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.
The actual source of any disinformation was Stonewall DFL itself- the website made it appear that the mayoral endorsement might be delivered next saturday rather than the last saturday. This might explain the low turnout- I heard of endorsements being made with less than 10 members in attendance!
Stonewall DFL is the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and friends caucus
It used to be...
of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party.
Which now pretty much owns it lock, stock, and charter.
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.
Which has been a bit of a surprise to long term caucus members who show up at an endorsing meeting at the state DFL convention and are told their dues aren't paid up and they can't vote on endorsements... This seems to happen when influential board member(s) are trying to cook up an endorsement for their candidate and the newly disenfranchised members are supporting another.
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.
In fact, Stonewall DFL's endorsement is often just a rubber stamp of the DFL endorsement. In fact, Stonewall DFL marches in such lock step with the old guard at DFL headquarters, AKA "the problem on Plato Boulevard"that RT was reportedly denied an acceptable rating only because he reputedly would run against an endorsed candidate. I have heard no such words from RT. Before me is a piece of Peter McLaughlin's lit, in which he states "I will seek and respect the DFL endorsement." That seems to allow plenty of wiggle room.... Both mayoral candidates are indeed democrats and have campaigned hard to elect democrats, and surely proved their loyalty to the party in supporting the Kerry/Edwards ticket this past year.
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.
There is some vagueness here also- dues traditionally came due at the annual meeting in january, but this year Stonewall DFL hasn't been able to pull off an annual meeting yet. Thusly last year's members may still be paid up and still retain full voting rights. It is notable also that the DFL constitution clearly states that no fee may be required before participation in any party activity, although donations are of course requested. Then again Stonewall DFL has flouted the time honored principals of the Democratic Farmer-Laborite Party before in ignoring gender balance rules so they could stack the board with men.
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.
I will allow that the confusion was accidental on Stonewall DFL's part, providing they are willing to provide remedy by rescheduling the mayoral endorsement and publicising the date of the endorsement.
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.
Again, the rules are bent... IIRC members in arrears are allowed to pay up and vote at an endorsing meeting, never mind the DFLs prohibition of the Stonewall DFL's "Poll Tax".
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.
A little clause they threw in just in case the membership didn't endorse the board's hand picked candidate.
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.
It seems that deck stacking by the board is more of a problem.
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.
More due to the fact that pretty much only candidates running for safe seats seek Stonewall DFL endorsement. Fortunately in the last election cycle a local nonpartisan GLBT group produced a much more thorough voter's guide than Stonewall DFL's too short sample ballot.
Within the last ten days the winds of chance have blown through the Democratic Party- our state executive board added 4 more directors from minority communities, new progressive and veterans caucuses were chartered, our state chair is stepping down after too many terms, and Howard Dean has been elected chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Sadly, those winds of change have yet to penetrate the "atmosphere" of the Stonewall DFL.
uncommitted in Hawthorne,
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