{"id":21976,"date":"2017-05-21T17:28:05","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T22:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=21976"},"modified":"2017-05-22T19:06:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T00:06:52","slug":"the-elephant-in-the-dfl-screening-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=21976","title":{"rendered":"The elephant in the DFL screening room"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a jolly good time at the screening committee. I knew several of the screeners some of whom may have been surprised to see me turn up. It was that way at my first DFL Precinct caucus which I think was 2006. <\/p>\n

At that first caucus I joined about 30 folks in a classroom at Woodland Middle School. Eyebrows were raised there as well as DFLers know their Republicans. It was odd but comforting as well as for the first time in twenty years I actually voted in a majority on a great many issues which had become verboten for Republicans. I attended about four election cycles of DFL caucuses and the 2008 caucus was probably the highlight of my political life with its huge Barack Obama turnout. It was a heady experience being in a majority at the following District convention when Obama won handily.<\/p>\n

Readers of my Blog know that while I rant and rave about Republicans I have fond recollections of the party of my youth. I liked Ike, a fellow Kansan. I loved National Parks so, of course, I liked Teddy, and agnostic old Abe is my all time hero. Long after Lincoln Dinners were abandoned by Dixie-saturated Republicans I was charmed to hear a DFL gathering speak of Abraham with something approaching reverence.<\/p>\n

But it was Harry Welty, not Abraham Lincoln, who crashed the screening committee. I joked with the folks I knew and with the people I didn’t. I blamed the Republicans for electing Donald Trump. I told them I would be honored to be an endorsed Democrat on the Duluth School Board even while adding I still didn’t think endorsements for non-partisan races was necessarily the best idea<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I told the screeners that I wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but that I didn’t believe in conducting myself by (and here I licked my finger and stuck it up in the air) testing the wind. I told those new to me that I hid nothing and that everything I stood for I had put into this blog.<\/p>\n

I also was asked to explain my ambiguous sounding answer to Question #12: Will you abide by the endorsement of the convention and cease your campaign if someone else is endorsed? <\/p>\n

My answer: “I will follow the honorable example of DFL Governors Rolvaag, Perpich and Dayton.” <\/strong><\/p>\n

The explanation I gave to the screener was this: All three of these DFL Governors ran for the state’s highest office without the endorsement of the DFL state convention. <\/p>\n

Of course, none of these candidates had ever been affiliated with the Republican Party. Elephants are no more useful to the DFL than they are to Ringling Brother’s, Barnum and Bailey Circus<\/a> these days.<\/p>\n

Of course, Ronald Reagan didn’t mind adding lots of jackasses to the GOP when he was President and they proved pretty useful: From Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

