DFL Leadership Candidates at the CD2 DFL Meeting – January 11, 2011

It is getting late and I want to go to bed, but I am going to make a quick post about the DFL leadership elections coming up on February 5th.

Tonight at the Second Congressional District DFL Executive Committee meeting, we were pleased to host many of the candidates running for leadership positions.  Each candidate was given ten minutes to speak and respond to questions, with the exception of Ken Martin and Marge Hoffa who were allowed an extra five minutes after a motion was approved to extend their time.

The first candidates to speak were the candidates for DFL Secretary, Vanessa Blomgren and Jacob Grippen.  Both candidates would do a great job.  Vanessa has a fair amount of DFL Secretary experience as a MYDFL and CD5 Secretary, but more importantly, she enjoys being the secretary.  I am confident Jacob would do great, and I think he would be great as a part of the leadership, but I am going to support Vanessa Blomgren.  I liked her sample notes that were submitted to the State Central Committee and I like the fact that she likes and wants to be Secretary.

The next candidates to speak were two of the three candidates for Affirmative Action Officer.  The great thing about there being three candidates is that we will get to do ranked choice voting for this office.  I love ranked choice voting.  Frank Brown and Eric Margolis were in attendance and spoke, while Sharon Smith Akinsanya was not.  I can only comment on the two candidates who spoke tonight.  Frank Brown is the current Affirmative Action Officer.  He was elected this summer to fill the open spot.  He seemed a little defensive about what has been accomplished this past year.  I don’t think he needs to be defensive, but I really like Eric Margolis, who spoke second.  I think the DFL experience Eric has and the cool manner he has, at least based on what I saw in his speech, will help him to accomplish more within the party.  I plan to support Eric Margolis on February 5th.

Lil Ortendahl is running for State Treasurer against Tom Hamilton.  Lil drove down from Osakis, while Tom was unable to attend and asked CD2 DFL Chair Jeanne Thomas to read a statement.  I really like Lil.  Longtime DFL activist and one of my favorite DFLers, Charlie Thomas, introduced me to Lil.  She is a great lady.  I’m somebody who believes a Treasurer should have some financial background, however, I might make an exception for Lil.  Lil is a retired nurse, which goes a long way in my mind.  She is certainly active, very smart, and has the DFL experience to do just fine.  I’ll wait to make anything official in terms of an endorsement until I hear form Tom on February 5th, but I am leaning toward Lil.  I talked to Tom on the phone the other night, but I am more curious to see how he interacts with the group than any particular question.  It will be hard to top Lil’s personality though.

Finally, Ken Martin, candidate for DFL Chair and Marge Hoffa, candidate for DFL Associate Chair, spoke together as a team.  I was very impressed by Ken Martin.  He and Marge mentioned a few interesting points:

• An 87 country strategy and a full slate of candidates in every district
• Not just getting our message out, but juxtapose it with the Republican message
• Quit raising money for the DFL on the backs of DFL endorsed candidates
• Inspire people to vote for DFL
• Talked about a true coordinated campaign
• Pull frustrated activist who are working outside the party back in
• The intricacy of precinct operation in the success of the DFL
• Sick and tired of being defined by the Republicans

There were obviously more details, but it is getting late.  I got to spend a couple minutes talking to Ken after the meeting, and I liked him.  I still wish there were other candidates running, but I am supporting Ken and Marge to lead the DFL to reelect Sen. Klobuchar and take back the House and Senate.  I’m excited to work with them over the next couple years.

It was odd to me, although maybe it is more common than I realize, but CD2 voted to endorse Ken and Marge.  The minute will show the vote was unanimous, although about a fourth of the attendees did not vote to endorse, but nobody voted no.

If the election were today, MNDem would vote for, and thus endorses:

Ken Martin, Chair
Marge Hoffa, Associate Chair
Vanessa Blomgren, Secretary
Lil Ortendahl, Treasurer
Eric Margolis, Affirmative Action Officer

Although, I can’t guarantee that something won’t change before February 5th’s State Central Committee meeting in Dassel-Cokato, I am comfortable with this group to lead the DFL and move our party forward.

