Whoa, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer actually gets some love from the Strib!
Submitted by lams712 on May 4, 2008 - 2:33pm.
In today's (Sunday, May 4th) newspaper Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is actually mentioned in TWO different sections of the paper. First, in the Opinion Exchange section Lori Sturdevant has a front-page column where she profiles the JNP campaign that invokes the memory of the late, great Paul Wellstone (and at the very end, Depression-era governor Floyd B. Olson). In the Metro section, there is a front page article about the DFL senate race that ACTUALLY talks about JNP and his campaign with MORE than the typical sentence at the end that says something to the effect "Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is also seeking the DFL endorsement".
It's nice that JNP is finally getting some notice and that there is at least SOME acknowledgement that maybe Al Franken isn't so "inevitable" after all. I only wish that this acknowledgement happend NOT as a result of Franken's tax troubles (which is more a function of the Republican "slime machine"), but because of the fact that Franken was running behind Norm Coleman (50%-43% in the latest Rasmussen poll and trending in the WRONG direction) even BEFORE his latest tax woes. For someone whose most compelling selling point is his supposed "electability" that is NOT good news.
One of the main complaints against Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (and related to the "electability" meme) is that he is supposedly "too liberal". I personally find this agrument to be rubbish. This is the state in Minnesota in 2008, not Georgia or Mississippi or South Carolina in the 1990s. This is a time where we witness conservative failures all around us, from the healthcare crisis, to crumbling infrastructure (literally here in MN), to a drawn out war where thousands have died while the Halliburtons of the world reap millions, if not billions, of dollars, to record homeforclosures amid stagnant wages and huge trade deficits, to the lack of anything being done about global climate change and enironmental degradation, to the eviceration of our civil liberties amid the fear-mongering of law breakers, etc., etc., etc. Now is NOT the time to fear being labeled a "liberal", it is a badge of honor to be worn proudly as we try to clean up this morass the Republicans are leaving us.
There may very well be great reasons to support Al Franken (I personally like the guy and will wholeheartedly support him should he be the DFL candidate), but "electability" and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer being "too liberal" are NOT among them.
(a version of this cross-posted at Daily Kos)
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I can't find your Kos article
Perhaps it is because you didn't include a /tag/MN-Sen/ but I can't find it with a search under JNP or Franken either. Could you do an edit of this post and link to the Kos article. My guess is that several of our local Minnesota readers would enjoy adding their comments to those of our brothers and sisters on the coasts. If we could only find where you posted it at Kos.
Of course, the Kos diary fell off...
...the front page. Although it didn't generate alot of comments (only 12) most of them were positive and a got +19 mojo for my tip jar. Here it is at Kos.
STRIB J N-P article
The most interesting and probably important comment in the STRIB article is buried in about paragraph 20:
"A recent survey of a quarter of the DFL's Senate district and county chairpersons by the Star Tribune found that about 60 percent of the delegates were committed to Franken, about 20 percent were for Nelson-Pallmeyer, and the balance were either uncommitted or holdovers from former candidate Mike Ciresi."
The article also notes that over half of superdelegates are committed to Franken.
The nomination process is essentially over, especially since Jack says he will not try to block an endorsement. The only way forward for Jack at this point is to get delegates elected as Franken supporters to turn their backs on the people who sent them to Rochester and change sides.
Biased Counting
Basically Al Franken did wonderful work being a guest speaker at many fundraisers, so many of the DFL's Senate district and county chairpersons are pro Franken. Many of these people are very active advocates and strong personalities, which is good to run organizations. It also means that they are very likely to see the world painted "Franken". Even I tip toe around some of these people.
Chairs
These are chair persons we are talking about - not "rank and file" DFL delegates. I would guess they talked to about 50 people, (whatever 1/4 of the SD and county unit chairs amounts to) out of the 1,400 or so delegates. It's misleading. A chair person should also be neutral until after the convention.
Nice Floyd B. Olson comparison. Our greatest governor and populist leader of the most successful 3rd party in U.S. History.
No, the article is about delegates
The article is about the county and senate district chairs reporting the outcomes of the conventions, not about their own votes. They are reporting how the delegates in their district conventions were allocated. This is reported very clearly in the quote.
I sympathize with Jack and his supporters, but the math is unforgiving.
numbers are changing daily
The sd/cu conventions were over a month ago and many of them were over 2 or 3 months ago. I have personally heard many many stories of people who have become Jack supporters when they had been Franken supporters at their convention. I have not heard a single story of someone who had been a Jack supporter who is now a Franken supporter. (if anybody knows of someone who has switched from Jack to Al, I would like to hear about it.) The numbers are going up for Jack and down for Al, and we still have 5 weeks to go.
The main selling point of the Franken campaign has been that he has so much support. It's basically a "you should support me because so many other people do" argument. Those who want to support someone because of substance rather than perceived popularity typically support Jack. And more and more people are realizing that Jack's popularity is increasing too, and so the "bandwagon" folks are starting to switch bandwagons.
I know this is mostly anecdotal comments, not hard numbers. The reason for that is because we are dealing with human beings with hearts and minds who are (thankfully) willing to change when presented with more information than they had before.
I'm glad the strib is giving some air time to the "other" candidate for senate. I too am sorry it took some negative spinning about the Franken campaign to get them to pay attention.
I misunderstood then
This still does not account for all the convnetions that Jack won such as in Rochester (Olmsted County).
I'm happy Jack is flying under the radar. You can continue to believe that he is way behind but that is dated information.
Should delegates elected as pledged change?
The Ciresi and undecided delegates are up for grabs, but I have serious questions about the ethics of a delegate elected as pledged to Jack or Al "changing" to the other. If I vote for someone to go to Rochester who has pledged a particular position, I would feel cheated if I found that that person had changed positions, at least on early round voting. This is exactly like a senate or house candidate pledging to go to Washington and oppose the war, then deciding that they will vote for the Surge, or for that matter like a Democrat switching to the Republicans after being elected.
I know that in a representative democracy elected officials have a degree of freedom to vote their conscience, but to pledge to vote for one candidate and then actually vote for another is sleezy. Fortunately, I don't know anyone who has done that kind of thing either way.
If Jack and Al are approaching each other's pledged delegates to ask them to change that is sleezy too.
Uncommitted and Ciresi delegates are up for grabs. Pledged Al or Jack delegates are only up for grabs in Norm Coleman world.
Well, actually
Since you are not leaving your name, I question where this comment is coming from. So I think this a "Rah, rah" speech from the Franken campaign, which is fine.
However, speaking as a person who has been to many conventions, really the decision is up to the delegates. And I even had to explain to my precinct caucus, the elected delegates are allowed to change their minds, so keep that in mind when electing them.
That is why we elect delegates, to fully vet candidates. Otherwise we would just have a straight up vote like the primary vote for presidential delegates.
Now you could lobby to change the process to a straight up vote. People like me would speak against that idea. I like the idea of a small number of people totally checking out the candidates. I like that a small budget campaign is viable.