The DFL Dozen: Handicapping the crowded field of 2010 candidates for Minnesota governor

[kickysnana]

http://www.minnpost.com/bloisolson/2009/03/27/7671/the_dfl_dozen_handicapping_the_crowded_field_of_2010_candidates_for_minnesota_governor

We'll start with the field of six declared DFL candidates, each of them raising money and printing literature. They are: Senate Tax Chairman Tom Bakk, former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, former state Sen. Steve Kelley and House Health and Human Services Policy Chair Paul Thissen.

Then come the other likely DFL candidates: St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.

And then the possible candidates: House Commerce Chair Joe Atkins, Assistant Majority Leader Tarryl Clark and Hennepin County Board Chair Mike Opat.

(Chris Coleman and Susan Gaertner are out for me because of the RNC. Mark Dayton is an easy target for the GOP but at least he "gets it". I don't have an opinion on the others. Does anyone else?)

[geardaddy]

1. I don't want to see Anderson-Kelliher run.

Becauce she's doing such a good job as Speaker of the House that in the end, I think I'd rather have her there.

[Minnesota Raindog]

2. Entenza has too much baggage and not enough ethics--as in zero

Matt Entenza represents the worst of the DFL.

[glinda]

3. R.T and Chris Coleman from St. Paul might be good but I really don't want them to leave their jobs.

[annm4peace]

4. Chris Coleman shouldn't be considered a DFL anymore

He is another turncoat.

We need a true Progressive. Rybak also knocked himself out of the running when he chose not to speak out of the police state during the RNC.

All the candidates need to show more of the FL in their DFL to get any support from people I'm with.

The party as a whole as well as our Reps at the US capitol have gotten much more D and "safe" in their leadership. I guess when Wellstone's plane when down so did the DFL backbone.

AS far as State DFL Reps goes, they should have pushed through single payer healthcare, and the recent People's Bailout Bill. Instead the put the People's Bailout Bill with the committee that would fail it.

The DFL have left the people behind and are trying to balance the moderate Ds with the Republicans, when the majority of the people in state are suffering.. especially those outside of the twin cities.

[ArmchairPoliticsMN]

5. I would disagree

DFL does not have to = progressive.

Unlike the Republican party, the Democratic Party and the DFL have always been an umbrella group, comprised of numerous different view points, who choose to agree on what can be agreed upon, and let that provide the grounding for our party's leadership and direction.

Because any one person does not agree with another 100% is not grounds for dismissal from the party, because this party belongs to the entire population who choose to partake in it, not the few who feel their own ideology is superior to others.

There are progressive Democrats. Conservative Democrats. Pro-Choice as well as Pro-Life Democrats. Pro-Gun, Anti-Gun.

The party belongs to all of them, and all of us.

We are not the GOP. We do not allow ideology to dictate membership. And I for one am thankful for that.

[dflprincess]

6. In other words,

the DFL stands for nothing- no matter what the platform says. If you're willing to put a "D" after your name, the party will support you no matter how conservative you are.

Is it to late for the Farmer-Labor wing to demand a divorce?

Just in case the type in my sig line is too small to read:


"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them." Paul Wellstone

[ArmchairPoliticsMN]

7. Now thats not what i said

I didn't say it stands for nothing. if that is your interpretation, that's your prerogative. I said it is a collective of ideas, but not everyone agrees on all of them. Instead we find common ground to govern for the betterment of people.

The needs of Rural DFLers (and many farmers) are different then the needs of many urban DFLers (and many labor members). They might not agree on all issues, but choose to govern based on the few they may agree upon. And what those few are differs with each sub-group of Democrats.

What it is not, is ideological purity. if someone prefers that, I am sure there are a number of other parties that will cater to those preferences. perhaps you would prefer MN became a party registration state. Maybe force people to adhere to some litmus test on their worthiness to be a Democrat? Who would write that litmus test? You? Or perhaps a pro-gun democrat in SW MN? Who is more of a "real" DFLer?

Personally, I view compromise and discussion within a party, where not all sides agree on everything, as a positive rather then the Karl Rove GOP tactic of pushing out moderates who dare to see the other side of an argument. Would you prefer we did business more like Rove? I don't think you do.

That, is definitely not "nothing."

[dflprincess]

9. Then why do we even waste time creating a platform?

We either hold candidates/elected officials to that or the party doesn't stand for anything.

No, I don't expect everyone to agree on every issue, but they should agree with the majority of the platform and it's not the people who do agree with it that need to find somewhere else to go.