Colleen Morse and the Three DFL Candidates For Governor

On Monday, June 28^th, just two weeks ago, blogger Colleen Morse at http://aprilknight.blogspot.com/ posted on the three DFL candidates for governor.  Yesterday afternoon, she passed away. 

Just two months ago, Colleen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a tumor in the brain.  On May 15^th, she wrote “I have a feeling that I don’t have long to live.”  But it was a shock to get the news, and to realize her July 2^nd post was her last entry.

I’d been a faithful reader of her blog for months when I met her at the CD2 DFL convention.  I was helping with registration.  She wanted a visitor pass, but when she said her name, I thought she deserved a media pass.  We struck up a long conversation on the importance of blogging and social media.  Then, just two weeks later my wife and I met her in a Duluth skyway.  We talked for a while then went our separate ways for the evening.  As we sat down for dinner, I told my wife I wished we had invited her with us to dinner.  But the next morning, I got to spend about an hour with her as we waited at the DFL State Convention for things to start.  It was one of the highlights of my convention weekend.

I wish I could have known Colleen longer, and continued to see her at political events.  As many of you know, she spent a lot of time working to get Mark Dayton elected.  But all the time she supported Mark Dayton, she still supported the other great candidates with positive words and energy.  That example of friendliness and helpfulness, regardless of the side is an example she set of how to maintain a strong DFL core.  It is something as a blogging community we need to concentrate on.  Blogger Holly Cairns has been stressing that fact since I first got to know her. 

Blogging can be used for serious and organized promotion, and Colleen did that, although to her it was just a fun thing for her to do.  Below is her last real blog post.  Colleen will not only be missed by her family and close friends, but will be greatly missed by the entire progressive blogging community and the political campaigns she came in contact with.

Thank you Colleen.

THREE DFL CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR
June 28, 2010, 7:02 AM

All DFLers will have to decide very soon who they are going to vote for to be our next governor. How will each Primary voter decide? Here are the usual ways, not in any particular order.

1.  Issues
2.  Name recognition
3.  Endorsed candidate
4.  Voter contact on the campaign trail
5.  Videos and websites
6.  Personal charisma (which includes how much the voter “loves” the candidate; you hear a lot of that on Facebook and on the campaign trail
7.  Past success in political experience
8.  Whether the voter even wants to vote in the Primary, or whether the voter is too fed up with politics to do so. What the percentage is of voters who actually show up at the Primary makes a big difference in who gets elected.

Margaret Anderson Kelliher – Kelliher obviously knows all the issues inside and out. She has no problems whatsoever there. She is gaining some name recognition but doesn’t have nearly as much as Dayton. Will her DFL cohorts and supporters donate enough money for her to win this campaign? If so, they’d better get hopping.

I’ll just meander down the list for each candidate. This is better than trying to walk slowly down the hallway while holding on to the wall.

Kelliher is obviously the endorsed candidate, which does give her an edge. Will it be enough? Keep tuned…

Kelliher’s voter contact on the campaign trail does not seem to be as good as Dayton’s. Dayton is all over the place. Not only that, but everyone already knows who he is.

Videos are excellent from the Dayton Campaign…websites not so good at all.

Personal charisma is something you never heard many people talk about with regard to Mark Dayton. He’s doing something right now, though, because everywhere I go I hear people (mostly women) say “I love him!” While Kelliher’s momentum is growing, she just doesn’t have that personal charisma that people look for. Like R. T. Rybak has, for example.

Past success in political experience was exceptionally good with Margaret Anderson Kelliher. She knows an incredible amount about Minnesota politics. As far as knowledge and experience, she can definitely get the job done.

It sure seems that there are a lot of people who are disillusioned with the world of politics. The best thing to do is to get out there and get your people to vote!

Matt Entenza – Matt is very good on clean, green energy. He has some great ideas in that area. He’s also excellent on GLBT and equality issues. He’s good on creating new jobs.

As far as name recognition, I don’t see Matt as having much of that. It just isn’t there. Oh, I’m sure it is in many circles, but a lot of people still don’t know who Matt Entenza is. I don’t know how he’s going to change that.

