DFL caucuses low key

03/08/2006

Turnout modest despite two big races

BY TIM NELSON
Pioneer Press

A hotly contested state House race and a four-way gubernatorial contest weren’t major draws at the DFL precinct caucuses, the kickoff for this year’s political season in St. Paul on Tuesday night.

Across the city, party officials reported decent but less-than-zealous turnout for the city’s major political organization.

“I think the governor’s race is part of the problem,” said Senate District 55 Chairman John Stiles, one of the party’s organizers. “I think at this point it’s kind of behind the scenes and really isn’t getting anyone excited.”

Additionally, Hennepin County Attorney and U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar seemed to be posting a major lead in local straw polls, as she had across the rest of the state. As a result, she spent much of Tuesday night at caucuses in Highland Park and at Ramsey Junior High School sounding like she was ready to take on Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy for Mark Dayton’s open Senate seat this year. She didn’t even mention her DFL rival, veterinarian Ford Bell.

Local offices didn’t seem to be much of a draw, either: the DFL contest to succeed outgoing House Minority Leader Matt Entenza only produced a handful of overtly committed delegates at the House District 64A caucuses, leaving a half-dozen candidates to fight it out among the uncommitted partisans for another month.

It’s the only open seat in a dozen legislative races in St. Paul this year and the only race getting much attention among the party faithful.

“There’s many good Democrats in this race, and in many respects, we’re a lot alike,” Minnesota Nurses Association president Erin Murphy told attendees in Ward 3, Precinct 13.

Other contenders included attorney Sara Dady, environmental activist Don Arnosti, mortgage banker Jim White, City Council aide Donna Swanson and schoolteacher Ian Keith. They’ll square off for the party endorsement at Central High School on April 8.

Supporters of another contender, University of Minnesota School of Public Health administrator John Gehan, were also passing out literature Tuesday night. He said Tuesday that he planned to run in the September DFL primary.
Entenza said that the contest to succeed him did seem to turn political interest up a notch in his district. Turnout, he said, wasn’t much compared to the last presidential election year, but looked substantially higher than in 2002.

Across town at Arlington High School, a controversial, unauthorized trip to Iraq didn’t seem to have damaged the political fortunes of state Rep. John Lesch. He got a friendly “welcome-back” reception from his constituents and other participants in the DFL precinct caucuses,

Lesch doesn’t appear to have any Democratic challengers contending for his seat this fall, and many at the caucuses said they would remain loyal to him.

“I thought he was very courageous,” said Sister Jeanne Braun, a nun who lives at St. Patrick’s Convent in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. “It was very good for him to see things firsthand.”

“Hey troublemaker!” Como resident Renee Jenson greeted Lesch with a hug in the school hallway.
“John Lesch does what he thinks he needs to do. It’s what he needed to do to find out what was going on (in Iraq),” she said later. “More power to him.”

Lesch has disputed a press report suggesting that he was kicked out of the country or that he went into Iraq without cash. His constituents have responded favorably to his trip, if it’s on their minds at all, he said.

“The only people still talking about this is the press,” Lesch said.

There was, as usual, plenty of talking going on at the DFL caucuses after the obligatory straw polls were finished and delegates named to district conventions. Nearly every precinct had some discussion regarding opposition to the war in Iraq. Others included health care, school spending, affordable housing and gun control.

“We had about 42 people show up, compared to about 100 in 2004,” said Ward 1, Precinct 1 convener and schoolteacher Colleen Beagan. She said the group approved a handful of resolutions.

“And we did pass one to have a poet laureate for Minnesota.”