>In its history, Minneapolis has had only one gay person on its city council,
>Brian Coyle (and it is quite shocking to realize the 10th anniversary of his
>death is this summer). After this election, it is quite plausible that there
>will be four gay men on the council, all of whom would have to be considered
>favorites right now: DFL endorsees Gary Schiff (9th) and Scott Benson
>(11th), plus Dean Kallenbach in the 6th and Doug Kress in the 10th.
There are also two gay men running in the 8th ward. Walt Gutzmer and
Robert Lilligren. The 8th ward was another area where Stonewall used the
"will you abide by DFL endorsement" litmus test to deep six even
recommendation of both Walt and Robert--even though both these candidates
expressed an interest in endorsement, screened, and filled out the
questionaire (source: Stonewall DFL website).
One of the Stonewall folks at the 8th ward screening, told Brian Herron
"you didn't even need to come, you know we would give you the endorsement".
I've heard this story from two different people. I'm not sure who the
person is who said this. This again suggests that no serious screening for
the best candidate on GLBT issues was being done by Stonewall.
And recall, a couple years back they endorsed Al Galmon for Schoolboard.
About a week before the election the "Catholic League" put out a flyer that
talked about some of Galmon's positions that sounded quite different than
what Stonewall or the DFL Feminist Caucus would endorse. This little
commedy of errors is described in the Minneapolis Issues inspired
story--Party Games in the City Pages:
http://www.citypages.com/databank/20/988/article8187.asp
It's a history lesson worth looking back on.
The 6th ward race will be interesting because there is a chance that the
DFL endorsed candidate could end up not winning in the primary. There are
a number of candidates there, and with that mix, elections are quite
unpredictable.
>(Disclaimer: No insult is meant to other candidates, especially in the 6th
>and 10th - obviously, there are still races to be run, and in some cases,
>endorsement fights to fight. But Dean has a lot of the DFL insiders behind
>him
The problem for Dean is he is competing against a seasoned veteran
candidate--with significant name recognition: Dean Zimmerman.
> and Doug is the only candidate willing to abide by the very helpful DFL
>endorsement).
But isn't the 10th ward a place where historically candidates have managed
to beat DFL endorsed candidates?
>While this is a fascinating sociological development, there's no clear sense
>of what it means policy-wise. And that's a sign of political maturity, I
>think. The candidates clearly aren't running on a "gay agenda," at least
>based on what I've seen. (Perhaps Stonewall has different ideas.) They are
>individuals with an interesting demographic tie - sorta like when the City
>Council became majority female some years back. In hindsight, I'm not sure
>the women did business differently from the men, and I don't have a clue if
>gays will do political business any differently from the straights.
It seems like there are two kinds of City Council members--the pawns, and
the players.
On another 8th ward issue, while at the CNIA Family Festival yesterday, all
candidates were there. I asked Brian Herron and Sandra Miller if they
would be willing to participate in a candidate forum if we could get all
candidates together. Both of them said yes. Robert Lilligren is also
interested in a joint candidate forum. I didn't get a chance to talk with
Walt Gutzmer about such a forum. A number of us who got together after the
CNIA fest discussed how sponsoring a Candidate forum might be a good way
for CNIA to get some positive press (and gain some trust and respect) from
folks on all sides of the Central Divide.
Eva
Eva Young
Central
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