After a fairly long period of dormancy in mayoral politics in Duluth, Howie Hanson announced that he would be running for mayor in the next election, 14 months from now, prompting Don Ness to invite him to debate, even though he isn’t sure he’s running.

And now, just a few minutes ago, Hanson on Facebook publicly called out Ness to make his intentions known on whether he will run or not.

All of this is being done in a very public way.

After a long period of holding hands and singing “Kum Bah Ya” are we finally getting back to the down and dirty local politics Duluthians seem to love?