Jordan writes:
>
> DFL rah rah rah!
>
> not quite. David Brauer's analysis is quite flawed.
>
> The reasons that most of the votes went to DFL candidates is because
most
> candidates of various liberal and progressive variations identified as
DFL.
<snip> The tests of Minneapolis voters' willingness to elect Green
candidates are
> still to come.
I hope for Jordan's sake my analysis is not flawed - since we come to
the same conclusion.
Mike Atherton made Tuesday seem like a repudiation of the DFL; my point
was that the numbers show pretty convincingly that it wasn't.
(Like Jordan, I noted there were multiple DFL candidates. However, DFL
candidates still got the votes, so the DFL as a party - Mike's argument
-- has not been repudiated.
(Jordan is also trying to turn multiple candidates into an advantage -
it isn't. If the Greens had had as many candidates in 6 & 8 as the DFL
did, it's likely Cam and Dean Z. would not have made the final, and the
Greens would not have been perceived as big a success story as they were
yesterday.)
Jordan writes, "the tests of Minneapolis voters' willingness to elect
Green candidates are still to come" I agree.
But that wasn't my point. My point was that the numbers show
Minneapolitans haven't yet repudiated the DFL. No Green council
candidate received more than 32 percent of the vote; DFL council
candidates, singly or in groups, received a majority of votes in EVERY
ward. (Actually, no less than 52 percent.)
Again, there were two party-type stories last night:
The Greens claimed their place in Minneapolis politics and have set the
stage for more.
The DFL did a lot to reform itself and earn majority status for a new
era. RT over SSB. Zerby over Campbell. Lilligren as Herron's likely
successor.
They are both, in my view, good news stories.
If DFL-bashers want to prematurely dance on graves, enjoy it now. On
November 7, they'll wake up and find a DFL mayor (a certainty) and at
least 10 of 13 DFL council members (a high probability). There's an
outside chance all 13 council members could be DFL.
And before I endure another knee-jerk accusation of Green-bashing, I
(and many reform-minded DFLers) do not wish for an all-DFL council. If I
could vote in every ward, I would not vote for an all-DFL council. There
would be Greens on it. But facts are facts - a DFL majority in every
ward is not a repudiation. Yet.
Whatever success the Greens have earned or will earn as a new city
partisan force, they have also helped those of us within the DFL who
want to change our party for the better. For that, I thank them -
sincerely. (And by the way, thanks to the Greens and four strong mayor
candidates for boosting turnout!)
We are not enemies. We want to see a lot of the same people lose. You
want to reform the system through another party, we want to reform it
from within.
DFLers are not all empty-head cheerleading boobs for the "machine." I
think we proved it at the ballot box Tuesday, as did Green voters.
David Brauer
King Field - Ward 10
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