From Democrat to Republican<\/strong><\/p>\n

1970s[edit]
\n1970 \u2013 Jesse Helms, later U.S. Senator from North Carolina (1973\u20132003)
\n1970 \u2013 A. C. Clemons, Louisiana State Senator
\n1970 \u2013 William Oswald Mills, later U.S. Representative from Maryland (1971\u20131973)
\n1970 \u2013 Bob Barr, later U.S. Representative from Georgia (1995\u20132003)
\n1971 \u2013 Tillie K. Fowler, later U.S. Representative from Florida (1993\u20132001)
\n1972 \u2013 Ed Karst, Mayor of Alexandria
\n1972 \u2013 Robert R. Neall
\n1972 \u2013 Trent Lott, later U.S. Representative from Mississippi (1973\u20131989) and U.S. Senator from Mississippi (1989\u20132007)
\n1973 \u2013 Mills E. Godwin Jr., former Governor of Virginia (1966\u20131970) and Lieutenant Governor of Virginia (1962\u20131966). Later Governor of Virginia (1974\u20131978)
\n1973 \u2013 Samuel I. Hayakawa, later U.S. Senator from California (1977\u20131983)
\n1973 \u2013 John Connally, former United States Secretary of the Treasury (1971\u20131972) and former Governor of Texas (1963\u20131969)
\n1975 \u2013 Elizabeth Dole, later United States Secretary of Transportation (1983\u20131987), United States Secretary of Labor (1989\u20131990) and U.S. Senator from North Carolina (2003\u20132009)
\n1975 \u2013 John Jarman, while U.S. Representative from Oklahoma (1951\u20131977)
\n1976 \u2013 Rob Couhig
\n1977 \u2013 A. J. McNamara, Louisiana State Representative
\n1977 \u2013 Lane Carson, Louisiana State Representative
\n1978 \u2013 Robert G. Jones, Louisiana State Senator
\n1978 \u2013 Chris Smith, later U.S. Representative from New Jersey (1981\u2013present).[6]
\n1978 \u2013 Thomas Bliley, Mayor of Richmond, Virginia, and later U.S. Representative from Virginia (1981\u20132001)
\n1978 \u2013 Michael F. “Mike” Thompson, Louisiana State Representative
\n1979 \u2013 Charles Grisbaum, Jr., Louisiana State Representative
\n1979 \u2013 Ed Scogin, Louisiana State Representative
\n1979 \u2013 Armistead I. Selden, Jr., former U.S. Representative from Alabama (1953\u20131969) and United States Ambassador to New Zealand (1974\u20131979)
\n1980s[edit]
\n1980s \u2013 S. S. DeWitt, Louisiana State Representative
\n1980 \u2013 Sam Yorty, former U.S Representative for California (1951\u20131955) and Mayor of Los Angeles (1961\u20131973)
\n1980 \u2013 Mac Collins, later U.S Representative from Georgia (1993\u20132005)
\n1980 \u2013 Jim Donelon, later Louisiana Insurance Commissioner (2006\u2013present)
\n1980 \u2013 Jesse Monroe Knowles, Louisiana State Senator
\n1980 \u2013 Frank D. White, later Governor of Arkansas (1981\u20131983)
\n1980s \u2013 J.C. “Sonny” Gilbert, Louisiana State Representative
\n1981 \u2013 Bob Stump, while U.S. Representative from Arizona (1977\u20131003)
\n1981 \u2013 Eugene Atkinson, while U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (1979\u20131983)
\n1982 \u2013 Condoleezza Rice, later United States National Security Advisor (2001\u20132005) and United States Secretary of State (2005\u20132009)
\n1983 \u2013 Phil Gramm, while U.S. Representative from Texas (1979\u20131985) and later U.S. Senator from Texas (1985\u20132002)
\n1983 \u2013 Bob Martinez, while Mayor of Tampa. Later Governor of Florida (1987\u20131991) and Director of the National Drug Control Policy (1991\u20131993)
\n1984 \u2013 V.J. Bella, Louisiana State Representative
\n1984 \u2013 Andy Ireland, while U.S. Representative from Florida (1977\u20131993)
\n1984 \u2013 H. Edward Knox, Mayor of the City of Charlotte
\n1984 – Sonny Callahan, Alabama State Senator. Later U.S Representative from Alabama (1985-2003)
\n1985 \u2013 Jeane Kirkpatrick, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1981\u20131985) [7]
\n1985 \u2013 Edward J. King, former Governor of Massachusetts (1979\u20131983)
\n1985 \u2013 Dexter Lehtinen, Florida State Representative. Later U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida (1988\u20131992)
\n1985 \u2013 Kent Hance, former U.S. Representative from Texas (1979\u20131985)
\n1985 \u2013 Jock Scott, Louisiana State Representative
\n1985 \u2013 Carole Keeton Strayhorn, later Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (1999\u20132007)
\n1986 \u2013 William Bennett, while U.S. Secretary of Education (1985\u20131988)
\n1986 \u2013 Richard Baker, Louisiana State Representative. Later U.S. Representative from Louisiana (1987\u20132008)
\n1986 \u2013 Charles T. Canady, Florida State Representative. Later U.S. Representative from Florida (1993\u20132001), Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida (2008\u2013present) and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida (2010\u20132012)
\n1986 \u2013 Frank Rizzo, former Mayor of Philadelphia (1972\u20131980)
\n1986 \u2013 James David Santini, former U.S. Representative from Nevada (1975\u20131983)
\n1987 \u2013 Paul Hardy, former Secretary of State of Louisiana (1976\u20131980), later Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana (1988\u20131992)
\n1987 \u2013 Roy Moore, later Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court (2001\u20132003)
\n1987 \u2013 Edward Vrdolyak
\n1987 \u2013 James C. Smith, Attorney General of Florida (1979\u20131987), later Florida Secretary of State (1987\u20131995)
\n1988 \u2013 Jim McCrery, later U.S. Representative from Louisiana (1988\u20132009)
