[Mpls] DFL 3rd Ward Endorsement

[dyna]

Apparently my supervisors are still buying my creative interpretation of the Hatch Act- they let me take off for the convention. They did moan and groan a bit, and actually thought I'd only need an hour off...

The turnout was amazing, with something like 74 of the possible 92 delegate seats full. This is a trend we have seen since the DFL's "defeat" in the general election- huge turnouts even at off year DFL events. If this is a trend the Republicans best not get overconfident with their "mandate". None the less my Northside ward had barely half it's delegate seats filled.

With a mere 7 candidates vying for endorsement it only took 2 hours to get through nominations, speeches, questions, and answers. This left a mere hour before we had to clear the "tent", er, hall. The first ballot whittled the field to 3, with Kari Dietzic slightly trailing Olin Moore and Don Samuels barely making the 10% cut.

A word about Don Samuals' campaign is in order. Dietzic and Moore's campaigns had all the usual suspects there on their behalf. You know- the party activists, union guys, etc.. Don Samuels had a whole horde of supporters from the Northside there. Granted they were politically nieve, but they were there because they believe in Don Samuels.

The next ballot dropped Don Samuels. The third ballot saw Olin Moore best 50% and it was all over for Kari Dietzic. The final ballot pushed Olin Moore over 60% to win the endorsement at 9 pm.

Olin won because he was able to pull together diverse interests to build a majority. The fact that he has lived on both sides of the river helped him win over most of the Northside delegates after our favorite sons and daughters fell victim to the drop rule. Olin also picked up a lot of support from labor who looked beyond the union bosses questionable "endorsement".

Though not perfect, this was a fair and open endorsement process. I wish we could have made all the committed neighborhood activists for Don Samuels voting delegates. But I doubt if that would have changed the outcome- Don's 10 votes plus 20 or so volunteers would still see him dropped, but a few ballots later.

Olin Moore has deservedly won the DFL endorsement and several of the other candidates, class acts all, will be supporting him. The DFL candidates who still plan on running in the primary would be wise to talk with Olin- he has broad experience on both sides of the river and proved receptive to diverse delegate's concerns.

As for the carpetbagger candidates remaining in the race- hit the road! As long as your wandering about in search of political opportunity, you may as well go outstate and defeat some Republicans.

peace,

Dyna Sluyter in Hawthorne
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