As we all know, Matt is not the endorsed candidate. That distinction belongs to Margaret Anderson Kelliher.

I’m pretty sure that Entenza has a lot of voter contact on the campaign trail. But where are his particular campaign trails? I don’t hear much about him at all from my non-political circle of acquaintances (yes, folks, I do have a lot of friends who are not political!) When I ask if they were going to vote for him, they didn’t even know who he was.

Matt Entenza probably has the best collection of campaign videos. I would rate his website as the best of all three of the candidates.

Personal charisma is not one of Entenza’s strong points. He’s very soft spoken, which means he’s a nice guy, but not exactly your top charismatic person. Of Minnesoa politicians, that honor would definitely have to go to R. T. Rybak.

Entenza has a lot of political experience. Unfortunately, some of it is considered distasteful by many people. I wish these people would learn the truth of the matter. I stuck up for Matt when someone was saying rotten things about him. The guy called me a liar. Go figure. Some people just don’t want to listen to truth.

Mark Dayton – Mark is very good on almost all the issues. After all, he was a U. S. Senator and had to know a lot about a lot of different things. He’s big on Senior issues, of course. Remember how he took busloads of seniors to Canada so they could get the prescription drugs at lower cost? He’s always been an advocate for seniors. He’s always been a friend of GLBT, as well. He stood up on the Senate floor in favor of the right of two people who love each other to get married, no matter what their gender. Another issue that he is very interested in is education.

Name recognition? Mark Dayton? That’s almost funny. There’s probably only a handful of people in Minnesota who don’t know who Mark Dayton is, and those are no doubt under the age of twelve. They’re just too young to know.

We all know that Mark is not the endorsed candidate. Margaret Anderson Kelliher is. Still, there are plenty of examples over the years where the endorsed candidate did not win.

Mark has been all over Minnesota on the campaign trail. He drove 9,000 miles across Minnesota. He stopped in towns all over and met people in coffee shops and other interesting places. He has successfully reintroduced himself to Minnesotans.

Mark is starting to get some pretty good videos. There’s one called “9,000″ miles, which you can find on his website.

Personal charisma is not an area that Mark excels at. He’s an introvert; standing up in front of a lot of people is difficult for him, especially during the question/answer portion of a forum. I give him a lot of credit, though, for doing something that doesn’t come naturally to him. I’ve also noticed that he’s made many, many improvements as a public speaker. I was surprised, proud and happy to see that he made a huge effort to improve in this area.

Obviously Mark Dayton has the most political experience of any of the candidates. He ran three Minnesota State Commissioner offices. He was U. S. Senator. The list goes on.

So now it’s up to you, dear voters. The best thing you can do to ensure we get a DFL governor is to pick a candidate and then campaign for that candidate. You can door knock, do mailings and other clerical work, attend Meet and Greets, have a house party for your candidate, or have a fund raiser for the candidate. There’s a ton of ways to help out. Call your candidate’s office to volunteer. You can also volunteer on their websites. So let’s all rally round one of these three candidates and make sure out next governor is DFL.

****************************************************

CD2 Central Committee Meeting – June 8, 2010

What a DFL meeting in CD2 tonight!  About sixty people showed up for the DFL CD2 Central Committee Meeting at Burnhaven Library.  And the best part was that there were eight people from Senate District 36!!  Including two new members elected tonight to the CD2 Executive Committee, Jerry Klebs who was elected a CD2 Director, and Kevin Roberson who was elected to be the male Affirmative Action Delegate from CD2 to the state DFL commission.

Jerry has been involved in the party for a long time, and Kevin is a young man, not long out of college with a lot of great ideas just getting active.  Also at the meeting were all four male State Central Committee delegates and alternates, Charlie, Jerry, Rodd and myself.  As well as female State Central Committee delegate and great blogger, actually, multi-blog blogger  Holly Cairnes.  Candidate for House District 36A Colin Lee and CD2 Chair Jeanne Thomas rounded out the delegation from SD36.  It was very energizing to have so many SD36 people in attendance.

