Oh my goodness. It sounds like the Minnesota DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) Party might revoke its endorsement of socialist Omar Fateh for Minneapolis mayor.
The DFL is affiliated with the national Democratic Party.
Fateh is running as a Democratic Socialist.
On Thursday, Minnesota DFL chair Richard Carlbom said, “After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention’s voting process on July 19th, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention. As a result, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee has vacated the mayoral endorsement.”Carlbom added, “Now it’s time to turn our focus to unity and our common goal: electing DFL leaders focused on making life more affordable for Minnesotans and holding Republicans accountable for the chaos and confusion they’ve unleashed on Minnesotans.”
The controversy started when the DFL admitted it messed up bigly at the July convention by not counting “all valid delegate voters.”
According to The Star Tribune, Fateh won the party’s “support in the convention’s final minutes when a raise-your-hands style of vote was called after it appeared many of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s supporters had left the convention floor.”
Frey immediately challenged the endorsement:
The Frey campaign said there were an “extraordinarily high number of missing or uncounted votes produced by the highly flawed and untested electronic voting system.””Only 578 votes were recorded in the mayoral ballot conducted using the electronic balloting system, despite the fact that over 1,000 delegates and alternates were checked in at the time of the first ballot,” the campaign said in the release.The Frey campaign alleges there’s “no plausible reason” why over 20% of the total delegates and alternates would skip voting.
Minneapolis DFL is ticked off, saying that current Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey “couldn’t prove the endorsement result would’ve been any different.” It wants the state party to stay out of it.
Well, convention organizers admitted that candidate DeWayne Davis “would not have been dropped from consideration on the second ballot.” Davis not being dropped could have helped Frey block Fateh’s endorsement.
Fateh needs the endorsement:
Losing the endorsement means Fateh will no longer be identified as the DFL-backed candidate in the race and he won’t have access to party lists of voters and other resources.State Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth, said she thinks the party’s decision to revoke the endorsement from Fateh will hurt the party more than it will hurt him. She endorsed Fateh’s campaign for mayor.“It really is a kind of betrayal,” said McEwen. “I worry about people just leaving the party, or I worry about a fissure within the party.”
I guess having the DFL endorsement is huge in Minnesota due to “the money and resources the endorsement provides.”
It wouldn’t shock me if Minneapolis DFL appeals the decision.
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