Why Minneapolis DFL conventions are so bad
And ways to fix them
Hello new subscribers! Last night, I (regrettably) scrolled through a Facebook group thread where delegates complained about Sunday’s Minneapolis DFL Convention. I did not engage. Although I should be doing other things, I can’t stop thinking about Sunday’s convention and the general antipathy that many delegates feel about the process. Like my bully. Here are some thoughts about why Minneapolis DFL conventions are so bad, and a few possibilities for making them better.
Why Are Minneapolis DFL Conventions So Bad?
Candidates Average Vote (CAV)
Minneapolis is, with a few exceptions, a one party town. Everyone says they’re a Democrat and most candidates want the DFL endorsement, even though there’s a huge ideological gulf between candidates like Ward 9 City Councilmember Jason Chavez, who I’d categorize as radical (I mean that as a compliment), and Ward 13 2023 candidate Kate Mortenson, who I’d categorize as gazillionaire dilettante (I mean that as an insult).
Most Minneapolis voters vote DFL, up and down the ballot. Not everyone, but most. Exceptions include, but are not limited to:
The hosts of a house party I once attended, only to discover that their home’s only (small) bookshelf exclusively included titles authored by Dinesh D’Souza. A turning point in my social life, in which I realized that mistakes had been made.
Councilmember Robin Wonsley, a Democratic Socialist, who is constantly pilloried for her noble values in the press and on social media.
Lots of Minneapolis DFL voters are significant and beneficial for all Minnesotans because Minneapolis turns out the votes in margins high enough for statewide candidates like Governor Walz, Senators Smith and Klobuchar, and AG Keith Ellison to win. This is significant and inconvenient for delegates to Minneapolis DFL conventions, too, because of the Candidates Average Vote (CAV) calculation.
From the Constitution and Bylaws, Section 11:
The DFL Candidates Average Vote is calculated by taking the sum of votes cast in the two most recent general elections for DFL candidates in the five highest ranking offices (as listed below) and dividing by five. The ranking of the offices for this purpose shall be President, U.S. Senator, Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and State Auditor.
Because of high DFL voter turnout in the city, the Minneapolis DFL used to have something like 4,000 delegates (don’t quote me on that number) to the Minneapolis DFL convention. In 2022 the Minneapolis DFL Constitution was amended to cap the number of City convention delegates at 800 and number of alternates at 800, even if Minneapolis grows in population and DFL voters, so conventions can place in smaller venues, like the public high school auditoriums. (Delegate allocations by precinct are still apportioned by CAV). Before that, the Minneapolis DFL could only meet at the Convention Center, the only venue in town that could accomodate so many delegates, and that venue was unaffordable for the unit’s paltry budget.
Now, having chaired and volunteered at DFL conventions in suburban locations, I can say with confidence that the chaotic energy and lengthiness of Minneapolis DFL conventions can be attributed to the sheer number of delegates. It’s very simple. We have a lot of DFL voters; we have a lot of DFL convention delegates.
Kahn Rule
We’re not supposed to have Minneapolis DFL conventions every year. If it feels like we’ve had too many conventions lately, that’s because we’ve had too many conventions lately. For that, we can point full blame at former state Representative Phyllis Khan, the 2010 Minnesota Legislature, and a law nicknamed the Khan Rule, which decouples city council elections from mayoral elections and requires Minneapolis to hold city council elections in years following redistricting. The intention of the law is to make sure that city council members represent their redistricted wards. It makes sense in theory, but in practice, it added an election in 2023, more endorsing conventions at the Ward level, and a general disillusionment and exhaustion with the party endorsement process.
Media Perception
I can’t get out of my head a David Orrick authored Star Tribune article from last year about a funny tweet starring Ronald Reagan’s ghost, in which Orrick described then-Minneapolis DFL Chair Briana Rose Lee as “ascending through DFL ranks” and “at the helm” of the Minneapolis DFL, portraying Briana and the Minneapolis DFL as some kind of powerful organization with insidious socialist aims. That wasn’t a news story. It was a combination fluff-hit piece and totally unnecessary. Briana convened Zoom meetings and planned conventions. She had no say in policy or lawmaking, socialist or otherwise.