There were several candidates at the meeting.  Dan Powers, the DFL candidate for congress challenging John Kline.  Travis Burton and I were the only two candidates for Minnesota Senate, but Will Morgan (40A) gave a great campaign speech, Mick McGuire (25A), Colin Lee (36A) and Dave Page (57B) all spoke.  The best speech award goes to Travis Burton tonight.

Highlighting a couple of events discussed at the meeting:

The big CD2 golf fundraiser is August 1, only 233 people get in, and only 60 golfers, so make your reservations now.  It is a very affordable day of golf, great food and great discussions.  I’m going to talk to Charlie Thomas about putting together a memorabilia swap.

CD2 is now on Twitter @DFLCD2.

A couple of local events that we brought up:

Door knocking this Saturday in Lakeville.  This is a coordinated campaign door knocking event.  Meet Colin, myself and DFL staff and volunteers at the Dunn Bros. in Apple Valley on Galaxie by 11:00 am.  The more people the better.

The SD36 candidates will be hosting an outdoor event at Rambling River Park in Farmington on June 16^th from 6:30-8:30 pm.  We are meeting at the picnic shelter.  Rain or shine come out and meet all three SD36 candidates.

The Dew Days Parade is June 19^th at 1:00 in Farmington.  We need a big contingent of walkers for visibility.  If you are able to walk, carry signs, give out stickers or do something entertaining, we need you.  Contact Quist4Sen@hotmail.com.

Finally, Dan Powers in CD2, Colin Lee in 36A, Sigrid Iversen in 36B and myself, Steve Quist in SD36, need financial support to be viable candidates.  Even $5 makes all the difference.  Click on the name of the person you would like to make a donation to, better yet, make a $5 donation to all four candidates.

• Dan Powers for Congress
• Steve Quist for Senate Dist. 36
• Colin Lee for House 36A
• Sigrid Iversen for House 36B

The next CD2 Central Committee Meeting is August 3, 2010 at the Burnhaven Library.  Join us.

I support Dan Powers! (and a note about my future)

I will not be blogging a whole lot over the next several months, (see the end of this post for the reason,) but I wanted to make sure to leave a post on my opinion of the blow-up in the DFL CD2 race for Congress. 

Dan Powers easily won the DFL endorsement at the CD2 convention.  I thought Shelley Madore might make a more formidable opponent for John Kline, but a large majority of the delegates did not agree with me, and there was good reason for them to disagree with me.  Dan’s team outhustled Shelley’s and he prepared himself excellently for the endorsement process and for a campaign.  I like Dan and have no qualms about supporting his candidacy. 

Come Primary Day, provided there is not a John Grunseth style melt-down before that on his part, I will vote for Dan and assume he will be the candidate on the ballot in November.  While I long for that unified front, in any election, Shelley Madore has every right to continue her campaign, right or wrong.  It will definitely hurt the chances of either DFLer in November, but it is what it is.  Good luck to Dan, and best wishes to Shelley.

I look forward to working with Dan over the summer, provided he and his staff hold no grudges against me for changing my support away from him during the endorsement campaign.  I hope to work with him because I threw my hat into the ring to run for State Senate in the 36^th District.  I hope you will support me, click the “Like” button on my Facebook Fan Page Steve Quist for MN State Senate – 36th District, follow me on http://twitter.com/Steve_Quistand consider sending a few dollars my way to defeat my opponent, the former KSTP conservative talk-show host Dave Thompson.

I will be at the DFL convention this weekend, but a website will be up in the next week, www.SteveQuist.org.  Check that out, and let me know what you think.

Dan Powers is nice, but Shelley Madore can win CD2

At the DFL Senate District 36 convention Dan Powers said something that bothered me.  It wasn’t an issue related statement or a statement I disagreed with, it was the opening statement he made saying (paraphrased because I didn’t write down the quote):

Some people say I don’t have the experience to run against John Kline.

The implication was that Shelley Madore’s supporters or campaign was saying that about Dan Powers.  The problem I had was he started out his speech with a negative about himself.  He didn’t start with a positive about how great a candidate he is, or how much of a grasp he has on the issues that are important to CD2 voters.  He started out by telling everybody that others don’t think he is a good candidate.  

