County DFL member stymies democratic process.

After months of disenfranchesing dozens of newly interested Democratic activists, and loosing seats in the DFL leadership, local DFL member is now challenging the validity of the democratic process, relying on claims of improper voting practices and interferance by former supporters of Gov. Howard dean.

The newly elected County DFL chair has been repeatedly accused of attempting to sabotage the candidacy of John Kerry. These accusations have come from vehement supporters of the very same leadership which systematically excluded democrats from the process during the primary season. I know for A FACT that the new chair has only the best of intentions, and is working his ASS off to get local Democrats elected to office, as well as helping to get John Kerry elected to the presidency. The tactics being used by some members of the DFL are positively Rovian

Welcome to the world of politics. Hope you like it here.

By the way, the former county chair has asked the newly elected county chair to make me stop posting on D.U. So much for the open exchange of ideas.

Lovely.

Whatever. Just let reality sink in. They'll have to accept it eventually.

What main post was about.

Because that's the meme being spewed by some members of the local DFL. It makes me sick to hear it. Personally, I got involved with the DFL to get shrub the hell out of the white house, and could care less if Dean ever runs for public office, though he was my man in the primaries.


I fear the local party is trying to engage in these screwy repugnant gambits in the hope that the newly energized members will get sick of it and drop out, thereby no longer posing a threat to politics as usual.

someone not to post somewhere?????

I think this person and the new chair are living in some strange world. Maybe they think they're bushco in the 'new amerikka'??????

This is MN, isn't it??? Is there something in the water???

Is 'frostbite of the brain' possible????

Basically said "no way, he can say whatever he wants"

He's a real stand-up guy. I admire his intelligence and enthusiasm.

I'd be interested in some specifics of what you're talking about so that I can get a clearer picture.

Are you in an urban/suburban county, or in a rural county? Are the people you say are being shut out people who were elected as delegates in their precinct caucuses? Did you form a walking subcaucus at your county or congressional district convention? Did you win delegates to the state convention?

The officers of a county DFL unit cannot change who gets elected as delegates.

sw

With a population center of 100,000.

The people who were shut out of the process during the primary cycle were Howard Dean supporters. The former chair and much of the leadership were avid John Kerry supporters, and excluded Dean supporters from participating in DFL activities.

A new county chair was elected at the county convention, though the nominations committee was packed with supporters of the incumbent. The new chair is a former H.D. supporter.

Now, supporters of the former chair are challenging the election of the new county chair because of spurious and untrue allegations. The challenger (Of the county chair election results) sits on the constitutional committee, and basically will be evaluating the merits of her own claims.

So, essentially, the votes of the delegates at the county convention are being put into question by bitter members of the former leadership.

As Al Franken would say "LIARSS!"

You definitely need to read it. Additionally, find out if anyone took minutes of the county convention.

It is my understanding that if an election is not contested DURING the convention intself, then the results have to stand. If you truly suspect underhanded doings, perhaps you should contact the state DFL organization.

What county, if I may ask? I'm in Pine county.

sw

edited to add: If the new chair and the delegates that elected her/him came up from the precinct caucuses, then the state DFL has all the records of those names. As long as duly elected delegates voted in the county officer election, the election has to stand.

The challenge has gone ahead. We aren't too worried, as the challenge is based (at least in part) upon an untrue premise.

Aside from that, the votes will have to be accounted for. Part of the accusation is that alternates voted along with delegates from the same precinct.

It'll all come out in the wash. I'm just upset about the tactics that continue to be used by the same folks who kept our group out of the DFL early in the primary season.

I'll PM you with the county.

I'm in the Minneapolis 'burbs. At my convention, there was a small group that came in trying to totally throw out anything the nominations committee had done. They didn't get very far as we had made efforts to contact all the delegates to let them know when the screenings would be. As it was we were recommending several new people for the directors positions.

One thing at our convention, it was the Kerry people who showed up. How much fall off did you have between the caucus and your convention? We didn't even have enough uncommitteds (the uncommitteds were mainly Kucinich people) to form a viable subcaucus. In the end we had to wheel and deal with one smaller Kerry group to get one of our people elected as a delegate.

If this contest in your district gets followed through on, I think it may have to come up at a State Central meeting. Besides me, I know for sure that at least one other person on this board is a member of that (there's probably more). If you want, PM me with more details I'd like to be prepared.

Our nominations committee (packed by the incumbent) tried to ram a solitary slate through (the incumbent) we protested the packing of the committee, and got a more balanced mix on the committee. ended up without a fair mix.

Of course we were pissed off at having been disenfranchised throughout the early part of the primary season. That energized us to come out in numbers and enact an agenda at the county convention, so we had a goodly turnout. Our group (along with others who were underwhelmed with the former leadership) had a good enough turnout to unseat the incumbent county chair.

I wasn't at the county convention (I'm a precinct chair, but not a delegate-also, somebody had to watch the youngun) My wife says we have 2 National delegates from our (former) dean group in Olmsted county.

My wife is an alternate for State Central Committee. She says this challenge starts by going through the constitution committee.

Apparently the challenge had to be filed on or before the district convention. The fax document got "lost in the fax" though the fax transmission sheet has the date of the day prior to the district convention stamped on it.

Sorry I'm so unclear. This is my first season as a member of the DFL. Hopefully my message will become mre coherent as I become familliar with the process.

Thankfully, they don't come up too often. It's not impossible that this could come up at the state convention but, because your chair is involved and that's Central Committee I would expect it to wind up there depending on what the Constitution Committee says.

OK, first you need to get your facts straight. The person who filed the challenge does not start her term on the constitution committee until after the state convention at which point this whole issue will be settled.

Second, as part of the nominations committee at the county convention we did not try to "ram a solitary slate through" as you term it. The job of the nominations committee is to screen people and put forth our recommendations on who is best qualified for the positions. This is no way stops anyone who has screened with us from being nominated from the floor and eligible for election as an officer.

Third, it is anyone's right to challenge the process if they have legitimate evidence that procedure wasn't followed. Your group complains that we stifled you and now you are trying to say that someone doesn't have a right to go forth with what they believe? If you read the challenge it's not about the individuals, but the process and procedure followed. The county convention was poorly run by the individual sent down by the state house caucus. He did not ask for credentials reports properly, nor was the floor frozen properly to ensure that only delegates were voting.

Yes, the CC meeting was long last night, but we are in a transition process and things will get better. I do not recall anyone making comments about you not posting on the site, just the misinformation about the resolutions being sent up to the state.

At this point can we please just get along with electing people and not ranting about how everything is a plot against you? Those of us in the "old guard" are working very hard with the "new guard" and comments that are posted here are not really very helpful in developing a cohesive party unit.