Legalectric

Speaking of Resolutions, just got word that Itasca County passed one opposing Excelsior’s Mesaba project — now that’s a big step!!

Resolutions for Goodhue County DFL Convention

It’s been a “Resolutions” kind of weekend, and it takes so much time… I’m going to submit the Goodhue way of handling Resolutions for inclusion in the DFL’s “How-To” section so that others don’t have to reinvent the wheel, or worse, have Resolutions that aren’t considered — not one peace resolution made it through the fracas of the Rice County Convention to become one of the 28 that went forward — they were all in the “debatable” pile that just sat there unaddressed — eeeeeeeeuw, that’s not conducive to “Peace in the Precincts.”

The Goodhue County DFL Convention is next Saturday at SE MN Technical College. So we’re preparing the Resolutions… all 134 of them. Kudos to Steve Jystad of Zumbrota for doing the heavy lifting — he’s gotten this Resolution business off to a managable start by spending a lot of tedious time entering them into a database so we could sort. The following day, I put in a few hours consolidating and drafting proposed language. Then five of us waded through it all, and got the job done. I was impressed by the breadth of issues raised, everything from my eminent domain and personal property tax issues to specific education issues and single payer health care to apprenticeship rules to the “Personal Protection Act.” This is democracy in action.

It’s simple to do:

1) Put them all into a pile and number them (making sure the forms are filled out right and everything’s there

2) Enter them into the database zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Res.No. Name Precinct Category Resolution

3) Consolidate like ones

4) Synthesize and draft language to be presented for Convention

So that was yesterday, and at the Convention we’re going to use a simple system of giving each delegate 20 stickers (we only get 20 resolutions) and so all they have to do is put the stickers by the number of their 20 Resolutions, which makes for easy tallying. We’ll just count each person’s 20 and the top 20 go forward.

This stuff isn’t rocket science, but it requires a solid day or two of prep to make it managable, otherwise, it’s the chaos of Rice County all over again — you just can’t go into Convention without having done this work.

And did I mention that the Jystad family has the most wonderful pup… an 8 year old Bull Mastiff. He’s “shrinking a bit with age,” down from over 130, but because he’s sleek, he doesn’t look that much bigger than my girls. When his head’s at my knee, his tail was wagging out from under the other side of the big dining room table. Now that’s a big galoot, calm and constantly smiling, he looks like this but bigger:

Rice County – Where’s that party at???

Victor Summa’s letter in Northfield News:

Where is the DFL Party?

To the editor:
The impressive array of candidates deserves more than the disarray in the party.

As the local political climate heats up … I’m wondering, where’s the Northfield DFL … and, where’s the press coverage of this spring’s related political events?

The national and statewide contests notwithstanding, two races this fall that are crucial to Northfield’s future would be the state House races, Districts 25A and 25B, and the state Senate race, District 25. Both of these party struggles are contested. Who will be the DFL candidates facing Republican incumbents? And, why?

The well-known, homegrown candidate, David Bly versus Belle Plain’s Tim Lies vie for House seat 25B. That party struggle will be determined on April 11 in Montgomery.

And, no less than three candidates have tossed their hats into the DFL ring for the Senate District 25 seat, currently held by the Republican incumbent. The DFL opposition includes Jessica Peterson, Ted Ludwig and Tim Siebsen, each hoping to make their mark at the April 11 DFL confab in Montgomery.

Where’s the public discourse, the insightful analysis? Where’s the press coverage? Where’s the local DFL candidate forums?

Are we expected to flip a coin to gain insight into the political strengths of each. Strikes me that this issue … all these candidates present a provocative mix. Isn’t it provocation that sells newspapers? Isn’t “provocative” what grabs voters attention?

A relative “handful” of proclaimed DFL hangers-on, surviving the tedium of the Rice County convention last weekend will or may go to Montgomery on April 11. Until then, there evidently is no plan for the DFL in Northfield, Belle Plain or Montgomery to bring these candidates to the voter’s eyes or ears for appraisal.

The newspaper gets blamed for a lot, but I guess you can’t blame the newspaper for not covering an event that never happened.

The frustrating question for all the Democratic faithful is: How do you hope to take back the White House, when you can’t even organize a fight for the strongest candidates to vie for seats in St. Paul?

I suggest a DFL forum at some conveniently located neutral site — Lonsdale? — where at least the press and the delegates can have a chance to hear from, and more importantly ask biting questions of, these five who might frame our future. Not just an opportunity to hear political pap, but to ask the insightful questions that will separate the candidate. Or perhaps, prove all to be worthy … maybe then, a coin flip’s okay!

Or maybe, the district’s a throwaway … given up to stay “red!” Ya gotta wonder?

Victor Summa
Northfield