At the lunch break, I immediately went to a member of his staff and told her my opinion that Dan cannot start out with a negative.  It is perfectly fine to mention it during the speech if you want to counter it, but great marketing doesn’t start by telling everybody the rap against the product.

I don’t know if they listened to me and changed the message, but I’m guessing they did because Dan’s campaign is continually improving.  I sent him an email more than a year ago pointing out a wording problem I saw on a flyer I received.  His website and literature is now very good.  Last summer I suggested to a family member that a donation might be better served going to Mark Ritchie or Tim Walz than to a candidate I didn’t think had a chance.  Now I do think he has a chance. 

Dan’s campaign has come a long way.  In fact he had risen in my mind to the point that I decided to support him for the endorsement over Shelley Madore.  I felt like he was working hard and doing the right thing.  But I still had a nagging feeling that he was not a strong enough candidate to beat John Kline.

I’m not sure trying hard and getting better makes you the best candidate.  He has never won an election that I know of.  In fact I think he lost a couple races in the city of Burnsville.  A Powers supporter told me that “there was a reason” Shelley Madore lost two of her three races in Apple Valley.  Well that must mean there was a reason Dan Powers lost his races too.

Keep in mind, Shelley Madore ran as a DFLer in a Republican district and won.  Dan Powers ran as a candidate in a nonpartisan city election and lost.  When Shelley Madore lost her house seat to Tara Mack, the Apple Valley Republicans had spent the previous two years attacking her with everything they had from semantic arguments to dirty tricks.

Negative implications like the election loss talking points that are meant to hurt the other candidate are flying from each campaign’s supporters.

I don’t think Dan used union labor when he was a contractor…

I’m hearing Shelley won’t abide by the endorsement…

Dan has no political experience…

Shelley isn’t liked by people who used to support her…

Dan is just getting better because he is copying Shelley’s campaign…

The fact is that neither campaign is doing a great job here to win the endorsement.  Dan is working hard to get better, and Shelley hired a new campaign manager to get better. 

I’ve been struggling with the idea of do I choose the safe candidate that I know and like, or do I choose the candidate I don’t know, but who I know has the experience and toughness to win. 

I think a campaign staff change is exactly what the Madore campaign needed.  I feel like I need to choose the candidate I think is going to win.  I feel like I need to support Shelley Madore so the 2nd Congressional District finally has the representation it has been missing out on since January of 2003.

Reasons why I am supporting Shelley Madore:

• Her involvement in the community of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
• Her commitment to doing “the right thing” for people even if it hurts her politically
• Her knowledge of healthcare issues and her ability to challenge others on it
• Her willingness to go toe-to-toe with John Kline and other Republicans to prove they are full of it
• I think she can win, even though she is not the safe choice.  Read a blog post about that at mnpACT!

Join the MNDem Fan Page on Facebook or follow MNDem on Twitter

Powers and Madore going down to the wire

This official press release (below) from Shelley Madore’s campaign was issued four days after The Big E at MPP announced it and wrote:

 “campaign changes this close to a convention is not a good thing and not a sign of campaign strength.”

 We’ll see if he is right. 

 The endorsement, provided there is one, is only 11 days away.  I’m thinking both candidates will be active.  I know Dan Powers will be.  He has a meet and greet scheduled tonight for 5:30 at the Dunn Bros in Apple Valley, and at 7:00 at Perkins in Burnsville.  Then tomorrow the 31^st, he has a meet and greet scheduled for 7:00 at the Perkins in Lakeville.  Shelley Madore does not seem to have anything scheduled, at least that I know of.   

 This is going to be an interesting endorsing convention.

For Immediate Release

Veteran Campaign Staffer Dave Griggs joins Madore for Congress Campaign

Mar. 30, 2010 (Apple Valley, Minn.) – Shelley Madore is proud to announce that veteran campaign staffer Dave Griggs has joined Team Madore as Campaign Manager.

“Dave brings vision and experience that will benefit the campaign through the endorsement on April tenth and to victory on November second against John Kline,” Madore said.

Griggs, a native of St Louis Park and 2007 graduate of the University of St. Thomas Law School, recently finished working with the Bakk for Governor campaign. He has worked three election cycles for DFL campaigns with extensive experience in field organizing. His first job after graduating from New York University was as a Second Congressional District field organizer with U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone’s 2002 re-election campaign.

