Vanessa Freeman wrote, "I was unaware that when you file before the
DFL, convention, you are saying to folks that you are running with or with
out the DFL endorsement. Please forgive me, although I am strong on the
issues and know why I want to run, I do not wish to run if I am not endorsed
by the convention. So, again please excuse my lack of experience in the
filling methods."
[BRM] Actually, the circumstances here are rather unusual, and may
have resulted in some misunderstanding. Among DFLers, under normal
circumstances, a candidate filing for office without already having gotten
the endorsement means that the candidate is running without the
endorsement--because under normal circumstances, the endorsing convention
occurs long before filing opens, and when filing does open then there is
already an endorsed candidate (or there is not going to be any endorsement).
I assume that any inference Rochelle Olson's article may have drawn was
based on that experience.
With this special election and its abbreviated campaign season,
however, there was no way of holding an endorsing convention before filing
opened. The convention was scheduled at the earliest practicable date, which
happens to be the evening before filing closes--meaning that any endorsed
candidate must file on the last day, if he or she had not already filed
sooner. Under these unusual circumstances, it seems perfectly reasonable
that a candidate seeking the endorsement might file even before the
endorsing convention--and then withdraw if the convention endorses another
candidate. Vanessa's statement that "I do not wish to run if I am not
endorsed by the convention" is commendable, and her filing before the
convention seems based not on any "lack of experience in the filling
methods," but on having gotten introduced to the process under unusual
circumstances.
BRM
Brian Melendez, Chair,
Minneapolis DFL Party
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ph. 612.766.7309, 800.328.4393
Fax 612.766.1600
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