In view of the current thread about Dean Zimmerman's status at the
Sixth Ward convention, I am forwarding for the list's information a message
that I sent the week before last to the DFL Fifth Congressional District
listserv; to the Minneapolis DFL Campaign Committee listserv; and to my
counterpart in the Green Party, Holle Bryan.
It is not necessarily true that the Sixth Ward convention was "a
turning point of some kind on the cross-endorsement question." The
particular rule under which Mr. Zimmerman could be nominated but could not
address the convention was a rule that the Sixth Ward convention adopted in
a slightly different form than the standard rules than the City Central
Committee proposed and which, as far as I know, was not adopted in that form
at any other ward convention. The City Convention's rules committee has not
met yet, so I do not know what approach will be proposed there.
BRM
Brian Melendez, Chair,
Minneapolis DFL Organization
E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ph. 612.336.3447
Fax 612.336.3026
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Melendez, Brian
> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 10:48 AM
> To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
> Subject: DFL/Mpls.: Cross-endorsement, Mike Erlandson
>
> I am writing, first, to inform the list about the issue of
> cross-endorsement--how and why it came up in its latest incarnation, what
> the immediate issue really is, and where it stands now; and second, to
> respond to the criticism that has been leveled, unfairly in my opinion,
> against State Chair Mike Erlandson. The earlier messages from Loki
> Anderson, Dave Lee, and Scott Benson have already identified the issue,
> but perhaps I can add some context. I will say that, since I first raised
> this issue, Mike Erlandson's participation has been thoughtful, helpful,
> principled, and professional, and his analysis has focused on what
> approach will best serve the Party's interests--just what I would want and
> expect from a state chair.
>
> Earlier this week, I received a message from my counterpart in the
> Green Party, Holly Bryan (sp.?), asking me about the DFL Party's policy on
> whether a candidate can seek both the Green Party endorsement and the DFL
> Party endorsement in a nonpartisan election (which includes every City
> election in Minneapolis). The same question had also arisen two months
> ago in an online conversation on the mpls-issues listserv. The City
> Party's constitution is silent on the question, and I was unaware of any
> other prohibition against seeking both endorsements; but, to be on the
> safe side, I also consulted Mike Erlandson as State Chair, Dave Lee as
> State Secretary, and Bert Black as the Constitution Commission chair. The
> upshot was that the State Executive Committee may have adopted a policy
> about 1993 or 1994, but nobody could actually find such a policy, and
> there were varying recollections about whether it even addressed
> cross-endorsement or whether it was limited to fusion, the hot topic at
> the time.
>
> To be clear, the issue here is not fusion, which concerns whether a
> candidate can appear on a partisan ballot as more than one party's
> nominee. That issue is clearly settled by state law (and a line of court
> cases), and the answer is no. But the ballot for the Minneapolis
> elections is nonpartisan, so there are no party nominations as such (which
> is why two candidates from the same party may advance from the primary to
> the general election), and the applicable law lets a candidate identify
> his or her affiliation, with a political party or otherwise, as long as
> the identification does not exceed three words.
>
> Nor is the issue here about who can vote as a DFLer. That issue is
> clearly settled by the Party's constitution, which provides that "no
> person may vote . . . at any caucus, convention, meetings or conference of
> the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party who is a member of any other political
> party" (art. I, sec. 2). But the Party's constitution addresses only
> membership and eligibility for Party office (art. I, sec. 3), not
> eligibility for endorsement. It does not regulate who can get endorsed,
> only who can decide who gets endorsed.
>
> I first looked at this question as whether a Green Party (or any
> other major political party) member can seek the DFL Party's endorsement.
> I am looking at it now as whether a DFLer, who is not a member of any
> other political party, can seek another party's endorsement and still seek
> the DFL Party's endorsement. As Mike Erlandson has pointed out, it may
> serve the DFL Party's purposes if the answer is yes. In fact, Council
> Member Jim Niland has always identified himself as a DFLer, but has also
> identified himself as "Green" and "Progressive" (since "DFL" counts as
> only one word).
>
> I know that Mike has been lobbied, vigorously, to simply issue a
> "ruling" as State Chair, declaring that the DFL Party prohibits endorsing
> a candidate who also has sought or will seek another party's
> endorsement--either on the basis of the elusive policy from the early 90s,
> or based on an "interpretation" of the State Party's constitution
> (although nobody has cited any provision that actually supports such an
> interpretation), or just on general principles. I give Mike a lot of
> credit for resisting that temptation, and for acting as a leader rather
> than a boss. Neither Mike nor I am the policymaker here, so I have been
> asking only about what the rule is, not about what it ought to be. One of
> the principles that the DFL Party stands for, at least in my mind, is the
> rule of law--that we are an organization based on principle, rather than
> power. If the Party has prohibited cross-endorsement, then Mike and I are
> bound by that prohibition; and if the Party has not prohibited it, then
> what Mike or I or anyone else thinks is interesting, but not binding. If
> a delegate wants to vote for a DFLer who has been endorsed by another
> party, and I am a party officer telling the delegate that he or she can't
> do it, I need a better answer than that I (or Mike, or whoever) thinks it
> is a bad idea.
>
> Several members have been searching diligently for that old policy
> from 1993 or 1994, so far without success. My view is that, unless we can
> produce an actual adopted policy, we cannot prohibit a Green-endorsed
> candidate from seeking the DFL endorsement.
>
> I understand that the Sixth Ward's proposed rules address this issue
> on their own, so hopefully that ward convention has solved this issue
> without outside help. I suspect that the delegates in other wards will
> likewise find their own solutions and I predict that, come next week, the
> issue will be moot (at least until it resurfaces!). But I thank Mike
> Erlandson and others for their help in thinking through this issue and,
> when all is said and done, I trust that the delegates will make the
> decisions that are best for the Party.
>
> BRM
>
> Brian Melendez, Chair,
> Minneapolis DFL Organization
> E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Ph. 612.336.3447
> Fax 612.336.3026
>
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