And yes, I would prefer that we had party registration, that way when we have a primary contest, we would know that people who consider themselves DFLers are the ones voting in our primary.

[ArmchairPoliticsMN]

10. You make a point

about the platform. But I would ask, who makes the platform? And what is the job of those thousand or so delegates. is it not to speak for those who don't know how to be a part of the political process on that level, or can't get off work, or afford to go to Rochester or Duluth or wherever it is.

The platform, in my mind, is a suggested guidepost. No one agrees with all of it. at the St Paul convention I voted against at least 30% of the platform resolutions that passed. Do es that mean I have no place in the DFL? Says who? you? Why do you have the moral authority to make a decision like that over me? Or over the cashier at Rainbow who has never been to a DFL convention but seem themselves as a DFLer?

Holding candidates to an endless list of platform planks is unrealistic. Sorry, but it is.

As for your last part, I agree. Party registration should help. But it goes back to the question I posed that was not answered. You said "we would know that people who consider themselves DFLers are the ones voting in our primary." My question to you again, is who decides what the parameters are for considering yourself a DFler? You? Me? That cashier again? How do we decide who has more ownership over a party? Over an ideal?

I am a DFLer. My parents walked in the civil rights movement back home in NYC. I have helped elect more then 200 Democratic candidates to office. I contribute to the Party and to candidates. I am pro-hunter, pro-environment. I am pro-St paul police, and think the War in Afghanistan needs to be completed, but am anti-iraq war.

Are you saying I am not a DFler because I fail your litmus test and do not agree on every plank? If so, how very Rove. We have become the thing we have despised the most.

[Avidor]

11. I don't understand....

"I am pro-St paul police, and think the War in Afghanistan needs to be completed"

Are you saying progressives are the fringe and we need to pull to the "center"?

[ArmchairPoliticsMN]

12. Not sure where you get that from my statement

I am saying that the DFL party is an umbrella made up of people representing a whole range of political ideology. From those way to the left, to those towards the middle or even a little right of the middle.

I am saying that no section of the party has sole ownership of the party, because unlike the GOP, we do not engage in ideological purity.

You are the DFL, as am I. As is Chris Coleman.

The post was in response to annm4peace saying Coleman should "not be considered a DFL anymore" because in her mind he is not progressive enough.

My point is who gets to decide that? The answer is no one. because no one part of the party owns it more then any other. That is what makes us stronger the the GOP.

I hope that better clarifies my intent.

[dflprincess]

15. Party registration would mean that we wouldn't have Republicans

crossing over to vote for whom they perceive as the weakest DFL candidate. It would be up to an individual to decide which party they were going to register as belonging to.

Read my post again, I said the majority of the issues in the platform should be supported, not all of them. And, as long as you're not running for office, I don't care what you call yourself.

I no longer give money to either the DFL or the DNC - I don't want what little I can afford to donate to help elect DINOs like Peterson or Evan Bayh and I'm seriously thinking about dropping off my Senate District Committee. I didn't bother to run for the State Central this cycle and I can't say I've missed it. Really, the party is becoming irrelevant and exists only to raise money, not anyone's awareness of issues.

I voted for Obama because he wasn't McCain, but he's the last pro-war, DLC-type (yes, I know, he didn't actually belong to the DLC but he thinks like them) Democrat I will ever vote for. Other criteria will be that the candidate believes that all people are equal under the law, that women can make their own medical decisions, that people come before profits and that when they take an oath to perserve and protect the Constitution, they mean it.

[ArmchairPoliticsMN]

16. I agree with you

It would indeed help keep Republicans, as well as Green and Independent Party members, from voting in DFL primaries. That is a good thing. It will also help DFL candidates better id voters.

In terms of the platform though, what is the magic number that a candidate would have to adhere too? I think that is a tough question to answer.

Here is my thought as a different option:

Since not every DFLer has an opportunity to take part in the platform process, what if we were to do a better job of informing primary voters of the platform. Then they can decide for themselves (since every DFL voter will agrees with the platform to a different extent) if the candidate who is running adequately represents the DFL in their eyes.

To you, Peterson is a DINO, but to many DFLers in the 7th, he is a DFLer who represents their view of the DFL party. And What I am saying is that view is no less relevant then your view. The cities can not dictate DFLness to the rest of the state. We can dictate it towards our own candidates, and do in the form of the endorsement and primary system.