\n1988 \u2013 David Duke, Louisiana State Representative
\n1988 \u2013 Mike Johanns, later Governor of Nebraska (1999\u20132005), United States Secretary of Agriculture (2005\u20132007) and U.S. Senator from Nebraska (2009\u20132015)
\n1988 \u2013 John Rice, Alabama State Senator[8]
\n1989 \u2013 John Amari, Alabama State Senator
\n1989 \u2013 Pete Johnson, while State Auditor of Mississippi (1988\u20131992)
\n1989 \u2013 Bill Grant, while U.S. Representative from Florida (1987\u20131991)
\n1989 \u2013 Tommy F. Robinson, while U.S. Representative from Arkansas (1985\u20131991)
\n1989 \u2013 Rick Perry, Agriculture Commissioner of Texas. Later Governor of Texas (2000\u20132015)
\n1989 \u2013 W. Fox McKeithen, Secretary of State of Louisiana (1988-2005)
\n1990s[edit]
\n1990 \u2013 Eli Bebout, Wyoming State Representative
\n1990 \u2013 Tom Vandergriff, former U.S. Representative from Texas (1983\u20131985). Later elected as a County Judge (1991\u20132007)
\n1990 \u2013 Joseph F. Toomy, Louisiana State Representative
\n1990 \u2013 Vito Fossella, later U.S. Representative from New York (1997\u20132009)
\n1990 \u2013 Lauch Faircloth, later U.S. Senator from North Carolina (1993\u20131999)[9]
\n1991 \u2013 Bret Schundler, Mayor of Jersey City
\n1991 \u2013 David Beasley, later Governor of South Carolina (1995\u20131999)
\n1991 \u2013 Buddy Roemer, while Governor of Louisiana (1988\u20131992)[10]
\n1992 \u2013 Byron Looper, Tennessee State Representative
\n1993 \u2013 Edward H. Krebs, Pennsylvania State Representative
\n1993 \u2013 Don W. Williamson, Louisiana State Senator
\n1994 \u2013 Ron Gomez, Louisiana State Representative
\n1994 \u2013 Woody Jenkins, Louisiana State Representative
\n1994 \u2013 Dan Richey, former Louisiana State Senator
\n1994 \u2013 Ed Austin, while Mayor of Jacksonville
\n1994 \u2013 Walter B. Jones, while running as a Democrat for U.S. Representative from North Carolina. U.S. Representative from North Carolina (1995\u2013present)
\n1994 \u2013 Ed Whitfield, the day before filing as a candidate for the U.S. House in Kentucky. U.S. Representative from Kentucky (1995\u2013present)
\n1994 \u2013 Ron Gomez, Louisiana State Representative
\n1994 – Stan Spears, South Carolina Adjutant General
\n1994 \u2013 Mike Bowers, while Attorney General of Georgia (1981\u20131997)
\n1994 \u2013 Fob James, former Governor of Alabama (1979\u20131983). Later Governor of Alabama (1995\u20131999)
\n1994 \u2013 Richard Shelby, while U.S. Senator from Alabama (1994\u2013present)
\n1995 \u2013 Jimmy Hayes, while U.S. Representative from Louisiana (1987\u20131997)
\n1995 \u2013 Greg Laughlin, while U.S. Representative from Texas (1989\u20131997)
\n1995 \u2013 Ben Nighthorse Campbell, while U.S. Senator from Colorado (1993\u20132005)
\n1995 \u2013 Billy Tauzin, while U.S. Representative from Louisiana (1980\u20132005)
\n1995 \u2013 Nathan Deal, while U.S. Representative from Georgia (1993\u20132011). Later became the 82nd Governor of Georgia (2011\u2013present)
\n1995 \u2013 Mike Parker, while U.S. Representative from Mississippi (1989\u20131999)
\n1995 \u2013 Susana Martinez, later Governor of New Mexico (2011\u2013present)
\n1995 \u2013 Mike Foster, later Governor of Louisiana (1996\u20132004)
\n1995 \u2013 Donald Ray Kennard, Louisiana State Representative
\n1995 \u2013 Rusty Crowe, Tennessee State Senator
\n1995 \u2013 Milton H. Hamilton, Jr, Tennessee State Senator
\n1996 \u2013 Ronnie Culbreth, Georgia State Representative.[11]
\n1996 \u2013 Norm Coleman, while Mayor of St Paul. Later U.S. Senator from Minnesota (2003\u20132009)
\n1996 \u2013 Jay Blossman, later Louisiana Public Service Commissioner (1997\u20132008)
\n1996 \u2013 John Hoeven, later Governor of North Dakota (2000-2010), later U.S. Senator from North Dakota (2011\u2013present)
\n1997 \u2013 Steve Windom, Alabama State Senator, later Lieutenant Governor of Alabama (1999\u20132003)
\n1997 \u2013 Kevin Mannix, Oregon State Representative
\n1997 \u2013 Michael J. Michot, Louisiana House of Representatives
\n1997 \u2013 Chip Bailey, Alabama State Senator[12]
\n1997 \u2013 H. Mac Gipson and Ronald “Ron” Johnson, Alabama State Representatives
\n1998 \u2013 Harry C. Goode, Jr., Florida State Representative
\n1998 \u2013 George Wallace, Jr., former Alabama State Treasurer (1987-1995)
\n1998 \u2013 Gerald Allen, Steve Flowers, and Tim Parker, Jr., Alabama State Representatives
\n1998 \u2013 Herman Badillo, former U.S. Representative from New York (1971\u20131977)
\n1998 \u2013 David G. Boschert, Maryland State Delegate
\n1998 \u2013 Sonny Perdue, Georgia State Senator. Later Governor of Georgia (2003\u20132011)
\n1999 \u2013 Nancy Larraine Hoffmann, New York State Senator
\n1999 \u2013 Joel Giambra, City Comptroller of Buffalo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a jolly good time at the screening committee. I knew several of the screeners some of whom may have been surprised to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,31,47,9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-sch-b-election","category-gods-own-party","category-harrys-diary","category-lincoln","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21976"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21989,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21976\/revisions\/21989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}