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I think I'm going to be ill. Mr. Dobson and his mouth have apparently had his head in some sort of deluded sandbox. Never ever forget the roles that Greens and fellow progressives played in electing what is the supposed to be the first liberal majority the St. Paul Council has had in 2 decades. I would be tempted to dismiss Dan Dobson's ravings as simply ill-informed, but this repeated shoot-from-the-hip presumptuousness is getting tiresome as hell. Furthermore, we're speaking of nonpartisan races here. Voters in nonpartisan races are all over the map - party loyalty being a limited thing, especially when less than 15% of eligible voters bother to get their asses to the primary polls and less than 35% vote in the General. First of all, never, ever forget that without the percentage of Crocus Hill votes Dave Thune never before enjoyed in his entire political life, Christine Nelson would now sit on the City Council. You can thank Green and DFL voters who went from Elizabeth in the primary to Thune in the General for putting Dave over the top - and not by much. Hundreds of DFL voters marked Elizabeth Dickinson's name in the Primary - never forget that, too. As for Helgen, no one I know in the Green party is claiming Greens elected Helgen, but believe this: progressive outnumbered Chamber supporters in Ward 5 - and that would damned well include Greens - like Charlie and Anne Tiller - who have spent years as Green Party progressives. But the worst accusation of all is that Greens have been absent in the BORDC work being done here and elsewhere. Dobson wouldn't know a Green Party member from a DFLer whether he'd been to a meeting or two or not. The fact is that Dori Ullman and Elizabeth Dickinson plus many other Greens in and out of the National Lawyers Guild have been working on BORDC committees here and across the country for over two years. Dori, in particular, has been an active committee member working for months to get the resolution passed. I saw no one patting themselves on the back. The Council hardly acts without advocates on both sides of an issue lobbying them. Greens and DFLers and other supporters of the anti-Patriot Act resolution have been hard at it without a whiff of involvement by the likes of Dan Dobson. Go to your room, and don�t come out until you write "WRONG" 50 times on the blackboard. Andy Driscoll Crocus Hill ------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 09:08:31 -0800 (PST) From: Dan Dobson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dave - You added your note to Gena's post, in the Progressive Newsletter, "I like to think that the Green Party candidacies of Elizabeth Dickinson and Richard Broderick have helped make the StPaul climate more progressive. - ed.". While we can agree that the St. Paul Council is more progressive these days, a very refreshing change, and the Council members are due a big Thank You for passing the Resolution, (I e-mailed them all yesterday), Elizabeth's and Richard's running had little or nothing to do with it. It was the victories of Lee Helgen over Kris Reiter and Dave Thune replacing Chris Coleman and Deb Montgomery replacing Jerry Blakey that has made the Council more progressive. Had Kris Reiter won and there not been the change-over in the other two seats, the Council (no matter who won in Wards 1 and 2 - there had to be an improvement), the Council would still be stuck in the same rut it was for the past 6 years. The Green Party may want to pat itself on the back for this new more "progressive council", but I think credit needs to go to Mr. Helgen, Mr. Thune and Ms. Montgomery, as well as those progressive stalwarts, Jay Benanav and Kathy Lantry. I fail to see how the Greens helped any of them. I worked on both Lee's and Dave's campaigns and after Elizabeth lost in the primary, I saw no Green presence, other than Andy Drsicoll reluctantly endorsing Dave, after months of trashing him. In fact Elizabeth steadfastly refused to endorse Dave, even thou several appeals were made to her. And while Progressive Minnesota endorsed Lee and did yeoman's work for him, I did not see one word by the Green's supporting Lee. I fail to see how the Greens should get any credit for the new more progressive St. Paul City Council. Dan Dobson Summit Hill - St. Paul _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ _____________________________________________ For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
