[Mpls] Re: DFL Convention(s): Time For A 'Hood Caucus...

[Tim Bonham]

>In the 1993 and 2001 city elections small blocks of delegates were able to 
>award or
>present an endorsement even though they had less than 10% of the delegates.
>. . .
>                 Dyna Sluyter

I really don't know where Dyna gets figures like this at all.

First, delegates don't do endorsements in "city elections".
So I'll assume she meant Party Conventions.

Second, none of the 2001 DFL Ward Conventions had "less than 10% of the 
delegates".  Not even anywhere near that!  For the Wards in Dyna's 
North/NorthEast part of the city, here are the actual attendance figures:
         Ward 1  - 58 of 126 possible delegates  = 46%
         Ward 3 - 43 of 90 possible delegates    = 47%
         Ward 4 - 75 of 186 possible delegates   = 40%
And those were largely uncontested Wards.
         The ones with serious contests, like wards 6 & 10, had much higher 
attendance, about 60-75% of the possible delegates (better percentage 
turnout than the election itself!).  And this is not even considering that 
the delegates were from the previous year's caucus, and some had moved out 
of the ward by the time of these conventions.
(These numbers are available online, at the www.mpls.dfl.org website.)

Tim Bonham, Ward 12, Standish-Ericsson