By Jeremy Powers, SD 51 DFL Chair.
Wednesday night’s public announcement that District 51 DFL is looking for a candidate for 51A was, I believe, at least reasonably successful.
Nine people outside of our normal circle of friends, plus 15 district directors and friends, attended the meeting. They represented the City Council, both major school districts, the legal profession and the Chamber of Commerce. Some like Dick Swanson, Jeff Lange and Bill McCarthy were doing kind of double duty, representing the city and labor as appropriate. Because of an illness and then short timing, no one from Education Minnesota could make it. Dick Lange and Steve Novak from Anoka County couldn’t make it.
In terms of doing what it was supposed to, at least three names have surfaced of people who are now considering running. We will talk about them at our district meeting, but I would rather not put their names in a blog post. That is a far cry from having an announced candidate, but it is the kind of progress we were looking for.
I gave a PowerPoint presentation and in my typical style, I talked too fast. During the presentation Shawn Hamilton, our 2008 candidate, announced that he would not be running again, publicly opening the door for others. Dick Swanson began the question and answer period – breaking the ice – by asking for Rep. Connie Bernardy to explain what it was like being a state rep. Connie talked for several minutes and laid out a day-in-the-life of campaigning and legislating. Other questions arose. The entire event lasted less than one hour. Attendees were given a folder containing a map of the district, recent election results, a DFL platform and a contact sheet with phone numbers of various people so that if they find anyone who is pondering a run they have several people they could talk to about it.
The event was very civil and matter-of-fact (possibly to the point of being boring.) However, I think it was received in the manner in which I intended – to layout simply that there will be DFL candidate and we are casting a wide net in an effort to find the best possible candidate.
Regardless of how effective the whole thing was, several people at the state DFL and at the House Caucus complimented our efforts. I think it showed them that we are doing what is expected in terms of recruiting a candidate.
As a next step I will be issuing a news release to the Blaine-Spring Lake Park Life that we are seeking a candidate and that it was announced at a meeting of community leaders at City Hall.
PDF copies of the PowerPoint presentation are available if anyone wants one.
