[Mpls] Lisa McDonald and Endorsement and other sundry details

[Tim Bonham]

>Dennis Plante said:
>So, as I clearly understand the process, on a forced ranking for the
>stonewall endorsement it is:
>
>1) whether or not you publicly endorse a non-partisan candidate
>
>2) whether or not you agree to abide by the party endorsement process
>
>3) what your views and record are towards the GLBT community
>
>Is this accurate?
         No.
The one and only requirement for endorsement is that you convince 60% of 
the voters that you are the single best DFL candidate for this office.  Period.
         Those issues may be important to some, maybe even most, of our 
voters; but the only requirement is getting 60% of the votes.

Finally, Dennis, the name is not "stonewall", but "StonewallDFL".  We are 
proud to have been a caucus of the DFL Party for over 25 years now.
         So I don't see why people claim to be so surprised that our 
members are concerned about candidates who have tried to defeat DFL 
candidates by supporting candidates of another party, or concerned about 
candidates who support the DFL endorsement only if they win it, etc.
         As far as supporting the glbt community, pretty much all of our 
candidates do that.  Oddly enough, the anti-glbt ones generally don't 
bother to show up at our screenings!  Lisa McDonald's views on the glbt 
community were indeed good, but so were Jim Bernstein's and Betsy 
Hodge's.  The voters chose Betsy as the best one; the one they wanted to 
endorse.

If people want a non-partisian glbt endorsing group, go ahead and create one!
         There used to be such a group (MCGR), many years ago.  But the 
people who founded it went on to become Board Members of 
StonewallDFL.  Probably because there wasn't much point to being 
non-partisian when the candidates who supported the glbt community were 
nearly all from one party -- the DFL.  We are part of the party that 
welcomes us.  If others want to work elsewhere, go right ahead.  We're 
happy being DFL'ers.

Tim Bonham, Ward 12, Standish-Ericsson