Friendly disagreements were welcome at the DFL caucus at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in Grand Marais on Tuesday, March 1. Young Bernie Sanders supporter Eero Moody aka George Washington politely shook hands with Hillary Clinton supporter, Sue Hakes.
The Cook County Democratic-Farm- Labor party had a very busy evening, with 470 DFLers traveling to one of four locations to offer resolutions for the party platform and to cast their presidential preference ballots. The atmosphere was exuberant, albeit at times a bit unorganized. At the end of the night however, resolutions were collected, delegates to county convention named and a preferred presidential candidate selected. Following the rest of the state, Cook County chose Bernie Sanders. A total of 463 votes were cast, with Sanders winning 279 of the votes; Hillary Clinton received 183 and there was one undecided voter.
Cook County DFL Chair Anton Moody served as coordinator, collecting votes from the conveners at the four different caucus locations—the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in Grand Marais; the Hovland Town Hall in Hovland; the Schaap Community Center on the Gunflint Trail in Grand Marais; and the Birch Grove Community Center in Tofte.
Moody expressed appreciation to everyone who volunteered to work at the caucuses and to all the interested citizens. “Thanks so much to everyone for participating,” Moody said.
Pat Campanaro, location convener and precinct caucus convener at the Birch Grove Community Center, reported a few things that could be improved at future gatherings, such as having more room to spread out so everyone could hear better. However, she enthused, “The turnout was great and the excitement palpable!”
Convener for the Gunflint Trail area, John Bottger, said he felt having several locations for caucuses was good. He said some participants would have liked to have more time to discuss locally crafted resolutions, but he too, thought things went well. “About half of our attendees stated this was their first caucus experience— good job!”
At each location, citizens spoke out in favor of their preferred candidate. At the caucus at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts (ACA), Sue Hakes lobbied for Hillary Clinton. At the end of her brief speech, Hakes added, “I support Hillary, but if she doesn’t win, I’ll vote for Bernie like that,” emphasizing her thought with a snap of her fingers.
“If your candidate doesn’t win, please vote for the other,” said Hakes, “We need to stick together.”
Also at the ACA, Jake Hjorth spoke for his preferred candidate, Bernie Sanders. He spoke about the “socialist” label that is sometimes used when referring to Sanders and noted that there are many successful democratic-socialist governments, such as Denmark. “There are many ‘shades of socialism,’ just as there are many to Christianity,” he said. “If you look at the church calendar in the newspaper, you will see 15 different ways to be a Christian.”
“To me, Bernie Sanders is more of a Christian—he cares more about people—than many Christians. He cares more for people than most people I know,” said Hjorth, arguing for votes for Sanders.
Jeff Kern, another Sanders’ supporter at the ACA said, “I would like to see Bernie go ahead. But if he doesn’t, I want to make sure we don’t lose his thoughts and ideas.”
At each caucus location, voters broke into precincts, and there they considered possible resolutions, voting whether or not to approve moving resolutions to the county convention. For example, Bill Hansen of Tofte reported that in Tofte Precinct 11 two resolutions were passed, one urging the Bureau of Land Management to complete the mining protection zone along the southern edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and one urging adoption of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby proposal for a “Carbon Fee and Dividend” system to combat climate change. Both passed unanimously with 27 people at the table, said Hansen.
Other resolutions considered included encouraging the federal government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare Part D; to restore the full authority of the citizen advisory board of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency; to include funding for specialized transportation for the elderly and disabled in the Minnesota Omnibus bill; to support border-to-border Broadband in Minnesota; and to support the removal of the deadline for ratification of the vote on the Equal Rights Amendment. There were many more as each precinct brought its own ideas for resolutions forward.
Delegates were selected for the DFL County Convention, which will be held at the Cook County Community Center on Saturday, March 19, starting at 1 p.m. Although business is conducted by the delegates, the county convention is open to all interested parties.
At the county convention, delegates will be selected for the Minnesota 8th Congressional District Convention which will be held at the Holiday Inn in downtown Duluth on May 7-8. That convention is followed by the DFL State Convention at the Minneapolis Orchestra Hall on June 4.
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