The way that Gary Schiff promoted a second choice was through compatibility on issues. RCV might save us by focusing elections on issues not personalities.
I would rank candidates by
1) sorting through positions on issues
2) evaluating past performance
3) evaluating trust in having courage and keeping promises
4) evaluating ability to campaign hard and smart
I believe a more progressive candidate will appeal to voters more that the compromised mushy candidates that we have to accept. Progressives want candidates that support the platform, that can be trusted to stand up with courage when the going gets tough.
It seems that Minneapolis elected officials have a problem keeping promises. Specifically, Don Samuels, Kevin Reich, Diane Hofstede, Sandra Colvin Roy, Meg Tuthill, John Quincy, Barb Johnson and most significantly, RT Rybak, supported the stadium. ( Ramsey county thanks you). No referendum was going to happen because the opinion of the people was well known. Even more significant was how badly the financing favors rich owners over the people of Minneapolis. The unspoken sentiment through the Minneapolis convention was this questioning of who can we really trust. …READ MORE
The City of St. Paul actively support the principles of the international “Transition Town” movement, ( reduction of use of fossil fuels, favoring use of local products and services, support of robust community, supporting and endorsing efforts coming from neighborhoods to these ends).
This very idea deserves a separate article. Basically the idea is to grow food locally, reuse more, and generally build a local sustainable community that can live with no oil. It is bundle of good ideas.
I strongly suspect that Mark Andrew’s campaign will put blame elsewhere. Mark Andrew supporters have been already assigning blame in social media. The truth is that the convention delegates did not support a candidate by a super-majority. I think “No endorsement” is the legitimate result of the convention.
The vote advantage that Mark Andrew appeared to have had, now seems to be an arithmetic error. It took three hours on the third vote to determine that an almost 100 vote error had been made. Previously the leaked number was 53% which then went to a dead heat. The judgement of whether that was an error or a deliberate mischief, I leave to you.
With the candidate drop-offs, it was clear that most of the votes rolled up to oppose the leading contender. Visibly, one could see shirts of dropped contenders still in the voting area. When I asked them what their intent was, they answered. “no endorsement”. Indeed two candidates even said in the questions that they were not going to abide by the endorsement. …READ MORE
Last Tuesday, June 4, the Minneapolis DFL City Convention Rules Committee met to adopt Rules for the city convention. One of the more controversial agenda items was the consideration of using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) as an accelerated drop rule on ballot 1. The proposal would use RCV to narrow the field to the top two preferred candidates. Delegates would then use traditional (“single vote”) voting on subsequent ballots until a candidate is endorsed with 60 percent of the vote or there is adjournment without an endorsement.
In a contested endorsement with multiple candidates in a city that uses RCV in its elections, this year’s Minneapolis City DFL Convention was a perfect opportunity to incorporate RCV into the endorsing convention process. Unfortunately, this improvement was aggressively attacked by the mayoral campaigns. With all of the various campaigns unanimously opposed to using RCV to narrow the field to two, it is no surprise it was derailed.
When the Rules Committee initially met at their first meeting, it appeared that there were enough RCV allies on the Rules Committee to advance mixed balloting (RCV as a drop rule on ballot one and traditional balloting thereafter). After heavy lobbying from campaign operatives, Rules Committee members were torn between advancing the RCV methods they support and disappointing their favorite candidates’ campaigns. Though many Rules Committee members supporting RCV maintained their commitment to put process over politics, there were not enough of them. This missed opportunity should not be forgotten.
Hopefully, future campaigns will be willing to embrace the best process available rather than allow their worst fears to motivate them to do otherwise. (See RCV improves process at http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2013/05/24/community-voices-ranked-choice-voting-improves-process). And, hopefully, future party activists will have the courage to stand up to their favorite campaign(s) when they are not promoting the best process available for political reasons.
Mayor Coleman is endorsed by the DFL! OK, no surprise, since there are no DFL opponents and even other outside candidates are hard to find. However, it is good to have the mayor lead a strong campaign in an off-year election.
The real race was among the school board candidates. Small numbers means this is a race to motivate supporters to turn out. The difference then has to be a phone persuasion race to persuade the regular DFL attendees. Since there are three votes possible, the race was not negative.
The three endorsed candidates are Chue Vue and the incumbents, Jean O’Connell and John Brodrick. They were endorsed on the first, second, and third ballots, respectively.
I grew up in a place much like the 6th congressional district. I think for years the DFL has it all wrong in the candidates that they pick for the 6th. Those DFL picks were great candidates for a suburban area. What the sustaining success of Bachman should tell us is that the 6th wants someone with fire.Tom Rukavina would rock this district. No nuance. No compromise. No wishy-washy. Some one who speaks with a clear strong message with passion and heart. Think of the 6th as the wild wild west, where we have sent mild mannered Barney Fifes instead of John Waynes. Above all, the candidate should never ever apologize in any way for being a Democrat. It should almost feel like the beginning of a new religion in its certainty. What do you think : a Fife type or a Rukavina type?
Sometimes tough questions that I ask might seem like I am opposed to something when I am not. In a DFL endorsement race, we want candidates who handle tough questions and meet two goals at once. For example, Jim Carlson, the Eagan state senator, tells a wonderful 3M story where he used the best design and technology to produce the lowest cost per item (even against Chinese competition) with good labor wages and benefits.
