RE: [Mpls] Progressive Minnesota Endorsement Results

[David Brauer]

Jordan writes, of the PM endorsing process, 10th ward division:   >Doug Kress projected was very articulate and projected a commitment >to social and economic issues.  His non-profit social service background >helped with insight into needs for and approaches to affordable housing, >educational services, living wages.  It seems that he would be supportive >of local government resources being focused on needs of those who need >assistance rather than corporate welfare.  There was serious concern that >Kress did not express firm opposition to privatization of city services.  I >perceived that he would not categorically rule out privatization, but was not likely to support it.   PERSONAL DISCLAIMER: I am not supporting anyone yet in the 10th ward race, either publicly or stealthily. I remain undecided.   So Doug Kress, who sounds like the perfect liberal social-services advocate, big on many of the right issues, loses PM’s endorsement in some part because he leaves the door open a tiny crack for privatization? Wow.   I tell you what – I am no fan of privatization; I believe in most cases it is a lot of snake oil and cynical union-bashing. BUT would I rule it out categorically, in all circumstances, forever? No. I think Doug Kress was being honest, prudent, skeptical – and progressive.   I don’t think “progressivism” is synonymous with doctrinaire unionism. Jim Niland, god love him, sold out the taxpayers of Minneapolis -- and the city’s progressives -- by voting for corporate welfare to Block E, all for a couple of hundred Hotel & Restaurant Worker union jobs. It wasn’t worth the price.   The city’s progressives better wake up and realize if they’re going to be sold out by candidates on the left, it will be over Big Union issues. Our union brothers and sisters need to be held to the same “corporate welfare” accountability that we claim to hold everyone else to.   Look, I’m a union supporter. As a taxpayer, I support prevailing-wage and other laws as a way to undergird everyone’s pay scale. BUT there are times when the price can be too high. Judging from Jordan’s synopsis, Doug Kress merely allowed for such a possibility. He should be applauded, not shunned, for that.   David Brauer King Field – Ward 10