It's January 10 already - seven short weeks before the first Tuesday in March when the DFL Party, for one, has elected to have municipal precinct caucuses. First precincts, then wards, then a city convention. Great fun and all for the purpose of vetting candidates, incumbent or otherwise, who want to sit in the local seats of power for the next four years. I don't know offhand what process the other political parties intend to bring to this sifting and winnowing exercise. These are, after all, nonpartisan positions. Still, gentle readers will recall that the DFL did not have a monopoly on City Council seats or for that matter the Park Board once the dust settled in November, 2001.
Since then, we've gone through the redistricting process, had the outcome survive two challenges in federal court, and had one member of the City Council leave office and take up residence in the pokey. Even if all the candidates were as pure as the driven snow, something's going to give because there are two incumbent city council members in the same ward on the north side of town and two more city council members in the same ward on the south side of town. Four wards (2,8,10,13) have their council seats up for grabs because incumbents either aren't running for re-election or - in the case of Council Vice President Lilligren - were redistricted out of their original constituency. And there is a doozy of a contest emerging between first-term Mayor Rybak and veteran Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. All sorts of people voted with considerable passion in the November, 2004 general election - Minnesota was first in the nation in voter turnout and Minneapolis played no small part in that muscular civic moment. There's room for plenty of pointing with pride and viewing with alarm. What matters is that we have many thousands of Minneapolis voters who take this very seriously. We will have a busy time of it in the months ahead, whatever our political preferences, and I have no doubt that our local government will be the better for all the public scrutiny and decisions whose time has come. Less heat and more light, I should think, so we don't burn the toast. Fred Markus, Phillips West, Ward 6 --- http://USFamily.Net/dialup.html - $8.25/mo! -- http://www.usfamily.net/dsl.html - $19.99/mo! --- 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
