I don't understand this whole discussion. The DFL is not ineffectual or prone to destroying its' candidates as some have suggested. To say that the DFL is "doing the same losing things" is an exaggeration, as is saying the DFL is a party of the "entrenched few". Let me back that up, please - in the last election Mccullum, Sabo, Oberstar, Peterson all won their elections. All won with more than 58% of the total votes and all were endorsed candidates. Moreover, in Ramsey county, 63% of the citizens voted for the DFL endorsed candidate for President, John Kerry. My Senate DFL district endorsed and saw Moua (60%), Johnson (59%), and Mahoney (73%) all win easily. If that is "losing", I wish more Democrats could have lost in that manner around the country. The fact is that the DFL is one of the strongest chapters of the Democratic party in the country. Minnesota had the highest voter turnout, 77.3%, in the country. While all the people voting weren't DFL members, we are obviously doing something right to have the highest turnout election after election.
Where we have problems is in the statewide governor's and citywide Mayor's election. We have had some strong candidates in St. Paul who have been DFL members and won outside the endorsing process. In St. Paul and Minneapolis you have to be a Democrat to be elected mayor. That makes the endorsement a little less important for DFLers as you are least going to get a Democrat (Norm Coleman's party switch after is an exception - He could never have been elected to his first term as a Republican). In the last Governor's election Pawlenty won with not even 44% of the electorate. Perhaps what we need is an instant runoff to ensure that someone who voters don't want (ie the 56% who voted for someone other than Pawlenty) isn't allowed to sneak into office with so little public support.
The DFL has some work to do, but is certainly not the moribund fossil that some in this thread have been suggesting. We need to focus on endorsing the best candidate at the convention on April 30th. Despite the earlier emails about whether Kelly is a Democrat, that is beside the point. For the city DFL party to be viable, it cannot allow its' most prominent elected member to work against the rest of its' elected members. Thus, the work of the convention is to find a candidate who can replace Kelly. I think this is an exciting time for all the candidates runnign for the Mayor's office. Far from destroying each other, I think the type of discussion going on here will serve to strengthen the candidates by pointing out places where they need work, and where their strengths are. It also makes a convention more fun if you get to have actual discussion and politicing instead of a coronation.
Jacob Dorer Dayton's Bluff/ Mounds Park
--On Saturday, April 16, 2005 12:51 PM -0400 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Renee: Have not and would not run for any office while in the DFL Party. The DFL has this habit of always doing the same losing things over and over again. They seem to me to be the party of themselves, for themselves and by themselves, the same entrenched few.
--Dori Ullman West 7th
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