Does Brian's information include the following - It is my understanding
there was a State DFL Constitution Committee meeting in Duluth this weekend
and that on Sunday morning there was discussion regarding
cross-endorsement. Will Mike be putting out a press release or some kind of
memo with the wording and results decided upon by that body? Actually I
don't think the word is "bailing", I think it is called doing "the limbo?"-:)
ay
At 08:07 PM 4/3/01 -0500, David Brauer wrote:
>I think Brian's post below is important (and his post to the dfl-cd5 list
>below that even more so):
>
>The bottom line: DFL candidates who bail on the Green cross-endorsement are
>being hasty - there is no city/state DFL rule that anyone has found that
>bars this. (The DFL endorsement-seeker could lose delegate votes by seeking
>the Green nod - but that's a delegate-courting strategy, not a no-talk
>rule.)
>
>Of course, the DFL city convention could pass a 6th district-type resolution
>preventing candidates courting another party from speaking. But it would be
>a "fresh" rule, not something allegedly time-honored.
>
>Now again, party parliamentarians, what percentage of the convention would
>it take to do that? (Or what will it take to undo such a no-speak rule if
>passed by the pre-convention Rules Committee?)
>
>I also applaud DFL chair Mike Erlandson for not enforcing a
>"no-cross-endorsement" rule that apparently doesn't exist by any stretch of
>the imagination. I think Brian and Mike are showing excellent, professional
>leadership here. This only helps the DFL's reputation.
>
>David Brauer
>Kingfield - Ward 10
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
>Melendez, Brian
>Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 5:13 PM
>To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
>Subject: [Mpls] FW: DFL/Mpls.: Cross-endorsement
>
> 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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Organization is a means of multiplying the strength of an individual.
Cryptogram of 3/28/01
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