I can answer most of your questions about Laverne Turner. Laverne is African-American and a renter in the East Phillips neighborhood. His political and community experience includes years of working with at-risk youth, both at North Community YMCA, and in South Minneapolis where he has lived most of his life, running for State Rep, and mentoring young(er) people interested in politics. He is 27 years old.
I first met Laverne in 2000, after the election when I was getting ready for my city council run. I had volunteered for Karen Clark (and I wouldn't do that for too many DFLers.) I saw Laverne's position paper calling racial profiling "a law enforcement tactic," and calling for an end to the CODEFOR program, something which was not addressed by too many state candidates in 2000. There were many issues for him, as he was very concerned (and still is) with a viable, ecologically sound and affordable transportation system to enable low income communities to have more job opportunities, as well as many other issues. (a formal press release will be comming soon.) Although I supported Karen Clark, Laverne and I became close friends and he became the campaign manager for my 2001 city council race. This was a little risky for him because at the time my views on the Minneapolis Police were considered too extreme by many, never the less, I think recent events have proven me, Laverne, and many others with the same views (including CM's Zimmermann and Johnson Lee) right. Although both of us ran as Independence Party candidates, we joined the Green Party (I sought GP endorsement as well as IP) in early 2001 because the Green Party platform and their ten key values, particularly the values of social/economic justice, decentralization, diversity, and future focus, are much more consistent with our beliefs and in this case the message that Laverne will be articulating. Laverne often says that third parties offer the best choices for representation of the under-represented, and he's chosen Green. That's about as much as I know. For the rest I encourage people to e-mail Laverne. He can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tamir Nolley A guy who lives in SD 61 --- "Cameron A. Gordon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You can double check with Luverne, but he has been > (and is) seeking Green Party > endorsement. His the only candidate for 61 one who > is doing so as far as I > know. > > The Senate District endorsements will likely occur > in early June. Then we > should know a lot more. > > > Cam > > Constance Nompelis writes: > > > > I know of two other candidates: Steve Braa, a > > Republican, and Luverne Turner, an Independence (I > > think?) I don't know the ancestry of either. The > last > > time I checked with the Greens, (about a week ago) > > they were not disclosing -at least to the > Republicans- > > who their candidate would be. > > _______________________________________ > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic > Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
