David, However the pool of possible delegates was already limited to the number of delegates each precinct in the 6th Ward sent to the Senate District Conventions in 2000. More likely than not, all of the delegate spots weren't filled at the Senate District convention so the Ward Convention pool of potential delegates has already been limited by that earlier turnout for the Senate Distrcit Convention in 2000. That is why I believe the possible number of delegates for St. Paul Ward Conventions is so much greater than the Mpls Ward conventions. We start with a clean slate each year while in Mpls you have been locked into only seating delegates who should up last year. The seats that were empty in 2000 have to remain empty even if there are people that would be interested in filling the empty delegate slots because of their interest in the city elections. That's bad for the DFL to be turning people away who want to participate in the endorsement process. The DFL owes candidates competing for the endorsement a level playing field and a fair process if they expect candidates to honor the endorsement. I don't believe the Mpls City endorsement process meets that standard. It's a system stacked in favor of the incumbents. Incumbents should be held accountable before being re-elected. If the endorsement process doesn't allow for that to occur because supporters of the incumbent are more likely to be in the delgate pool the system is unfair to challengers. Dennis Hill St. Paul DFL'er Ward 2 - West 7th Street
----- Original Message ----- From: David Finke Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 5:30 PM To: Eva Young Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Mpls] DFL Exclusion
I just counted the numbers on the sign-in sheets.
96 people registered out of 120 possible delegate
slots. That's 80% turnout. We have to remember
that these Ward organizations are not as large
as Senate District Conventions but are a more
focussed, neighborhood centered group.
Some folks left when their candidate had a poor
showing on the first ballot, but there is no
rule against that. The gym was quite full of
people anyway, with large numbers of visitors
from the Green Party, for example, who were handing
out buttons and literature for their candidate.
At any one time there were probably 100 to 200
people there.
I wonder how many people are involved in the
Republican endorsement process for the 6th Ward
City Council for example? Is it more or less than
96?
David Finke
SD61 Chair
Central
>Bert Black writes:
><<The DFL is not a public utility to be used when and where people feel like
>it as a pipeline to public opinion leaders. It is a private, membership
>organization. Green party members should earn their own organization instead
>of living off the DFL.>>
>Funny.... This is the argument the Boy Scouts used to defend their right
>to chose their own membership--freedom of association. The real
>contradiction here is the DFL is a victim of its own success. In
>Minneapolis politicians feel that the only way to get elected is to run as
>a Dem--which means running as a "DFL member" or as "DFL endorsed".... And
>basically we have a one party town.
>
>Holding it against candidates who run against DFL endorsement in wards
>where 50 or so delegates at the ward conventions give a candidate the
>endorsement is ludicrous. It's especially ludicrous when you look at the
>way the Minneapolis DFL runs its delegate selection process for city races.
> It seems that the St Paul model would work better--and I think that is
>what David Brauer's resolution stated.
>
>I also would like to hear the policy differences between the candidates in
>the ward elections. In Ward 8 there are 3 candidates running in the
>primary. In ward 6 there are at least 3 people running in the primary. In
>6th ward I think there is an off chance that the DFL endorsed candidate
>won't make it through the primary.
>
>Eva
>Eva Young
>Central
>
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