(Big parenthetical, here: not every party unit leader knows that their main role, the reason for the job existing, is to plan events. On Sunday, I asked a Vice Chair from a Senate District in Minneapolis if he’d help keep time for candidate speeches, because he was sitting near the front of the auditorium. In reply, he smirked at me from behind his transition lenses and spat a disdainful, “No!” in a that-task-is-beneath-me spurning of my request. I wish him well in his quest for political party power.)
General Public Perception
In general, most folks don’t know the ins and outs of the DFL Party. That’s fine, they’re busy, they don’t read DFL Party Documents during their leisure time. They don’t know the difference between the Minneapolis DFL, a small potatoes municipal organizing unit that doesn’t even elect delegates to the State Central Committee, and the State DFL Party. That’s not anyone’s fault (except maybe David Orrick and his mischaracterizations). But I wish that folks knew that being a DFL volunteer, from caucus convener to organizing unit chair, doesn’t influence public policy or laws. Volunteers can’t even change DFL rules; they just have to enforce them.
Recent History
Back in 2017, then-Minneapolis DFL Chair Dan McConnell used $2,000 of Party money to commission a poll to see if his wife could beat then-Ward 2 Council Member Cam Gordon in a City Council election. Scandalous. Even though most people in Minneapolis DFL leadership now had nothing to do with Dan McConnell, and didn’t live in Minneapolis in 2017, and maybe don’t even know about this story, that scandal still gives the Minneapolis DFL sketchy, odorous vibes. Thanks a lot, Dan.
I was on a fundraising committee last year. One of the fundraising volunteers called the union that Dan works for to ask for a contribution and Dan had the audacity to ask for a strategic plan before he committed any dollars to the Minneapolis DFL, money that volunteers usually use to reserve school auditoriums and print and translate documents (not commission political polls for their spouses’ campaigns). Maybe Dan doesn’t even remember 2017.
What Can Fix Minneapolis DFL Conventions?
Require the State Party to assist high CAV organizing units
If the State Party wants to encourage grassroots politics in the form of caucuses and conventions (and I’m not always sure that they do—just listen to the DFL Debrief Podcast and Chair Ken Martin’s bro-crew make fun of SCC delegates; I’m thinking of either the Nov. 11 or Dec. 18 episode but I’m not going to relisten for the sake of a fact check), the Party’s governing documents could be amended in a way that requires the State Party to allocate staff and monetary resources to high volume conventions. Conventions in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, CD5, CD3 (and maybe CD8?) tend to have big, unwieldy, shambolic conventions. The Party could set some kind of threshold whereby organizing units above a certain CAV threshold would trigger State Party intervention in the form of monetary assistance, training, and staff at the convention.
Require nominations committees
One reason why the Minneapolis DFL convention went long on Sunday is because there was no nominations committee that recruited, screened, and nominated candidates for the party’s officer positions (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, etc.). When there’s a nominations committee, the work is done ahead of time, albeit by a smaller number of people. So, what you gain in time savings at the Convention, you lose in representation.
I have a fun story I’ll save for another day about serving on a nominations committee and sleuthing YouTube for statements made by an applicant wherein they proclaimed themselves to be a Republican on a local political channel.
Cede more work to the Central Committee
Some of the Convention business could become a Central Committee responsibility, instead of a Convention delegation responsibility. (At Sunday’s convention, this was the recommendation of the Rules Committee, but the delegates decided to take on the work at the Convention, instead). This, too, saves time at the Convention, but, in turn, denies decision-making power to delegates. It’s a little bit like how the Academy Awards are broadcast. All of the less sensational awards are given at a separate ceremony, while the splashy business takes place at the big show.
Abolish the Minneapolis DFL
I see and hear this all the time: why do we have to endorse candidates in non-partisan races like School Board, Park Board, and City Council? I’m not going to do any work on this because I don’t agree. But. Years ago, the Hennepin County DFL was dissolved and people could look into what that process entailed and try and do the same for the Minneapolis DFL.
An alternative is, just don’t engage! No one is making anyone be a delegate. As I wrote in my last post on this topic, the DFL caucus and convention process is modeled on our government’s form of representative democracy. If you hate conventions, don’t go. You can attend your caucus and vote to elect neighbors who share your same values who want to attend the conventions. There are so many other ways to engage in the political process: volunteer or donate to candidates, door knock or phone bank or donate money to organizations that turn out voters, work as an election judge.
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Pretty sure I'm the target audience for this. Certainly the most appreciative audience. So smart. Thank you.