(Sorry wrong forum should be MN) I got a call last night...

[kickysnana]

from a DFL governor candidate campaign asking if I was going to the caucus and was I supporting ****. I said that I was looking into it, weather permitting. Then they asked me if I would be a campaign leader and gather like minded people together at the caucus and go on and possibly be a delegate. I knew had to tell them that my health is not good enough to guarantee my being anywhere.

It wasn't until I hung up that it dawned on me that I am no longer a card carrying DFLer. Vote DFL though. I would think that would disqualify me but never having thought about any such thing thought I would ask the faithful here.

BTW. Amy made the list of Senators "reforming" Social Security.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7503549

Remember when we had Congresspeople we could really be proud of? (sigh)

[krispos42]

1. All better now

:-)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Too bad we can't vote out Amy for another two years

She has been the biggest disappointment...

As for your question about the parties, Minnesota doesn't have registration by party, does it?

In states that have closed primaries (e.g. Oregon), you register for a party so that they know which ballot to give you.

Doesn't the caucus system simply assume that you will vote DFL if you show up at the DFL caucus?

[dflprincess]

3. We don't have party registration so none of us are "card carrying"

when you sign in at your caucus there's a statement on the sheet that says something to the effect that by signing in you agree to support DFL principles and DFL candidates.


I think is was in 2004 the DNC wanted the statement changed because they thought it was too strict. I found it odd that the national party thought the DFL was being "harsh" by expecting caucus participants to be DFLers.

[Brickbat]

4. I read that as pressure from the national party to drop the "DFL" label.

[dflprincess]

5. Every so often there is noise about dropping the FL from the name

but that comes from within the state party. I don't think this spasm from the DNC had much to do with the name - they just like to throw their weight around and threaten to refuse to seat the state's delegation at the national convention if the state doesn't comply with whatever petty demand they've come up with. It's really just a power trip on their part. Once upon a time the DFL would have told them to go to hell but they've pretty much rolled over to the national party now (as demonstrated by the way it let the DNC & DSCC pick Klobuchar as our candidate in 2006)

[mascarax]

6. Uh, if they dropped the "FL", what would Colin Peterson do?!

Actually, my impression is he's been clinging to the "F" only.

[dflprincess]

7. Oh please, Peterson is just a Blue Dog

no way he would have been a Farmer Laborite.

Maybe instead of just dropping the FL the Farmer Labor wing of the party should demand a divorce. I think Scarletwoman once quoted an old Farmer Laborite as saying the biggest mistake the Farmer Labor party ever made was letting the Democrats in. I think that statement becomes truer all the time.

[annm4peace]

16. Agree, Agree, Agree on your Amy comment

Wish we could get our FL back.

[annm4peace]

17. If you can't make the precinct caucus

I think you can call the precinct chair to ask your name to be put down for the Ward convention.

Maybe DFLprincess knows

[dflprincess]

18. I know!

(we need an icon of a kid frantically waving their hand)

If you can't make the precinct caucus you can send the precinct chair or the district chair (who would be responsible for getting it to the right precinct) a letter explaining that you couldn't make it to the caucus but want to be considered as a delegate or alternate to the next level. In my area it would be the Senate District Convention (true in all the metro) or the County Unit Convention.

Make sure you use the right terminology in your request. I'm in Bloomington and if I said "county unit" it would be interpreted as meaning I wanted to go to the Hennepin County convention which is not the same as the Senate District and does not lead to the state convention.

This is a link to the PDF of this year's call which lays out the procedures for this year's caucus and conventions


2010 DFL Call

page 3 paragraph 6b describes what you should do if you can't be at the caucus

[Spike from MN]

8. Nah, she hasn't been a disappointment.

At least not to me. She's done exactly what I thought she would. I knew she was a total phony from the get-go. I never even remotely considered voting for her.

Looks like this would be a good time to bombard her office with calls and emails. Not that either of those actually have an affect, mind you. Rather, it's something to do for your own amusement. Calling and reading her staff the riot act can be rather entertaining. After all, it's hard for them to defend the indefensible.

[dflprincess]

9. I knew she'd be bad,

but I didn't think she'd go this far.

The problem with calling her staff is that they're usually hostile to anyone who disagrees with Amy-kins (and yes, I am polite when I call, more so than when I used to call Normie's office and his staff was nicer). It probably does some good so she knows we are paying attention to her Blue Dog activities which she tries to keep on the downlow - and she did change he vote the 2nd time FISA came up.

What we really need to do is find someone to run against her and the sooner the better.

[Spike from MN]

10. Oh hell, her staff being hostile isn't a problem.

Actually, that makes it even more fun. Get 'em riled up about how much Amy sucks and let them try to justify her actions. Her co-sponsoring the bill to "reform" SS gives us a perfect opportunity to let her staff know just what we think about her.

And don't let her fool you. If her 2nd FISA vote had been the deciding one, she absolutely would have voted for it. Since there was a cushion, she voted against it to appease the voters and make us think she's actually "listening" to us. She's not. The only ones she listens to are the same ones they all listen to -- those with the big bucks pulling the strings. Her inability to take a stand on HCR is a prime example of what a phony she is.

"What we really need to do is find someone to run against her and the sooner the better."

Paging dpbrown... ;)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. You know, I think many of us are on the same wavelength about that

Dan's a real progressive, his experience with the Kucinich campaign (far more extensive than mine) gives him some idea of what lies ahead, and best of all, he's a good talker who comes off as a regular guy.

And he has two years to gear up for the race. :-)

[dflprincess]

12. We have to get him to our next meet up

so we can chat.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. I will grant "Normie-kins" that

His staff was really nice. They were as helpful as could be when I had my passport problems in 2007 and even phoned me to say that it was on its way.

[dflprincess]

14. A smart Senator or Rep always has a staff

that is good dealing with the public. Good constiuent service, or just listening to voters, can go a long way to winning votes.

Years ago my friend's mother needed to get back to England because her dad was very ill. Her passport was expired and she had been told it would take 12 weeks to get a new one. A neighbor suggested she call Senator Humphrey's office. Within an hour or so of her call they sent someone out to the house to collect the expired passport and hand delivered a new one the next day. After that, Hubert could have strangled a kitten on live TV and they would have voted for him and continued to tell all their friends how wonderful he was.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Humphrey's office did that for a friend of my great-aunt, too

Got a last-minute passport for the friend so that he could go and be with his father, who had a heart attack while on a trip to Germany.

Of course, in the 2007 situation, I was one of literally thousands of people who were panicking because their passports were lost somewhere in limbo.

(Way to go, Bushie. Double the number of people who require passports but don't add any more staff to process the applications.)