February Newsletter
The Resistance
by Alden Brown
Bullies win when no one stands up to them.
Dictators win when no one votes for Democracy in the election. In this case, that vote is for the Democratic nominee.
We’re still here, and he hasn’t won, yet. But, damn, President Agent Orange is having his day.
And Democrats are certainly not instilling fear into his heart … if he has a heart beneath the racism, misogynism, and plain old ego-driven bizarre that hate has built layer by layer over his silver-lined lifetime.
We looked like characters from a comedy sketch in Iowa. That won’t win in November.
The thing is Democracy is messy. Dictatorships are generally pretty tidy.
Democracies require transparency. You keep track of stuff like votes and mistakes and correcting those mistakes no matter how messy.
Orange dictators ignore or bully those they don’t agree with. They bully even those they do agree with, especially if they are the wrong color or race or gender … or they don’t stay at his hotel. That was clear as the Senate let Agent Orange off with only Mitt Romney as the single Republican with a conscience. One Democrat questioned how so many of his colleagues could stay upright without spines.
The orange dictator wannabe continues to lie where he doesn’t like the truth. His goal is to make sure no one can afford to pay attention. That’s the way dictatorships work. Everything is fine as long as the trains to the Gulag are running on time.
Democracies … you have to count the votes in a democracy.
You also have to win in a democracy.
When your party nominates a candidate, you have to stand behind that nominee.
You don’t take your viewpoint and go home.
If there is one thing that is absolutely true about this election and this President Agent Orange (thank you Spike Lee for the moniker), he eats his opponents along with his fries.
It will take a united Democratic party to save this Democracy. And, that is what this election is about.
Because no matter who is elected from among the candidates, the Democrat will not:
Lie with every breath
Violate the constitute with impunity
Cage children
Eliminate health care for tens of millions
Poison our air, water and earth
Control women’s bodies
Blackmail his enemies
Fill his pockets at the nation’s expense
The Democrat who wins will:
Follow the Constitution
Repair our health care system
Ensure Social Security and Medicare remain intact
Represent all Americans, not just the wealthy
And a Democratic president will work to keep our air breathable, our water drinkable, and our land livable.
This president is a lie that is destroying our world, not just our country.
We cannot afford another Iowa and we cannot afford to walk away from our candidate after the nomination.
Resist now. Resist during the primaries, and, by all that is Democratic, resist by voting for the Democrat in November.
PRECINCT CAUCUSES ARE THIS MONTH
The 2020 DFL precinct caucuses will be Tuesday, February 25, 2020 at 6:30 PM. We still have caucuses, though we won’t have a presidential preference poll at the caucuses this year, because there will be a primary a week later. However, we will elect precinct or township party officers, elect delegates to the Senate District 26 DFL convention (where endorsements for the DFL candidates for the Minnesota House and Senate in Senate District 26 will be made), and vote on resolutions that if passed at several levels would become part of the DFL Platform or Action Agenda. You can find where your caucus is at www.caucus.dfl.org. While there is no early or absentee voting for the caucuses, if you can’t attend but want to run for precinct chair or vice-chair or to be a delegate or alternate for the Senate District 26 DFL convention, you can submit the Precinct Caucuses-Non-Attendee Form, available at https://www.dfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Precinct-Caucus-Non-Attendee-Form-2019-09-24_Call_FINAL_Rev_A_adopted_21_September_2_003_1-1.pdf and your candidacy will be considered at your caucus.
Because of parking problems at Willow Creek Middle School in 2016 and 2018, we are moving the caucuses for seven precincts that are closer to John Marshall High School than to Willow Creek to John Marshall and for two precincts that are closer to Century High School than to Willow Creek to Century. Townships or cities that had caucuses in Stewartville, Chatfield, Eyota, or Byron will still have them there. We will be sending postcards to previous caucus goers and placing reminder calls about the new locations.
The DFL will be using an electronic registration system for the precinct caucuses. This was demonstrated at the State Central Committee meeting in December and seems to work well. It will reduce the amount of post-caucus data entry substantially. This is a website, not an app, so is less likely to fail the way Iowa’s new app did. There will be paper backup if needed.
Precinct caucuses are our second biggest effort every election cycle, second only to the election itself. We need lots of volunteers to convene caucuses or register caucus goers. We hope you can help. If interested, complete this form: https://forms.gle/AU3UWaeZLFKf6w7WA. We will have four training sessions for conveners between February 15 and 22. On-line instruction is also available.
MINNESOTA’S PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY WILL BE MARCH 3
We will have the first Presidential primary in Minnesota in decades the first Tuesday in March. This is “Super Tuesday” as many other states are having primaries that day. The primary will be run by the state of Minnesota, not the political parties, so you will vote in your precinct, city, or township as if this were the November election. You can go www.mnvotes.org to see where you vote. Polling places will be open from 7 AM-8 PM.
