[Mpls] Doug Grow on the "Death of the Old Guard"

[David Brauer]

Wizard writes:

> I think that the young turks, at this point, are more likely to come
> from the Greens than from the DFL. It's a young party and is attracting
> bright people. Farheen Hakeem is one such.

While I don't disagree the Greens are attracting bright people, I think this
is way too harsh on the DFL. Look at the election just past: Ralph
Remington, Elizabeth Glidden, Betsy Hodges, Tracey Nordstrom, Scott Vreeland
(the oldest Young Turk I know) all won; Jason Stone came damn close. These
folks are reformers, and I think none fly the DFL flag out of convenience.

Despite their exciting 2001 debut and Farheen's arrival, I'd say the Greens
still have a LOT of party building to do, and frankly, didn't do as much as
they needed to these past four years. They couldn't field a candidate in the
10th ward - the 10TH! - and their candidate in the 8th ward basically
disappeared. There were NO new Greens running for the Park Board - none!
Their 9th Ward candidate was a DFL candidate for mayor (briefly, at the DFL
convention). I enjoyed covering Aaron Neumann in the 3rd - he was a genuine
and hardworking alternative - but he was flattened. Blame redistricting for
the 5th Ward situation, but Natalie couldn't win in a ward that was still
mostly hers - turnout was key, and the Greens (so far) have proven no better
than the old-guard DFL at getting new bodies to the polls in districts where
they have viable candidates.

All props to Cam Gordon, who did it the old-fashioned way: laboring in the
vineyard of city issues before he was a candidate, earning trust, working
hard. My observation above is not meant to diss the Greens - as I said four
years ago, I welcome their arrival and vote for their candidates. But the
whole "wave of the future" can be undone by self-satisfaction (a DFL
problem, too, of course). The future isn't promised to any political party.

David Brauer
Kingfield