With just a few days until the first quarter fundraising deadline and less than two weeks until the Congressional District endorsing convention, Dave spent his first few days on the job reaching out to staff, delegates and donors.

“I am looking forward to working with a dynamic candidate who has the experience, passion and commitment to beat John Kline in November. Shelley will be a tireless advocate for the people of the Second Congressional District, something that has been sorely lacking the past eight years,” Dave Griggs said.

For more information about Minnesota Congressional District 2 candidate Shelley Madore, please visit www.madoreforcongress.com or call 952-232-0649.

Both Shelley Madore and Dan Powers Will Abide by the DFL Endorsement

There has been a lot of speculation in CD2 that the contest between Don Powers and Shelley Madore would continue past the endorsement at the convention to the primary in August. 

Dan Powers had said he would abide by the endorsement.  Shelley Madore had not answered the question.  She has now.  I received an email last night that simply says Shelley Madore will abide by the endorsement. 

To me that means, the endorsement which seemed to be leaning heavily toward Dan Powers, is up for grabs again.  People like Dan Powers.  He is working hard to win, and I can tell he will work hard right up until November 2.  Shelley Madore has tough campaign experience and can influence people with a single speech. 

We will see what happens.  I’m just glad we will have one person to get behind starting on April 11.  An in-party fight from April to August would have likely been counterproductive to the point of conceding the race the John Kline.  That will not happen now. 

Great news.

Join the MNDem Fan Page on Facebook or follow MNDem on Twitter

Tuesday Special Election in SD26 – GOTV for Jason Engbrecht

I took my son down to Faribault for hockey this past weekend.  As we approached the Shattuck-St Mary’s campus I noticed a big green and white Jason Engbrecht sign.  Then I noticed a lot of little ones.  I’m hoping the abundance of signs is a good sign for Tuesday night. 

Tuesday, Jan 26.,  is the special election to replace the contentious lawmaker Dick Day.  Call, text or email people you know in Blooming Prairie, Ellendale Faribault, Medford, Morristown, Owatonna, Waseca and the surrounding townships and tell them to get out and vote for Jason Engbrecht, and against more of the same old GOP divisiveness, and extreme political partisanship fully represented in his opponent Parry.

It is going to be cold and windy tomorrow.  People are going to need encouragement to get out and vote.  If you are interested in helping call SD26 residents or door knock in Faribault, Owatonna or Waseca on election day, I’m sure the DFL can let you know where you can help.  Contact the DFL.

Shelley Madore officially enters the CD2 race

Since I was off work today, I decided to stop by Shelley Madore’s announcement that she is officially entering the race to challenge John Kline.  The announcement was held at the Eagan Community Center. 

I recognized a few faces in the crowd, among them, Representatives Sandy Masin (38A) and David Bly (25B), Roberta Gibbons (Candidate in 37) and former congressional candidate Teresa Daly.

Shelley’s campaign manager Nick Conti-Masanz started the meeting, followed by Sandy Masin, David Bly and Teresa Daly, who all said a few nice words. 

Shelley then made a short statement:

“Today I am announcing that I will run for Congress in Minnesota’s Second Congressional District.

As a former state representative, longtime community activist, businesswoman and parent, I understand the issues in our district.  I’m ready to fight to bring jobs and economic security back to the hardworking people and families here in Minnesota and I need your support.

We need a strong leader who will work with other members of congress to bring jobs back to our community.

We need a strong leader who will create opportunities for workers to gain the skills they need to compete in this new economy.

And we need a strong leader who realizes that education is an ongoing commitment because the world does not stop changing once we graduate.

I am that leader.  My name is Shelley Madore and I am running for congress.”

A couple of notes:

• For all of you that end Modore with a long e, it ends like “door.”
• I like the green signs.  Both simple and economical.
• Finally, I like Shelley.  I think she has the skills and the presence to give John Kline a fight that he probably has not had in recent elections.  Rowley and Sarvi were fine candidates, and would have been great in congress, but Shelley has run in tough campaigns, has run through the type of crud Kline and his supporters will likely throw at her, and she seems ready for it.