Early voting started in January and goes through Monday, March 2. The main early voting location is the 4-H Building on the Olmsted County Fairgrounds in Graham Park for this election only. Voting hours will be 8 AM-5 PM weekdays (except for February 17) and 10 AM-5 PM Saturday, February 29. There will also be early voting in Conference Room 2 of the Government Center and at the lower level of the 125 Live building (125 Elton Hills Drive, NW) Tuesday, February 25-Friday, February 28 and Monday, March 2 from 8 AM-5 PM and Saturday, February 29 from 10 AM-5 PM. All three of these locations will also be open from 5 PM-8 PM Tuesday, February 25 and Thursday, February 27.
15 candidates plus an Uncommitted option are on the ballot. Booker, Castro, Delaney, and Williamson have dropped out since the ballot was developed in December, but their names can’t be removed. The order will be rotated from polling place to polling place.
Michael Bennet Amy Klobuchar
Joseph Biden Deval Patrick
Michael R. Bloomberg Bernie Sanders
Cory Booker Tom Steyer
Pete Buttigieg Elizabeth Warren
Julian Castro Marianne Williamson
John K. Delaney Andrew Yang
Tulsi Gabbard Uncommitted
We will be using electronic registration for the primary. If you voted in the Rochester School Board referendum in November, you’ve already seen the new PollPad. In place of the large books election judges used to have to check voters in, voters will now give the first three letters of their first and last names to allow judges to find them in the electronic database on the PollPad. Once a name is found, the judge generates a receipt that the voter uses to get a ballot. People can register at the polls using the PollPad, which increases privacy for voters as only someone next to you in line can see if you’ve voted. The devices are only connected to the internet for a short time several times during the day, so they would be difficult to hack. The voting database is not connected to any other database. This device is not involved in counting votes.
THREE CANDIDATES ARE SEEKING THE DFL ENDORSEMENT FOR SENATE DISTRICT 26 SENATOR
We have three candidates, which is unprecedented, who hope to replace Carla Nelson, who has held the Senate seat since 2011.
Aleta Borrud, a retired physician active in the Senate District 26 DFL and in other local organizations, is a first-time candidate for public office. Her Twitter account is @aaborrud. Her website is https://www.aleta4mnsenate.com/. She raised $18,659 for her campaign in 2019.
Tyrel Clark was the 2018 DFL candidate for House District 26B. He is an Information Technology specialist at Mayo Clinic. His campaign Facebook page is Facebook.com/TyrelForSenate and website is TyrelForSenate.com. His Twitter is @TyrelforHouse. He raised $10,624 for his campaign in 2019.
Rich Wright, the 2016 DFL candidate for this seat and 2014 candidate for District 26B, is again seeking the endorsement. He is an attorney who works for Legal Assistance of Olmsted County. His Twitter is @RichWrightMN.
The 2018 vote total for Clark and Representative Tina Liebling exceeded the votes for the Republican candidates in Districts 26A and 26B. This, plus the strong performance of statewide DFL candidates and Dan Feehan in Senate District 26, suggests Nelson is vulnerable. An analyst who rates Minnesota legislative districts now rates this seat as having a DFL lean for the first time.
There is a lot of interest statewide in this race. Every seat in the Minnesota House and Senate is up for election in 2020. As the House is likely to stay in DFL hands and Governor Walz is in office through 2022, if the DFL can take over the Senate, it will have full control of Minnesota government for the first time since 2014. The Republicans have a 35-32 majority in the Senate, so the DFL has to win two more seats to take over. Only 8 (of 67) seats, including Senate District 26, are thought to be plausible to flip. Both parties and many interest groups will be involved in the election.
The endorsement will be made at the March 15 Senate District 26 DFL convention by delegates elected at the February 25 precinct caucuses.
POLITICAL NEWS OUTSIDE THE DISTRICT
While the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump ended in his acquittal, both Minnesota Senators voted to convict on both counts.
The Iowa caucuses were held on February 3. An app malfunction severely delayed results. As this was being written, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg were in a close race. Sanders was slightly ahead in how many people aligned with him while Buttigieg was slightly ahead in the number of state delegate equivalents (SDEs) he won. Their results were in the 25-26% range. Amy Klobuchar was fifth in both categories with about 12%. Elizabeth Warren was third and Joe Biden was fourth. Warren had 20% of people aligning with her and 18% of SDEs. Biden had 14% of people aligning with him and 16% of SDEs. The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday, February 11. Nevada’s caucuses will be Saturday, February 22 and the South Carolina primary will be Saturday, February 29, just three days before the Minnesota primary.
State Senator Susan Kent (D-Woodbury) replaced Senator Tom Bakk as the Minority Leader in the Minnesota Senate. It’s quite unusual to have a caucus leader involuntarily replaced as Bakk was.
The 2020 Minnesota legislative session begins February 11 and will end no later than May 18. The 2019-21 budget was passed last year, so this year’s session will focus on a capital investment (bonding) bill and policy issues. Since the Senate is controlled by Republicans, while the House is DFL-controlled, things could be contentious.
