To all members of the Minneapolis Issues Forum, It has come to our attention that a degree of misinformation has been conveyed on this mailing list with respect to the Minneapolis City Council and Mayoral races and our organization's endorsement process.
Stonewall DFL is the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and friends caucus of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party. Our organization is comprised of GLBT community members and its straight allies that pay an annual membership to participate in our screening and endorsement processes. With that being said, it is important to understand 2 distinctions that are very relevant in endorsing candidates: 1) Our organization is chartered by the MN DFL party. Our offices are located in the State DFL office building. Our membership is open to any person registered to vote in MN. Our endorsements may not conflict with any official party endorsement. 2) The members of Stonewall DFL must pay dues in order to be eligible to participate in any organizational vote or endorsement process. Our constitution clearly outlines rules for participation in the endorsement process. It was our original intent to hold a joint Minneapolis/St. Paul Mayoral candidate forum on January 29th. Due to scheduling conflicts that materialize on both sides of the river, our Board of Directors made the decision to change the dates and times of the Mayoral screening part of our endorsement process so that they could be incorporated into the process we were using for other races this year. All 5 candidates (3 St. Paul and 2 Minneapolis) were notified of these changes prior to the 22nd of January. The new dates, times and specifics of our endorsement process were published on our web site (www.stonewalldfl.org) on January 22, 2005. Additionally, we published our e-mail newsletter that went out to over 700 people from our mailing list to notify them of the process, dates, times and locations of our screening and endorsement votes. That brings us to today. Today was the 2nd of 3 Saturdays of our candidate screening process which consists of 3 major steps. Step 1 - questionnaire review and in-person interviews. These interviews were done in groupings (wards 1-5, 6-10, parks, and library boards) on Feb. 5 and Feb. 12. Step 2 - ballot votes of the screening team recommendations. This portion has always been scheduled so that the voting for wards 1-10, parks, library and Minneapolis Mayor's race would be held today. (Wards 11-13, board of estimate & taxation, and St. Paul Mayor votes will be held next week.) Only members of Stonewall DFL with dues paid 10 days prior to the scheduled vote were eligible to vote as stated in our constitution. Step 3 - ratification of the ballot votes from the screening teams must be considered by the organization's elected Board of Directors prior to becoming official. It is step 3 that has created some confusion on the part of candidates some of the races. The historical purpose for step 3 is to provide a safeguard in the endorsement process that limits any one candidate's campaign from being able to 'stack the deck' in their favor by turning out delegates to participate solely for the purpose of gaining an endorsement without true consideration being given to the members of our caucus and the needs of the GLBT community. When Council member Lilligren posted today that specific candidates had been endorsed, he was not 100% accurate in doing so. An endorsement vote was taken by our membership that will be forwarded to the Stonewall Board of Directors for final consideration. * * None of the candidates listed in his e-mail have officially been endorsed at this time. Only the Board of Directors is empowered to make the final determination of which candidates will be endorsed. * * That vote will occur next Saturday, February 19th. At that time our organization will be issuing a press release which will be published here, on the St. Paul Issues Forum, sent to the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Lavender Magazine and Living Out newspaper as well as other local media. On behalf of Stonewall DFL and our over 700 members, I would like to extend an apology to any and all candidates and citizens that this information has touched. We take great pride in our endorsement process and its effectiveness over the life of the organization. In the last 2 election cycles, over 75% of our endorsed candidates have gone on to win in the general election - largely because of the fact that our process is so thorough. Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions that you may have in this regard or with respect to Stonewall DFL. Paul R. Skrbec Director of Communications, Stonewall DFL Inver Grove Heights, MN [EMAIL PROTECTED] REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