CD2 Central Committee Meeting – January 5, 2010

The first CD2 DFL meeting of election year 2010 was well attended.  I counted about 35 people, with a few stragglers sneaking in later.  The Central Committee Meeting on January 5th was the last meeting before the caucuses on February 2nd.  Because it was the last meeting before the caucuses, I expected there to be a lot of caucus discussion, but a majority of the discussion centered on the CD2 convention. 

The meeting started with self introductions from the entire group.  I’ve been to CD2 meetings in the past that started that way, but it isn’t a regular practice.  I’m guessing it started that way because there were a few unfamiliar faces in the crowd.

One of the unfamiliar faces was a representative from SD26.  He spoke for Jason Engbrecht.  Jason is running in a special election on January 26th to take over the seat held by Dick Day.  Dick Day abruptly quit the State Senate to become a lobbyist.  Jason will be busy, and needs all the help he can get to defeat Mike Parry.  Parry is the Republican endorsed candidate who has shown over the last couple years of “tweeting” that he will not represent Minnesota values.  Rather, Parry will promote the values held by the most extremist right-wingers in the district.  To help Jason’s campaign, the members of the CD2 DFL voted to make a nice donation to Jason’s campaign.  Good luck to Jason.

After the Engrecht representative spoke, several other candidates rose to speak about their campaign to defeat other extremist right-wing elected officials.  The first to speak was Shelley Madore.  Shelley will soon officially announce her candidacy to unseat John Kline in Washington.  Shelley will be competing with Dan Powers for the endorsement at the CD2 Convention in April.  Dan Powers spoke next.  Dan has been officially running for the last few months, but spent a lot of time organizing DFL groups for parades during the summer before making it official.

Although we will have the opportunity to see the two candidates side-by-side over the next couple months, including the SD36 DFL Meeting at 6:30 on January 14th held at B&B Pizza in Farmington, it was the first time I had been able to compare the two candidates speaking at the same time.

Shelley has been away from the political scene for a year or so, but as she strode to the front of the room, you could sense the confidence she has.  She then backed it up with a very assertive and strong introductory speech that would challenge, in terms of presentation, most of the gubernatorial candidates I have heard from.  Dan on the other hand projects the nice guy image, and he really is a nice guy.  Dan wants to be a representative for the district, something we have not had since John Kline became a member of congress.  The two candidates have different styles, and it will be an interesting ninety-some day before we have an endorsed candidate.

Among the other candidates speaking about their campaigns were, Roberta Gibbons, Mike Germain, Derrick Lindstrom, a representative of Tom Bakk, and I apologize to the final speaker because I didn’t write down his name, but he is challenging Claire Robling in SD35.

After hearing form the candidates, the topic turned to the CD2 Convention.  The committee began discussing the amount of the suggested donation to be requested of those attending the CD2 convention.  This discussion lasted nearly a half hour.  The entire context of the discussion revolved around whether to request $15 donations or $10 donations.  The convention expenses will be slightly less this year thanks to some great work by a couple members.  That combined with the adverse economic conditions many families are facing, spurred the idea to reduce the donation amount to $10, from $15, which had been the suggested donation amount during the last few conventions.

There was a lot of discussion about the importance of the donations to the district’s financial standing, contrasted by a genuine belief that maintaining an open and easy to access forum was more important.  But what I think won the day was that the $15 donation is suggested, not required, and that the district needs as much cash as possible to support candidates running in the district.

I was happy the $15 amount won out.  I have been thinking a lot about how important it is to do small dollar fundraising for our local organizations, and the $15 suggested donation really fits that model.  It allows the organization to take away a “profit” from the convention that a $10 donation wouldn’t.  Additionally, the amount of $15, make it easy for a person with a $20 bill to donate an extra $5 without much thought.  Let’s hope attendance is high.

The next meeting will be held on a Wednesday.  Meetings are generally held the second Tuesday of every month at Burnhaven Library, but on Wednesday February 10th, the Executive Committee Meeting will not only be on a different day, but it will be at a different location, Prior Lake City Hall.  Check the CD2 website for more information.