In response to your views on the DFL party, I will admit I am biased. I was the Party's fundraiser for over 2 years.

To me, the party exists for one reason, to elect DFLers to office. To do that, you need money. It is up to the candidates to raise awareness on issues as they are the better vehicle to do it. The DFL Party is not on the ballot, and that is not the Party's role in the political system.

By the way, i think this is a fascinating conversation, and I hope you are taking it as such as well. I think we clearly have different view points, but the key (as with anything in the DFL party) is finding where we agree and working from there (i.e. Party Registration), even if we never agree on other issues like the role of the party.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. I would say that there need to be some CORE issues that candidates agree on

The very amorphousness of the DFL has allowed the tighty-righties to caricature it. A party with no strong public identity has no obvious evidence to fight the right-wing slurs, nor can it explain itself, because there's always a candidate who believes the opposite.

Colin Peterson may merely be enjoying the incumbent's advantage. He's nearly useless for the party as a whole, because he votes with the Republicans much if not most of the time. What about a candidate who understood and advocated solutions for the real problems that the mostly rural population of western Minnesota is facing?

If there were perhaps five principles (chosen by a majority of the state convention) that ALL DFL candidates had to subscribe to, then 1) The party would have a public image of its own choosing, and 2) The individual politicians in the DFL wouldn't be working against one another.

[dflprincess]

18. The DFLers I know in the 7th District bang their heads against a wall

everytime Peterson runs. They vote for him because they consider him the lesser of evils though that is beginning to wear thin with them.

I also know some Republicans in that district who vote for him they speak better of him than the DFLers.

[indigo32]

8. I gotta say I gained alot of respect for Steve Kelley in the last race

I COULD NOT STAND Mike Hatch :puke: This is truly on a personal level. I actually went to the convention for Becky Laurey.

[Mister Ed]

13. Me too

I went to the convention for Steve Kelley, but Becky Lourey was my extremely close second.

When I shook hands with Hatch, I couldn't escape the feeling that I was shaking hands with a mannequin. It just didn't seem like there was anyone in there.

The personal level counts for plenty in politics. I think the prickly personality projected by Hatch turned off voters, and condemned us to four more years of Pawlenty.

Anyways, regarding Kelley - I liked him for his unambiguous stances on things like the war in Iraq, and I had the feeling that he possessed a good deal of personal integrity. I'd be happy to see him as the DFL candidate.

[dflprincess]

14. I like both Lourey and Kelley but I have to say I liked Hatch as well

Though it was mainly because I just love the way he went after the health insurance companies.

[indigo32]

20. He was pretty rude to me personally

during the floor vote. If he wanted me to help break the stalemate... he sure didn't show it. This was after completely refusing to acknowledge Stonewall DFL

[dflprincess]

21. He doesn't always have the most pleasing personality

(that's an understatement!) and I didn't know about his attitude toward Stonewall - I really would have expected better from him.

As I said, what I like best about him is that he kept an eye on the health insurers (even before he was AG) though there were candidates I prefered to Mike.

[indigo32]

22. oh I completely agree

the health insurers need watching.

[wellstone dem]

19. Tarryl Clark is a progressive who has been elected in

an outstate area. She is the hardest working campaigner in the bunch.

[Mister Ed]

23. Heard her on the radio this evening.

I liked her legislative initiatives.

[Minnesota Raindog]

24. I'd rather see Clark challenge Bachmann in the 6th

We need to find a candidate sooner than later to run against Bachmann, and she seems to fit the bill. Does anyone know if she has any interest in the 6th CD seat?

[Mister Ed]

25. I like your thinking. Wonder if she'd do it? n/t

[Minnesota Raindog]

26. She needs to be encouraged by 6th CD residents

Maybe someone should start a "Draft Clark for the 6th" website.

[dflprincess]

27. If she's going to do it, she needs to start now

I heard that someone in the 2nd is already planning a run against Kline next year.

[SnowCritter]

29. I don't know if she has any interest

in running for the 6th CD seat, but I do know that the "wingers" in the St. Cloud area hold a rabid hatred for her.

Just mention her name and they start frothing at the mouth.

[glinda]

28. Stillwater area is totally conservative. One would have to get a dominant vote in

the St. Cloud area to pull it off as a progressive.

[Minnesota Raindog]

30. Stillwater is not "totally conservative"

Bachmann hasn't won an election in Stillwater since she was in the State Senate.

[glinda]

31. I stand corrected. I thought her primary support came from around that area