Matthea Smith and Dennis Schapiro raised the question of whether
Minneapolis has a DFL machine, with Dennis citing its ability to
distribute a quarter million sample ballots.
The ability to pass out hundreds of thousands of sample ballots is
almost inconsequential for political machines.
The core of machine politics is the ability to control blocs of votes by
providing personal help and favors, and personally knowing each and
every voter.
The road warrior of the political machine is the precinct captain.
I know, because I was a democratic precinct captain in Chicago in the
mid-1980's.
I pounded on the doors of every house in my primarily Lithuanian
precinct. I spent hours and hours sitting down at people's kitchen
tables. I knew the names of every household in that precinct, and I knew
every person who was not registered to vote or who needed an absenteer
ballot or wanted a ride to the polling place.
And if someone said they needed a garbage can lid, I was on it in a
flash.
If Mineapolis was dominated by a political machine, things might run
something like this:
Let's say you are a precinct captain.
And let's say your precinct is in Elliot Park, where some high-rises are
90% Somali.
And let's say that you yourself are Somali.
Your career as a precinct captain started when your councilmember got
you your first decent-paying job, as a tree cutter for the parks
department.
In return, you were assigned this precinct in Elliot Park, and told that
your task was to deliver the votes on election day.
To win the confidence and support of the people of your precinct, you
got into that highrise and knocked on every door and sat down in
everybody's living room.
You now know the names and the needs of every person in that building.
And if someone has a problem, you help them.
Trouble with filling out government forms? You sit down and help them
write it out.
The son in trouble with the law? You connect Dad with a good lawyer and
maybe you go to the police station with him.
Another family having trouble getting their cousin over from Somalia?
You get the councilmember to make a special call to the congressman to
help grease the skids.
And what a nice touch that you remembered to send Mrs. Muhammed that
fruit basket on her birthday.
All you ask is that come election day, they vote for your list of
candidates.
When someone has been here long enough to qualify as a citizen, you help
them through the process. After all, then she will be eligible to vote
- for your candidates, of course.
Meanwhile, the Purity in Government Society (PIGS) is bellowing that
your councilmember used insider information to buy a house in the path
of a proposed highway, and then sold it to the government for twice the
original price.
The brie-and-chablis crowd around Lake Harriet is in an uproar, and is
demanding your councilmember's resignation.
But you know that your constituents will remain rock-solid behind your
councilmember, because you help them with their everyday needs, and the
Purity in Government Society does nothing for them. Besides, the money
for all those fruit baskets has to come from somewhere.
Two hardware stores in your precinct are applying for permits to expand
their businesses.
Nuts Hardware has been a loyal supporter of the incumbent councilmember.
But Bolts Hardware has very publicly called for cleaning up city hall,
and backed the PIGS candidate for council in the last election.
The local building inspector got her job through the councilmember. It
is perhaps not surprising that while the Nuts application breezes right
through, the Bolts application has gotten bogged down in red tape, code
violations, and lost paperwork.
Of course, a discreet contribution might just get the ball rolling
again.
The urban political machine survived for decades in the face of
determined opposition not because it beat a cowered populace into
submission, but primarily because it met the needs of multitudes of
people, particularly the poor and the immigrants.
The issues pushed by the blueblood clean-government types, such as
fiscal transparency and political reform, seemed irrelevant to people
just trying to survive.
Often it seemed the do-gooder's ancestors came over on the Mayflower,
while the machine supporters came over on some squalid cargo ship from
Trieste.
Even today I could see appeal for some for the precinct captain system.
On the one hand you have the precinct captain who knows your family's
names and needs, sits down on your couch, speaks your language, and is
available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
On the other hand you have an army of social workers and support
systems, whose people live and work miles from your home, who never set
foot in your house, who don't speak your language, and are available 9
to 5 Monday through Friday.
I think we can learn a few things from the despised machine
/precinct captain system.
My conclusion: since we don't have a precinct captain system, we don't
have a DFL political machine here in Minneapolis or Minnesota.
But in a couple of areas I get a feeling close to machine politics.
One is our caucus system. Here, there is no machine controlling huge
blocs of votes. But the pool of participants is so small, and so
self-selecting, that I get the feeling that a group of people dependent
on each other for jobs and favors could effectively grab control of the
selection process.
The other is the occasional story we hear, unsubstantiated as far as I
know, of this or that politician making it tough for some opponent by,
say, sicking the inspections dept on him.
Brian Herron's corruption, while not strictly machine politics (no votes
involved) certainly helped me feel right at home. Except that many
Chicagoans, far from being horrified, would have seen it as a sign that
Brian had at last become a seasoned, experienced politician.
Finally, I want to share with you the voter education advertisement I
always wanted to do for Chicago. It opens with a panoramic shot of
Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. As the camera pans across row after row
of tombstones, a deep voice admonishes, "THEY STILL VOTE, WHY CAN'T
YOU!"
P.S. I never had a job from the machine. I did it because I liked to
do it.
Jay Clark
Cooper
Schapiro wrote:
>
> Matthea Little Smith wrote:
>
> <<I would really be interested if someone could explain what and who the
> DFL machine is....I have yet to see any "machine" that could get a
> candidate into office without getting the support of the voters, by
> plain old-fashioned door knocking.>>
>
> Well, here's one view from the bottom on the ballot...
>
> DFL/Labor was responsible for printing and distributing upwards of a
> quarter million sample ballots that promoted three DFL-endorsed school
> board candidates. Of course, any of the other candidates could do that
> for, say, $100,000.
>
> All three DFL candidates strike me as good folks, but I don't think they
> finished 1-2-3 because voters "embraced their message." (Heck, I don't
> know their messages and I have been paying attention.)
>
> I am running in part because I believe the DFL endorsement process does
> not serve schools well, even if it manages to produce some
> fair-to-excellent endorsees for most elections.
>
> If the electorate's major criterion for selecting school board members
> is DFL approval, so be it. But from my vantage point, the DFL does walk,
> talk and quack like a machine.
>
> Dennis Schapiro
> Candidate for School Board
> www.denny4schools.com
>
> Linden Hills
> _______________________________________
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