunner was, of course, Tommy Thompson, being as he were the Vice Presidential candidate of the popular vote winner four years earlier. A close second, however, was the folksy and staunchly conservative Governor Perry of Texas, followed a bit behind by the third-tier candidates: Governors Allen and Coffman, and Senator Thompson (to the confusion of many), all to an extent struggling to break out in the saturated field. In the far-right corner, Gov. Bauer of South Carolina was the standard bearer, hoping for a decent score in Iowa before the home team advantage in South Carolina would propel him into the front. Rounding out the field were the also-rans: Bachmann, Johnson, Riordan, Chafee and Seastrand. By Iowa, the three last ones would be gone, leaving eight to duke it out. To no one's surprise, the conservative evangelicals of Iowa united behind their man in the field, as Gov. Perry ended up in front with 34% of the vote to Thompson's 23%. The major surprise was Gov. Allen, who overperformed the polls and ended third with 17%, not too far behind Thompson, thanks to a strong debate performance. Fred Thompson and Michele Bachmann realized that they had failed to stand out and quickly dropped out, as did Gary Johnson, the quixotic businessman who had failed to excite the libertarian-leaning wing of the GOP.
As expected, Tommy Thompson would go on to win New Hampshire by a decent margin - Perry was never expected to do well in secular New Hampshire. What fewer expected was that Perry would stumble majorly in the final New Hampshire debate, coming across as nervous and jittery (which would later be blamed on health issues), allowing George Allen to take second place. (Meanwhile, somewhere inside the papers, Gov. Coffman announced his endorsement of Thompson.) In the grassroots, few were excited by the prospect of the rather dull Thompson as their candidate, and as Perry left them unimpressed, Allen was gaining momentum. Indeed, he would earn a proper "ALLEN-MANIA" headline on CNN after his victory in South Carolina, as Gov. Bauer sapped enough Perry voters to allow Allen - despite not focusing much on the red meat social issues - to eke out a win. Perry scoring thin victories in NV and MI on the same night was not given as much attention at all, and Thompson underperforming predictions slightly but noticably even less so.
Of course, with every rise comes a fall, and Allen was now put under pressure like never before as Perry and Thompson began to air ads hitting Allen on being wishy-washy and trying to appeal to every Republican at once, with some unflattering videos of seemingly contradicting responses edited together to add to the point. While donations had started to pour in after his early successes, Allen now quickly felt the drawbacks of not being an early frontrunner, as his campaign simply wasn't well-oiled enough to counter as quickly as needed; even worse, it was far harder to get volunteers down to Florida and around to all the Super Tuesday states than the early states. Still, the closeness of Florida proved that Allen - along with his stature, resume and positions on the issues - was a candidate to reckon with, as it looked more and more like a two-man race between Perry the frontrunner and Allen the underdog, as Thompson fell apart like a balloon with a tiny hole in it as the primary electorate realized that no one really cared that much for the idea of President Tommy Thompson, and they were definitely not enthusiastic for Candidate Tommy Thompson. As always, Super Tuesday - perhaps more Super than ever, as even more states than usual had clustered their primaries - would prove crucial to the fight.
In the end, it wasn't that exciting, though. Allen's base wasn't that much smaller than Perry's, but it was spread out relatively evenly across the nation. Allen's main triumph was New York, but its allocation system meant that he didn't grab a commanding delegate lead out of the state. And unfortunately, his other victories were limited to Alaska, Rhode Island and Maine, as Thompson took Minnesota, Wisconsin and the rest of New England. Perry swept the rest with an average of 43% of the vote. By then, it was all but over, despite the rivals struggling along for a couple of weeks. "The next President of the United States", Elizabeth Dole announced to the convention crowd in Indianapolis, "JAMES RICHARD PERRY!"
Come on - the "Green New Deal"? Might as well just have called him Jordan Pearson.
I stole that one from Jill Stein, actually. Who might have stolen it from someone else. Or it's just not a very imaginative slogan.