The case for supporting a non-endorsed DFLer

Thank you for considering my candidacy for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board in District 1. And, thank you for your dedication to Democratic Party values. As a lifelong DFLer, I share those values and have championed them at my precinct caucuses, and as a delegate to city conventions. Ordinarily, I give strong credence to the party endorsement process. Ordinarily, but not always. The endorsement process does not always yield the candidate whom I feel best supports my values and interests, and on those occasions I vote for the challenger. Let me make my case, and then you can decide.

Because there is such vehement anti-incumbent sentiment in this particular case, I expected someone would step forward to challenge Walt. I would not have wanted to engage in a run against both the incumbent and another challenger, because that would dilute and diffuse the argument. And, because I think it is important to change the leadership in this post, I would have encouraged unity behind almost any opposition candidate.

In like thinking, Peter Vevang came to the city DFL convention seeking endorsement because “No one else stepped up to the plate to challenge Walt…” Few delegates had heard of Peter before then and he was armed with only one sheet of paper. Still, he took Walt to the third ballot!

The rules of the convention were that endorsement would be achieved when a candidate received 60% of the votes from the delegates remaining on the floor. To get the votes he needed, Walt called delegates who had left the convention, urging them to return to the floor. He won the endorsement by one vote.

I submit that this was an extremely weak endorsement for a two-term incumbent, previously a City Council member, with enormous name recognition. Things would be much different right now, I suspect, if Peter had started a week earlier, or if I had started several months ago.

I intend to win this race despite having entered it too late to seek party endorsement, and I humbly ask for your support. Four years from now, should I choose to run again, I will ask for your endorsement and abide by your decision.