St. Paul Topics - This Week: Light Rail http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul-topics -----------------------------------------
I, for one, personally like John, but I am getting a little tired of his incessent whining about how bad the City DFL is. Could we do better, absolutely, but depite all of the complaining, I must point out that there are now 4 progressive DFL'ers on the City Council and that last fall, 2 of the 3 candidates endorsed by the Mayor, the Chamber of Commerce and the conservative members of the City Council LOST! John writes, "Finally the City could learn alot from the National Party and how they went into a convention UNITED, unlike St Paul where no one knows who will be endorsed till the convention . . . " I hesitate to belobor the obvious, but the Democrats went into their national convention in Boston united because prior to that, there had been 20+ debates between 9 and 11 candidates, (depending upon how you count), numerous primaries had already taken place, as well as countless state and precint level conventions. We don't have all of that prior to the convention in St. Paul. If the City DFL were to go into a convention "United", i.e. our candidate pre-picked or selected as John is proposing, the crys of "fixing" and that a small group control the DFL from the inside, would be heard forever. No, while the process is messy, it is transparent and there for all to see, unlike the Republicans who make deals with the Vice-President calling candidates and getting them to drop out of races or into other races in exchange for God knows what. Almost anyone can become a delegate to the City Convention, just show up at your precienct causus and then run to be a delegate to the Citry Convention. I did and I was slected. I also have to point out that three years ago, the city DFL convention quickly dispatched Kelly. He never placed above third, and was off the balloting, I think by the third round. The endorsement was really between Jay Benanav and Bob Long. Kelly was never in the running. Benanav won the endorsement, came thru the primary and would probably be mayor today, but for last minute dirty tricks by the Kelly Campaign where they got Tom Barnard and KQ92 to slur Jay Benanav, in the best Swift Boat Veterans tradition by labeling Jay "red". It was worth over $100,000 and Kelly didn't pay a cent for it, yet he won by less than 400 votes. The problems gets to be that candidates over the years have refused to honor the DFL endorsement, deminishing it's value; George Latimer running for Governor against Perpich, Chris Coleman for Congress agaionst Betty McCollum, Norm Coleman against Andy Dawkins and Randy Kelly against Jay Benanav for St. Paul Mayor, etc, etc, etc. I suppose if the Party were permitted to start cutting off the digits of peiople who run against the endorsed candidate, we might be able to enforce the rule, but for years I have introduced resolutions that the party should refuse to endorse anyone who refuses to honor the endorsement, but that has never passed. I just finished looking at the nmumbers in the Pioneer Press and the DFL did quite well in the City. Kerry's percentages and numbers were way up over Gore's from 4 years ago and look how the DFL did state wide. The DFL is now within one vote of controlling the State House. http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/10092726.htm I suggest that all the alamists, take a deep breath, look at the numbers, and see how Kerry kicked Bush's tail in Randy's 9 best precints. http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/10092723.htm?1c If I were Randy I'd be congrtugratling Bush this A.M. and asking him if Tom Ridge will need any help in January 2006. Dan Dobson Summit Hill [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- John Birrenbach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ROTFL..... I love you Dennis, you make me laugh.... Now seriously when was the last DFL endorsed Mayor elected to St Paul? I think it was before my now Sophomore Daughter was born. Lets talk about the last Ward 2 council seat election... Shall we start with a Convention that almost went to the Mayor's cronny? How about that the DFL endorsed Candidate in Ward 2 (One of your most die hard DFL area's of St Paul) BARELY made it through the Primary and was nearly beat by the Green Party Candidate. I worked on the Campaign for 39A Rick Hansen, you know the guy running to take the seat vacated by Pugh you know the former Minority leader of the house)? Margin of Victory just over 2200 votes out of 21,000 cast (granted not St Paul, but very telling due to it's closeness to St Paul). The DFL is screwed up big time, if it expects to win the mayors office, they need to get their ducks in order. They can start with the manner in which they maintain their databases, then move on to the support they give their endorsed candidates, they can finish off by utilizing the internet to a greater degree than they do now. Finally the City could learn alot from the National Party and how they went into a convention UNITED, unlike St Paul where no one knows who will be endorsed till the convention and by then everyone hates each other so much they won't help the endorsed candidate and in most instances even continue to Run against them. > > The DFL is not the machine it would like to think it > once was. > > -- > Sincerely, > John Birrenbach > W 7th Neighborhood, St Paul MN > === Political & Business Consulting === > http://www.birrenbach.com/ > ====================================== > The Counter to Republican Radio > http://www.airamericaradio.com/ > ====================================== > "Six years on the council has trained me to feign > interest for long > periods of time" > Chris Coleman Jan 21, 2004 > +++++++++++++++ > _____________________________________________ > To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > _____________________________________________ > 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/ > _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ 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/
