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“What are you going to do going forward? How are you going to get us back on track? What does the budget look like going forward, that we’re not going to continually have this struggle?” Lantry said. The ‘best job in the world’ Carter, 46, often says that being mayor of St. Paul is the best job in the world, but he also says his wife tells him he picked the worst years to do that job. He grew up in the Rondo neighborhood, a fifth-generation St. Paulite and son of a St. Paul police officer, Melvin Jr., and a mother, Toni, who has gone on to serve as a Ramsey County Commissioner and a member of the Met Council. In 2007, not so long after graduating college and his days as a state track champion for Central High, Carter was elected to the City Council to represent Ward 1. Melvin Carter, his wife, Alecia, and daughter Maylena, 2, celebrate his winning a seat on the St. Paul City Council in November 2007. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune) After handily winning re-election to the council in 2011, Carter resigned in 2013 to take a job with then-Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration, steering early childhood education work at the Department of Education. When former Mayor Chris Coleman announced he would not seek re-election in 2017, Carter jumped into the race with Coleman’s full backing. That first term saw Carter champion bold progressive policies, including a pilot for a universal basic income program and college savings accounts for newborns. Mayor Melvin Carter and St. Paul Chief of Police Axel Henry at a news conference following a shooting at the St. Paul Phalen Cub Foods on July 11. (Rebecca Villagracia/The Minnesota Star Tribune) During debates, Carter has joked about a St. Paul police sergeant who tried to purchase a gun from a suspected criminal during a sting operation only to have the seller refuse to meet within the city limits of St. Paul. In 2023, Carter campaigned for a new 1% sales tax to fund street repairs and parks. The money has already paid for street reconstruction on Grand Avenue, a road so old that streetcar rails and cobblestones were still buried beneath the pavement. Carter also oversaw reconstruction of several major downtown streets — a headache in the short term, he said, that is about to pay off for the city. Still, Lantry said, his campaign could lay out a clearer vision for another term. “Some of the things that he is touting, I think people are like, ‘Yep, that’s great, don’t raise my taxes,’ or at least, ‘Show me how those things that you’re doing can lessen my tax burden or get me more services,’” said Lantry, who declined to say whom she voted for, as did many St. Paul political operatives and observers friendly with both Carter and Her. ‘We’re the mayor’s office’ In debates, Her has attacked Carter for an uncollaborative style that has alienated colleagues and partners. “The attitude in the mayor’s office is, ‘We’re the mayor’s office, we don’t have to consult with anyone,’” Her said during a September forum at Johnson High School.
