BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE
March 1, 2016, is Caucus Night in Minnesota. When it comes to presidential elections, Minnesota is not a “primary” state, so there won’t be a Democratic primary for you to vote in. The only way you can register your preference as to the nominee of the Democratic Party, no matter who that is, is to attend, in person, the DFL precinct caucus in the precinct where you live.
“But wait!” you say, “I’m not a member of the DFL, I don’t know how to caucus, I’m not even registered to vote.”
It doesn’t matter. On March 1, 2016, you can be a member of the DFL, and there is no test, no fee—no salesman will call at your home. You only have to sign to affirm that you live in that precinct, and that you will be eligible to vote by Nov. 8, 2016. If you have a work conflict, there is a state law that you must be given time off if you ask within 10 days.
Right after signing in, you will be handed a presidential preference ballot (which I am going to call the PPB.) You will mark and turn in your PPB right there at the caucus, and it will be counted and the results announced when voting is finished, but no earlier than 8 p.m. The caucus is a meeting, but it is also a method of voting. As a meeting, it will be called to order by the precinct chair at 7 p.m. You should try to arrive about 6:30 p.m., which is when the sign-in begins. The precinct chair may go on to chair the caucus itself, or the caucus can choose someone else as the caucus chair. They will also select at least two tellers to count the votes, both the PPBs, and other votes that will be taken. No one knows exactly how many people will show up for your precinct caucus. It may be a huge number, and require many tellers, and other people to assist the chair, or it may be so few that there is no need to elect anyone, and everyone just volunteers, but that’s pretty unlikely in our neighborhoods in a presidential election year.
In last month’s Southside Pride, we published the responses of three candidates responding to our questionnaire Do You Stand With Bernie? Seeking DFL endorsement in the State House of Representatives race for district 60B, there are three candidates: the incumbent, Phyllis Kahn, and two challengers from the Somali community. One is Ilhan Omar, who is a member and officer (vice president) of the DFL Feminist Caucus and is endorsed by MYDFL, MN Young DFL Caucus. She has also been a DFL officer and a policy aide to DFL Minneapolis City Council Member Andrew Johnson, and she currently serves as director of public policy initiatives for Women Organizing Women. The other was Kahn’s challenger in 2014, Mohamud Noor, who has been an appointee to the Minneapolis School Board, as well as having run for a State Senate nomination, SD 59, where he finished second out of five in a special primary in 2011. Noor is currently the executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota.
Ilhan Omar was one of the three candidates responding to our questionnaire. Her answers were thoughtful and right on target with supporting the kind of political revolution and positive change that Bernie Sanders is promoting. We do not know who Omar herself supports as presidential Democratic nominee (if anyone.) Noor did not respond to our questionnaire, but we think it may be because it never got to him. However, we have encountered him at a couple of Bernie Sanders events, where he is not advertising his own candidacy, but lending active support to the Bernie Sanders campaign as a volunteer. According to media sources, Omar, who was perceived as supporting Noor in 2014, and Noor remain on friendly terms and they are seemingly not worried about splitting the votes against Kahn. But Kahn, for her part, is happy to go with the old political adage that two opponents are better than one, especially in an endorsement battle or primary fight. Although 2014 was a very interesting race in district 60B, it looks like 2016 is going to be even wilder. And the two challengers both have such progressive and well-informed platforms, it’s kind of a shame we can’t have both of them.