FEBRUARY DFL EVENTS
Monday, February 10 at 7-8:30 PM Senate District 26 DFL Central Committee meeting, DFL office, 1500 1st Ave. NE, Rochester
Tuesday, February 11 at 1:30-3 PM DFL Senior Caucus meeting, DFL office, 1500 1st Ave. NE, Rochester
Thursday, February 20 at 6 pm Young DFL meeting, DFL office (2020 planning and filling Board vacancies)
Tuesday, February 25 6:30-8:30 PM Precinct Caucuses. Find yours at www.caucus.dfl.org
DONATE TO SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL
We need your help to maintain a DFL presence in Rochester between now and the 2020 election. While one-time donations are welcome, we especially need monthly donations. We don’t get money from the national Democratic Party. The state DFL only contributes $500 a month, less than 1/3 of our rent. We rely on our local supporters to keep going and to get the DFL message out. There are tremendous opportunities for the DFL, locally and statewide, this year and in 2020, including replacing Carla Nelson with a DFL Senator and Jim Hagedorn with a DFL member of Congress. We need more money at the local level to take advantage of them. We need the money and you want an active DFL. If you give, there will be an office for DFL events and meetings, DFL participation in events and parades that require entry fees, technology that makes the DFL work better, and outreach into underrepresented communities. You can make a refundable donation in 2020 even if you made a contribution (to us, to another party unit, or to a candidate) and got a refund in 2019. Donate to Senate District 26 DFL and you can get up to $50/person or $100 per married couple back from the state of Minnesota if you are eligible to vote in Minnesota. Do it now. Make your donation via ActBlue (https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/senate-district-26-dfl-party-1?refcode=sd2). If you would rather write a check, please make it payable to DFL SD26 and send it to:
P.O. Box 9044
Rochester, MN 55904-9044
Send us a donation and we’ll send you a receipt. Send the receipt and a form
(https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/media/59866) needed to claim the reimbursement to Minnesota Revenue Political Contribution Refund St. Paul, MN 55146-1800. Make a donation, file a claim, and you’ll get a check back soon.
If you send a check, please include whether you are retired, self-employed or employed. If employed, include the name of your employer and your job title. The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board requires us to collect that information. If you use Act Blue, the appropriate information is collected.
SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL CONVENTION WILL BE MARCH 15
The Senate District DFL convention will be at noon Sunday, March 15 at the Mayo High School cafeteria. The delegates to the convention will have been elected at the February 25 precinct caucuses.
At the convention we will:
Endorse a candidate for the Senate District 26 seat (three candidates so far)
Endorse a candidate for each of the House District 26A and 26B seats
Elect Senate District 26 DFL officers (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Outreach and Inclusion Officer, and Communications Officer)
Elect 11 Senate District 26 DFL Directors
Elect 17 delegates and 17 alternates to the DFL 1st Congressional District Convention (May 16 in Albert Lea) and to the State Convention (May 30-31 in Rochester)
Elect 3 delegates and 5 alternates to the DFL State Central Committee
Vote on platform resolutions passed at our precinct caucuses.
Vote on any proposed changes to the Senate District 26 DFL Constitution and Bylaws
People who can’t attend the precinct caucuses can still compete for a delegate position at this convention by completing the Precinct Caucus Non-Attendee Form available at
https://www.dfl.org/about/documents/ no later than February 22.
Dan Feehan plans to speak to the convention. Other candidates and elected officials may speak, too.
CENSUS 2020 IS COMING SOON
The 2020 census will be happening in the first part of the year. It’s important that everyone completes the census, since undercounts cost governments funding and decrease political representation of undercounted areas. Olmsted County, and especially Rochester, are at high risk for undercounts, since we are in the most diverse county in southern Minnesota and the poor, immigrants, and people of color are the most likely to be missed by the census. The Trump administration’s attempt to put a citizenship question on the census form, though unsuccessful, may reduce the willingness of families that have undocumented people or legal immigrants to complete census forms. There will be efforts to encourage everyone to complete the census forms by mail or talk to enumerators when they go house-to-house in April.
The Census has to hire lots of people, so this may be an opportunity for short-term work, either part-time or full-time. Go to https://www.census.gov/about/regions/chicago/jobs/minnesota.html if interested.
Follow us on Social Media
This is a monthly newsletter. However, events often happen on short notice, so we may not be able to include them in the newsletter. Check our website and Facebook pages for the latest news on what is happening.
Email: sd26mn.dfl@gmail.com
We tweet from @sd26dfl and have a website at www.senatedistrict26dfl.com
We have a closed Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/144866495637545/
We share an open Facebook page with Olmsted-25 DFL and Senate District 25 at
https://www.facebook.com/sd26sd25olm25/?fref=ts
Our Instagram account is at dflsenatedistrict26.
