[NV Greens] News from Minneapolis

[charleslaws at att.net]

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http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5619867.html
Greens draw more votes than expected 
Rochelle Olson,  Star Tribune 
September 18, 2005 GREENS0918 
  
 
The past two weeks proved to be a mixed blessing for
the Green Party in the Twin Cities.

On the upside, mayoral candidates in Minneapolis and
St. Paul showed stronger than expected. On the
downside, Green Party Minneapolis Council Member Dean
Zimmermann, who is in a competitive reelection race,
appears to be the target of an FBI corruption probe.

The mayoral candidates in each city finished third,
meaning they're out for November, but most express
surprise at how well they fared.

In St. Paul, Elizabeth Dickinson received 19 percent
of the vote, behind former City Council Member Chris
Coleman and Mayor Randy Kelly. In Minneapolis, Farheen
Hakeem had 14 percent, behind Mayor R.T. Rybak and
Peter McLaughlin, a Hennepin County commissioner.

While neither mayoral candidate survived the
nonpartisan primary, in which only the top two
vote-getters advance to the Nov. 8 general election,
there is a sense of accomplishment among the Greens.

Hakeem had never run for office. Dickinson ran a
shoestring campaign and was within sight of the
well-funded Kelly. Still, the Greens have work to do.

Five Green candidates for Minneapolis City Council
will be on the November ballot in five city wards.
While a couple of them are long-shots, the others are
solid contenders. Minneapolis currently has two Green
council members, 10 DFLers and one independent.

"We are certainly the second party in town. ... People
are ready for an option, and the Greens are providing
a platform," said former state party Chairman Cam
Gordon, who is running in the Second Ward. The party
espouses grassroots democracy, social and economic
justice, ecological wisdom and nonviolence.

Dickinson said the Green Party is providing
opportunities, especially for women and minority
candidates. She attributes her success to hard work,
party support and good ideas.

"People get, at a fundamental level, that this is not
politics as usual and they get excited about that,"
she said.

'A constituency'

University of Minnesota political science Prof. Jeff
Lomonaco said he was surprised at the Green Party
mayoral candidates' success. "My best guess is there
is really a constituency for both a super-progressive
candidate and someone who is not a member of one of
the two major parties."

Dickinson benefitted from being perceived as "the only
progressive" in the race, he said.

Hakeem may not have done as well because "in
Minneapolis it's much easier to make the case that
both R.T. Rybak and Peter McLaughlin are progressive,"
said Lomonaco, a Rybak volunteer who lives in
Minneapolis.

The professor said the primary results led him to
believe there is a greater constituency for the Green
Party than he previously thought. 

According to the party website, three Greens hold
office in Minnesota outside of Minneapolis -- in
Duluth and Cass Lake and in Winona County. Minneapolis
also has a Green Party member of the Park and
Recreation Board. 

Of the Greens' showing in the Twin Cities, state DFL
Chairman Brian Melendez said, "More power to them."
The Greens and the DFL share some values.

"I'd much rather see a Green elected than a
Republican," he said. "I like Greens. Next to DFLers,
they're my favorite party."

Although Ralph Nader's presidential candidacy in 2000
gained a level of fame or notoriety for the party,
Lomonaco said the Greens are doing it right in
Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"If the Greens want to build a viable third party,
this is the way to do it, from the local level up,
rather than running somebody for president," he said. 

Still, Lomonaco said, the U.S. system is designed for
two main political parties, not three.

"Whatever the strong ideological differences there may
be between the two major parties, they share certain
things, including the two-party duopoly," he said.
"Any third party who wants to become a significant
force has their work cut out for them."

And Zimmermann?

The question in Minneapolis now is whether the
Zimmermann matter will hurt others. He has not been
charged with anything nor have federal investigators
given any indication of where the inquiry is heading.

Council Member Natalie Johnson Lee, a Green Party
member who is seeking reelection in the Fifth Ward
against DFL Council Member Don Samuels, downplays any
fallout.

"No party is short of any type of controversy as it
relates to alleged misdealings," she said. "It's the
individual and what they did or did not do. There's no
party that can say: We've got a perfectly clean
slate."

Dickinson, who knocked on a lot of doors in her St.
Paul mayoral bid, said she had not heard a single
person say the Zimmermann situation would taint other
Green Party members. Still, she said, such an inquiry
"always feels more worrying when you're a small party
trying to get established."

Gordon, who's battling DFLer Cara Letofsky, expressed
more concern.

He said the news reports alone could depress voter
turnout because the probe "fuels the perception that
certain people are getting more influence because
they're wealthy."

In an affidavit, the FBI claims to have Zimmermann on
tape accepting $7,200 from a confidential witness in
exchange for zoning help with a project.

Gordon said that voters have a higher standard for
Green Party members and that the TV images of FBI
agents searching Zimmermann's home "make people think
it's more of the same."

Zimmermann notwithstanding, Lomonaco said his advice
to Greens: "Keep doing what they're doing, running
credible candidates especially for these local offices
and build up from there."

Johnson Lee and Dickinson also said they don't
necessarily expect success to come quickly.

Said Dickinson: "There is a slow quality to building a
progressive movement when the whole country has
drifted -- or raced, depending on your view -- to the
right." 

Rochelle Olson is at raolson at startribune.com.