Last night I heard that we staff our schools with people paid with 10 month contracts that leaves people with a 2 month gap that is both hard to fill with paying work and is also not covered by unemployment benefits. At the same time, two-parent working families are struggling to have care for children in that 2 month gap. We have talked about how children forget and fall behind in that same 2 month gap. To me, it seems obvious me that rather than extending unemployment, we should look to extending school to a full year. Then we would reduce costs for society as a whole and increase benefits to all by adding more weeks to our school year. By the way, I am NOT saying that we should just take the current weeks and spread them around – that is bogus. Here is an “AND” solution that would best represent labor. …READ MORE
Even Republicans and Libertarians agree that a flat rate income tax would be fair. Because we want out-of-state contributions (3.4%) and other goals, there will be a diversity of taxes. So Minnesota has added up all the local and state taxes and calculated the equivalent income tax for different income ranges. This study has been done for years. When Republicans were in power, the equivalent income tax went down for the richest and up for the poorest. Now the Democrats are bringing the the rate closer to a fair income tax rate. Click here for a larger image.
From the Governors Office:
The budget passed by the Governor and the majorities in the legislature creates a new 4 tier income tax bracket at 9.85% that will be paid only by the wealthiest 2% of Minnesotans. This new tax bracket will apply only to taxable income over $250,000 for married joint filers and taxable income over $150,000 for single filers.
$1.1 billion in New Revenue. This new tax bracket will help solve our budget deficit and invest in property tax relief for all Minnesotans,a better education system, and crucial economic development, measures to strengthen Minnesota’s middle class.
98% of Minnesotans Will See No Income Tax Increase.
More effective gun controls are addressed on the current edition of Democratic Visions.
Sami Rahamim discusses with AM950 Radio’s Nancy Nelson his response to the September killing of his father Reuvin Rahamim and two of his father’s employees and a United Parcel Service driver in his Bryn Mawr, Minneaplis sign company. Sami, Rahamin attended the State of the Union speech on the invitation of Congressman Keith Ellison. He and other survivors of families who had been victimized by gun violence heard President Obama call out to Congress that they “ … deserve a vote!” As a citizen-lobbyist, the 18-year old Mr. Rahamim has spoken on behalf of reforming gun laws in Saint Paul and Washington D.C.
In a strong commentary about reluctant Minnesota DFL legislators, Eden Prairie’s Doug Lind reminds our state lawmakers that they need to show backbone and pass effective laws that will reduce the careless and evil use of weapons.
Democratic Visions is produced by unpaid volunteers through DFL Senate District 48 at the Bloomington Community Access Television studio on Old Shakopee Road.
Minneapolis MTN Channel 16 – Sundays at 8:30 p.m.
Dem Vis is also streamed live on Sundays at 8:30 p.m at this MTN Ch 16 link: http://www.mtn.org/Video/tvguide/live.html
Comcast Channel 15 Sundays at 9 p.m. and Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. in Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Edina, Richfield and Hopkins.
Bloomington Cable Access Television (BCAT) Channel 16 on Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m., Fridays at 9:30 p.m. , Saturdays at 7:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m.
DEMOCRATIC VISIONS CHANNEL – YOUTUBE
Browse more than more than 125 segments including discussions, commentary and humor on a wide range of political issues -
The State House has passed a bill that would raise the state minimum wage to $9.50/hour and index it to inflation so $9.50 in today's dollars is worth an equivalent amount in next year's. The State Senate is dragging its feet, insisting on legislator pay raises *first*. Tell them to get off the sidelines, stop dragging their feet, and help raise up the working poor!
The way that Gary Schiff promoted a second choice was through compatibility on issues. RCV might save us by focusing elections on issues not personalities.
Last Tuesday, June 4, the Minneapolis DFL City Convention Rules Committee met to adopt Rules for the city convention. One of the more controversial agenda items was the consideration of using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) as an accelerated drop rule on ballot 1. The proposal would use RCV to narrow the field to the top two preferred candidates. Delegates would then use traditional (“single vote”) voting on subsequent ballots until a candidate is endorsed with 60 percent of the vote or there is adjournment without an endorsement.
Mayor Coleman is endorsed by the DFL! OK, no surprise, since there are no DFL opponents and even other outside candidates 
Gun law reform on Democratic Visions
by JeffStrate on March 21, 2013 · 1 comment
More effective gun controls are addressed on the current edition of Democratic Visions.
Sami Rahamim discusses with AM950 Radio’s Nancy Nelson his response to the September killing of his father Reuvin Rahamim and two of his father’s employees and a United Parcel Service driver in his Bryn Mawr, Minneaplis sign company. Sami, Rahamin attended the State of the Union speech on the invitation of Congressman Keith Ellison. He and other survivors of families who had been victimized by gun violence heard President Obama call out to Congress that they “ … deserve a vote!” As a citizen-lobbyist, the 18-year old Mr. Rahamim has spoken on behalf of reforming gun laws in Saint Paul and Washington D.C.
In a strong commentary about reluctant Minnesota DFL legislators, Eden Prairie’s Doug Lind reminds our state lawmakers that they need to show backbone and pass effective laws that will reduce the careless and evil use of weapons.
Democratic Visions is produced by unpaid volunteers through DFL Senate District 48 at the Bloomington Community Access Television studio on Old Shakopee Road.
Minneapolis MTN Channel 16 – Sundays at 8:30 p.m.
Dem Vis is also streamed live on Sundays at 8:30 p.m at this MTN Ch 16 link: http://www.mtn.org/Video/tvguide/live.html
Comcast Channel 15 Sundays at 9 p.m. and Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. in Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Edina, Richfield and Hopkins.
Bloomington Cable Access Television (BCAT) Channel 16 on Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m., Fridays at 9:30 p.m. , Saturdays at 7:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m.
DEMOCRATIC VISIONS CHANNEL – YOUTUBE
Browse more than more than 125 segments including discussions, commentary and humor on a wide range of political issues -
https://www.youtube.com/user/DemocraticVisions
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