At the Precinct Caucus Meeting Last Night
Minnesota's precinct caucuses were held last night, statewide. As the DFL precinct chair for St. Paul's Ward 6, Precinct 13, I was there, sitting in a nearby high school cafeteria with half a dozen other attendees from the precinct. We did a bit of precinct business, but this year there was no straw poll, even for Governor, since our DFL-party Governor isn't being opposed in the primaries. We all signed up to be delegates at the Senate District DFL convention, early in March, and a couple of draft resolutions were approved to be sent on to the next step. In March, we'll be doing more weighty stuff.
Not very newsworthy, really, but that's a mid-term precinct caucus for you.
Still, I got to chat for about 10 minutes with the incumbent State House member for my district. We discussed the upcoming bill that would raise the Minnesota minimum wage and he said that he was adamant in his support for it, and believed it would pass. We talked about the budget surplus that is anticipated and what to do with that extra money. As with me, education was the most important thing for him, budget-wise. We talked about the problems that had occurred with our MNSure state ACA exchange and he said that they would be working on accountability issues and needed changes in the upcoming session.
Since there wasn't a lot going on at this caucus meeting, I had a chance to talk directly with one of my state legislators. I've done that before with him, and with other candidates who take the time to attend these precinct caucus gatherings. It's one of the main reasons I participate at that level. It's pretty easy to buttonhole those folks in such situations, and they never seem to mind.
So, there wasn't much for the caucus to do last night. Still, we re-elected all of the precinct officers and I got to have a serious conversation with a state legislator who knows me, since I helped him get elected in the first place. It's all worthwhile.
I'd encourage everyone to get involved with their Democratic Party organization at the most local of levels. It's a great way to be hands-on in politics, and you'll have opportunities you won't have otherwise to speak to the people who will be representing you.
GOTV 2014 and Beyond!
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http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2014/02/dfl-caucus-minneapolis-cedar-riverside-ends-chaos?
The caucus at the Brian Coyle Center in Cedar-Riverside produced an overflow crowd of more than 300, a pre-caucus argument handled by the police and a subsequent physical attack on one of the participants.
Eventually, staff from the Coyle center decided to shut down the event, and police quickly dispersed the crowd.
Emotions had been running high more than an hour before the scheduled 7 p.m. start and escalated even more by caucus time in the Cedar-Riverside Somali stronghold.