GO VOTE!

BY ED FELIEN

If you live between Chicago Avenue and 35W and between 42nd Street and 50th Street, then you have an opportunity tomorrow, Jan. 10, to elect the new representative for 61B to the Minnesota State Legislature.

Former Representative Jeff Hayden had to resign his seat in the House because he was elected to the State Senate. He ran in the special election because Senator Linda Berglin resigned her seat to accept a job with Hennepin County.
The House and Senate seats are considered probably the most safe DFL seats in the state, but there is also a strong Green Party and independent presence that is often dissatisfied with traditional DFL political strategies.

When Hayden won the House seat, Carol Allen, a Native American lawyer; Josh Bassais, a labor organizer; Nelson Inz, who lobbied the legislature for an increase in the minimum wage; and Paul Dennis announced their candidacies for the DFL nomination. There was a DFL endorsing convention, and Susan Allen won. Inz and Bassais agreed to support her in the DFL primary, even though their names would still appear on the ballot, and Allen won easily on Dec. 6.

The only candidate to challenge Allen will be Nate Blumenshine. Although Blumenshine has worked as an aide to Jeff Hayden on the issue of Single Payer Health Care, he is not running as a DFLer. He has created his own political party: Respect. He believes in “respect for all people regardless of color, age, sexual orientation, faith, language, gender, or income.” With a dedicated band of volunteers he has aggressively door-knocked the district.

Almost as soon as the special election is over, precinct caucuses begin on Tuesday, Feb. 7. That’s when DFLers, Republicans, Greens and Independents will gather to elect precinct delegates for their respective parties, who will in turn endorse candidates to run for the state legislature probably sometime in March or April—if the new district lines are agreed to by then.

People in 61B should be forgiven if they think this is the election cycle that never ends.