What was shaping up as a potentially sleepy Minneapolis mayoral campaign got a jump start with its first entrant Thursday, amid continuing uncertainty over whether Mayor R.T. Rybak will be in the game.

The question about what Rybak will do is keeping several ambitious City Council members and potentially other candidates on the sideline until he decides.

But Robert Miller, who announced he'll run Thursday night at a Whittier eatery, is in the race specifically to challenge Rybak. That introduces an element of City Hall infighting to the contest, because Miller directs the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program.

Miller plans two overarching issues in his bid for DFL endorsement. He'll argue that Rybak and the council aren't serious about engaging residents in the work of the city and that the city needs more far-sighted financial management.

"We need a new mayor who not only listens but hears what people say," Miller said at the announcement event, which emphasized his government experience stretching from neighborhoods to the federal level.

Miller said he won't challenge a DFL endorsee, and if there's no endorsement he'll weigh finances and support before venturing further. He's hired campaign manager John Schultz and said he hopes to raise $40,000 to $50,000 before the spring endorsing convention.

Star Tribune, Star Tribune
Robert Miller

Rybak reiterated on Thursday that he has not applied for a post in President-elect Barack Obama's administration. He said his decision on whether to run for governor in 2010 is "a long ways off."

Among those who have been mentioned as candidates if Rybak opts against a third term are Council Members Ralph Remington, Gary Schiff, Don Samuels and Paul Ostrow.

Some City Hall politicos are skeptical that Miller's constituency goes beyond a few dozen neighborhood activists who fought Rybak's successful effort to bring the revitalization more under the city's wing. They doubt whether that translates to large blocs of endorsing convention delegates.

But the city DFL was unable to muster an endorsement both when Rybak eventually ousted Sharon Sayles Belton in 2001 and when he was challenged by veteran pol Peter McLaughlin in 2005.

Until Miller's entry, no names other than possibly Remington were circulating as Rybak challengers next year.

Like Rybak, Miller is a longtime resident of vote-rich southwest Minneapolis seeking to wield a base of neighborhood activists to oust a two-term incumbent.

Rybak partisans say he's more popular in his second turn than Sayles Belton was in hers.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438