Rick Stafford and Dean Zimmerman's squabble just reminds me about why
(besides getting kicked out, which Michelle St Martin quite accurately
described), I'm so glad I'm no longer involved with the DFL...... Rick
Stafford has mentioned that party officers, elected officials and
candidates should abide by the various party litmus tests (most notably,
giving up one's independence in evaluating candidates, and going by the
group think that happens in the caucuses/conventions).
Stafford on the Small Tent DFL:
http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2001-March/001067.html
Dean Zimmerman's Response:
http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2001-March/001077.html
Rick Stafford Reiterating the Small Tent DFL Philosophy:
http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2001-March/001079.html
There are Republicans who follow a similar politics of subtraction, rather
than of addition mindset for the GOP--that's the crowd that put Tony Sutton
in as ED of the GOP, endorsed Quist against sitting Governor Arne Carlson
in 94, endorsed Greg "Carlson" Wersal for Judge (and publically didn't
endorse well respected sitting judge, Kathleen Blatz) and convinced Norm
Coleman to make that deadly to his campaign promise to abide by Republican
endorsement. It's also the Minnesota Family Council/Christian Coalition
crowd who think of a Republican Big Tent like "chalk scraping over a
blackboard" as losing Presidential Candidate (but MN GOP straw poll winner
over Bush) Gary Bauer put it.
Gore's campaign was abysmally run in Minnesota, and that's why Bush came
within 2.4% points of winning. Now Stafford, who was running Gore's
campaign is bitterly going after the Nader supporters on this list, and
tried to use Schiff's support for Nader against him at the DFL 9th Ward
convention. That backfired (big time), and Schiff is endorsed handily on
the first ballot. Gore's campaign in Minnesota failed on two levels:
consolodating the DFL base and winning crossover Independent and Republican
voters. This wasn't the fault of Nader voters and supporters that Gore's
campaign failed to get any momentum in this state until AFTER the election
when it was too late. If it hadn't been for the effective campaign by
Betty McCollum and Mark Dayton, Gore might well have lost Minnesota.
But back to these party rules: What about Mike Freedman--who had been
endorsed in 98--didn't he end up endorsing Charlie Weaver for AG? Gee,
where is the hugh and cry to kick him out of the party? What about Sharon
Sayles Belton who supported Yanisch before the DFL endorsing convention
even though Yanisch was promising to run against the endorsed candidate?
Are they going to kick the Minneapolis out too? How do you think the DFL
is going to increase caucus attendance (and caucus attendance for the DFL
is decreasing big time) if the party constantly tries to eat its own? What
does any of this tell folks in the 6th ward about which candidate is the
best for the ward.
We have an interesting situation here in the 6th Ward. What is interesting
is that Dean Zimmerman seems to be the only candidate running who has held
elected office before--and is a proven vote getter. At this point with a
multicandidate field going to the primary for the 6th ward race, the DFL
could end up endorsing someone who would not get through the ward
primary......
I think this development will be healthy for the city, because the DFL as
now configured in the City (in basically a one party City), serves as more
of a problem than a solution.
On the 9th Ward--does Gary Schiff's endorsement mean he has no further
competition for the seat? I hope someone runs as an independent. I
personally like Gary, but I think the ward deserves some competition.
If the Republican Party would invest even a bit into party development in
Minneapolis, it would pay dividends here (not in 8th ward, but there are a
number of wards where it would). And it would help our city. It's a real
problem when we have no Republican legislators, because then it's a free
shot for some of the suburban Republican legislators to take potshots about
the tax money getting sucked into Minneapolis.
The City DFL has been quite effective at demonizing the Republican name in
Minneapolis by associating a loud, but minority of idiots as representing
the whole party. These idiots (the Renee Lavoi, Michelle Bachman, Alan
Quist types) give the DFL enough amunition to paint the whole GOP with this
broad brush of wackiness. And it has worked in Minneapolis. Folks here in
Minneapolis tend to vote for the Democrat because they often don't know
whether the Republican is a reasonable Arne Carlson type or a Quistanista.
This doesn't mean they are necessarily real happy with the DFLs choice of
candidates, but often just view it as the evil of two lessers. Candidates
and incumbents end up focusing more on the needs of the DFL delegates than
serving the overall needs of their constituents--DFL delegates defitely do
tend to get better customer service from the Council member than the garden
variety voter. A number of folks participate in the DFL only for that
reason.....
At a state wide level, the Democratic Party seems to have a stronger party
Chair than the GOP (Eibensteiner is a good fundraiser, but otherwise has no
clue) - The Bush campaign in the state, run by Norm Coleman was excellently
executed, the GOP house caucus did very well (with very little "help" from
the party), and the party mostly worked on the Grams campaign (which as we
all recall, lost badly), but to their credit they also managed to get
Michelle Bachman in, unseating long time Republican moderate (and
environmentalist), Sen. Gary Laidig--however in the long run making the
tent smaller rather than bigger--other moderates like Laidig might be
advised to switch parties rather than going through a primary in a similar
situation...meanwhile Dean Johnson who switched parties won handily as a
DFLer.......
What's interesting is there hasn't been any Independence Party Activity in
Minneapolis. Did Buchanan totally ruin the Independence party more
locally? Where is Neal Levine? He was so active running Jim Gibson's
campaign (what a breath of fresh air that was).
Eva
Eva Young
Central
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