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Arthur LaRue asks: Anyone have great, proven methods to get new
Minneapolis voters to the polls?
This brings to mind the great Twinkies caper of 1985. George Belair
was defeated by Walt Dziedzic for City Council in the First Ward. The
following spring he was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of
violating the state Fair Campaign Practices Act, which prohibits
candidates from providing "any meat, drink or other
entertainment or provisions" in order to gain votes. Belair had
handed out Twinkies, Ho Hos, cookies and coffee to voters during his
campaign. Dziedzic's platform was that beverages were okay but food
was one step over the line.
Belair lost 2-1 to Dziedzic, suggesting that this method did not
bring new voters to the polls. But that question was never examined
in a judicial setting, because Hennepin County Attorney Tom Johnson
asked for dismissal of the alleged offense his office had brought to a
grand jury, saying he dreaded trying to prove "beyond a reasonable
doubt that Twinkies do have value."
His dismissal request may have had something to do with the public
horsewhipping of his office by an editorial page that didn't think it
was funny to lock up a 71-year-old for several hours under the 19th
century law.
The dismissal kept a judge from wrestling with difficult legal
issues. Those included whether a judicial precedent could be set
because of difficulties in applying the law on a uniform citywide
basis. For example, it was unclear whether Twinkies would be regarded
as a thing of value in the Wedge Coop precinct, and whether they would
cross the legal threshold as an item of value in the Second Ward
university precincts, where some voters more often get the munchies.
More recent events in Minneapolis have established a threshold of
$5,000 to $10,000 for allegedly buying votes.
Steve Brandt
King Field
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