[Mpls] 8th Ward gathers, no endorsement

[wmmarks]

Karen Forbes wrote:

>Having attended the convention in its entirity I have to say that the
>campaigns for the two leading candidates felt like the old school DFL
>machines in action.  The same force that we all were voting against when
>Sharon and Jackie were in office and were voted out. Instead of Sharon and
>Jackie it appears to be Gary Schiff and Lisa Goodman.
>  
>
Let's talk about the origins of the "new" DFL. When Sharon won the 
endorsement over Rip Rapson, it was hard fought. We were there till 2 in 
the morning or worse. Don Fraser broke the tie when he said he would 
support SSB rather than Rapson, his deputy mayor. Rapson's support, the 
big back-room-deal support, was provided by Sam and Sylvia Kaplan. They 
also backed RT. Sam Kaplan is a deal maker by trade. He's a behind the 
scenes lawyer and when big deals are made, he's there. Big deals as in 
deals involving millions and millions of bucks. This is a guy who gets 
invited to dine with the Bushes. (He told me this at that very 
convention.) I now look at it as SSB keeping the FL in the DFL. I 
couldn't see it then.

For all her faults, SSB was an assault on the back room deals. Further, 
anyone you get to study for as long as we watched and interacted with 
SSB, faults are bound to show. For yeah, verily, no one can escape 
having them.

In the 8th ward, the two major manipulators were Lilligren and Schiff. 
Lilligren and Schiff both backed Hayden and supported his campaign. Both 
will be happy with either Hayden or Glidden.

Glidden, Hauser, and Tifft spent way more money going into the 
convention. That we ended with a hung jury was both good and bad. Those 
without considerable financial backing will have a hard time continuing. 
The 8th could have at least 8 candidates judging from what happened 
yesterday. It means that the serious candidates will have to door knock 
the whole ward. They will have to get neighborhood supporters from all 
the neighborhoods to walk with them in order to get introduced to all 
the ward and have ALL the ward judge who is to be the one we put 
forward. There could also be others who would step forward at this 
point. Gonna be a long ballot if they do, even before adding the 
candidates not affiliated with the DFL. Neither Miller nor Metoyer asked 
for endorsement, but they came and they spoke, taking their places in 
the DFL.

It was also instructive to note who was not there. Neva Walker stayed 
away, as did Ms. Clarissa Walker. That's telling. Some of the old heads 
were not there. I missed them.

WizardMarks, Central, 8-2