On Wed, 15 Dec 2004, Tamir Nolley wrote: > These days I'm something of a Green Party partisan. However, the one > thing that has NOT been said on the fusion thread is that (in theory at > least) these city elections are supposed to be NON-PARTISAN!!! > I'm not really sure how I feel about city elections at this point. I > remember that in 1997, Dean Zimmermann (park board) and Jim Niland (city > council) were both elected as fusion candidates. I believe the > designation said "DFL/Green Party/New Party." I have no idea how well > that wroked, but in 2001, partisan affiliation to the parties and led to > many potential fusion candidates not being endorsed by anyone, even when > they could have been endorsed by everyone (in theory anyway.) > I find it sick and disturbing that that these elections are in fact the > MOST partisan of elections. It is dishonest and makes the city charter > look like a meaningless piece of paper. The DFL is usually the worst > offender in this regard, but all major parties, including the Green and > Independence Parties have been forced to view these as more partisan and > therefore act accordingly.
The term non-partisan is misleading. It does not mean non-acrimonious. It means there is a primary, after which the top two (even of the SAME party) go the the general election. In a partisan race, each of many parties has a candidate in the general - so you can choose among 3 or more. > This leads to PR. Forgetting that city elections are supposed to be > non-partisan in the first place, proportional representation does > address having the views of the political minority being represented. > However, not every political party uses a democratic process to elect > it's candidates in all situations. What you're complaining about is the PARTY LIST version of PR. I don't like it either. I would not lift a finger to put it in place. Time wasted when what we really need is the version of PR called STV - Single Transferrable Vote - where YOU can vote for any candidate of any party at any place in your priority ranking. It gives the incumbents the LEAST security of any system I know - that's one reason I like it - and the citizens the maximum power. I don't like hacks any better than you do. --David Shove Roseville REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
