"Dennis Day" at the Minnesota State Fair

For those of you who have no Minnesota connection, the State Fair is an absolutely huge event--the second largest state fair in the nation, I believe.

It's location near the border between Minneapolis and St. Paul ensures high attendance from a cross-section of the population. I would guess that the majority of the local population and a good percentage of the non-metro population attends.

As such, it has always been fertile ground for political efforts. In fact, the DFL has a permanent pavilion that looks rather like an overgrown picnic shelter.

A group of us Kucinich supporters gathered at the local campaign office and took the bus to the Fair. There were about eight or ten of us (I didn't actually count) including myself and DUer wheresthemind. (Apologies to any undercover DUers that I may have missed.)

We split up into twos and threes and started leafleting the various entrances. I'd say that I was able to give away leaflets to one out of five people. In some cases, it was pretty obvious that the refusers were Republicans, especially the elderly man who yelled, "No taxes, no taxes" all the way down the block after I appraoched him. In the rest of the cases, it was hard to tell what they were: Republicans, supporters of another candidate, or just plain apathetic. I suspect a lot of the latter.

I would ask, "Have you heard of Dennis Kucinich, who's running for president?"

They would say, "No," in this tone that said, "Baw-ring" and walk on. Sadly, this was especially true of working class looking types, although some of the working class and farm types were quite interested.

I had two conversations, one while leafleting, and one later as we regrouped at the DFL booth, with people who declared bitterly that it was no use voting or getting involved because the whole system was corrupt.

I guess today gave me a vivid example of the apathy prevailing. I don't say this because the crowds seemed uninterested in my candidate. I say this because they seemed uninterested in any candidate at all.

We're in a bad way when our country is so messed up and people seem to have lost sight of possibilities for change.

Anyway, back at the DFL booth, there were materials provided by all the Dem candidates except Edwards, Graham, Sharpton and Moseley-Braun. What was interesting was the number of volunteers that came with each set of materials. We had eight or ten, the Dean group had that many, maybe more, there were two guys at the Kerry table, and no one supervising the distribution of material about either Lieberman or Gephardt.

Relations among the different groups of volunteers were cordial. I think we all realize who the real enemy is.

You said~"Relations among the different groups of volunteers were cordial. I think we all realize who the real enemy is."

How very interesting (the apathy) you describe. It's such an oxymoron. A friend and I were talking about strategies for letting people know how they have been effected by the Bush aministration.

Perhaps we could brainstorm here at DU?

Molly Ivins new book is going to discuss the 'Doug Jones' average. She demonstrates how the average person has been effected by the Shrub. That might be a good starting point, we have to show people the importance of voting...

Should add, I'm a Minnesota DU'er :D

I think that kind of hits the nail (at least one of them) on the head.

One reason that angry talk radio and slanted TV moves people into "their" column is because it succeeds at convincing people of how it affects "them."

I think the ability to segue right into something that likely affects the individual, and then the ability to move to something the candidate has to offer in that area, represents taking a little something from the "Garage Logic" folks and will linger in their noggins for more than a day or so.

Problematic has been that the Republican message has been the epitome of "me first" politics, and thus has been more effective to date at motivating the suburban voter, a growing bloc and one that has proven willing to be active in protecting "their" rights.

If we accept the proposition that Democratic positions are more "common interest" than "me first" then the key becomes linking personal day-to-day benefits or losses into the Democratic tent, then taking a moment or two to develop how your candidate stands on those points.

I think part of the problem with the State Fair is that there are plenty of people there who are just trying to "get away from it all" and so are less interested in talking about making life better. When I did volunteer at the Wellstone Booth, however, I found that there is still a sizeable minority of people who aren't afraid of flashing their political leanings or getting into a discussion of the issues.

Good idea suggesting some brainstorming on this.

Dan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota

do you know if any candidates will be at the fair at any point?

They're probably concentrating on Iowa and New Hampshire. I know that a bunch of them, including Kucinich, will be in Iowa for Labor Day.

If there's a particular candidate you're interested in, you should ask that person's campaign headquarters. I can tell you that the State Fair is not on Kucinich's schedule, although there is talk of bringing him back in October.

What I do know is that various state and local officials take turns showing up at the DFL booth.

People, NO ONE is paying any attention to what we talk about every day here. 2/3 can't name one Dem candidate. When Dems are given a list of names, they pick Lieberman 'cause that name rings a bell!! The repukes have them believing that the system can't be changed. They are sheep and no positions or platforms are going to move them. It would take a major earthshaking event to get most of them even thinking of voting. That's why the repukes can depend these days on winning so often. Good God, they flock to see Dennis Day but don't know crap about their government----I thought Dennis Day was dead!!!

(I remember the 1950s, too. :-) )

"Dennis Day" as in "Dennis Kucinich Day," as proclaimed unilaterally by the local Kucinich campaign.

because I believe Minnesota has had the largest or maybe second largest voter turnout in the country...in 2000, 69.4 % of the adult population 18 and over voted, which translates into 75.25% of those registered and eligible as of election day.


Edited title: changed verb

I was there on Thursday and left today for Maryland and College. I was at the DFL booth and bought some buttons. When my friends and I were there a bunch of 13 and 14 year old boys were sitting on the drinking fountains eating ice cream cones (guess they don't know the DFL runs the booth on the street there) and were giving the volunteers a hard time, in a stupid "you kill babies" sort of way. So we gave them a hard time, not physically of course, but four of our group were/are on the Highland Park Speech Team.
More fun stuff from the fair: My good friend Noah gave a republican a hard time, and held his own quite nicely for three minutes or so before we dragged him off to find more deep fried food. And then, at the Taxpayers League, he got to talk to Linda Runbeck (we didn't know it who she was at the time) She actually said the words "Energy is over my head." and proceeded to talk about energy!

I know that its hard see people so uninvolved, but its the fair and most of them are there to eat too much food. Its still early, next year the politics at the fair will be JUMPING! While you're there find out whats up for election where you live, you'll find its not much. Its an off year, only us wonks know whats going on. Its our duty to try and jump start the public, and every year is as bad (or good) as any other. Keep up the good work!

When I stopped by the DFL booth on Thursday I noticed that only Kucinich, Kerry and Dean had any volunteers there (I think Dean had 2,Kerry & Kucinich just one each)

As for any candidates showing up - as a rule we don't see that much of them. Our caucuses aren't until March 2. 1/2 the national delegates will be elected at the Congressional District conventions - probably in late April- early May and the other half will elected at the State Convention (late May or early June). Most the time it's pretty much a done deal by the time we elect the last of our delegates. However, if the race is tight, we might see more of them.

I've also heard that there will be a State Central Committee meeting in Willmar on Sept 20. It's not impossible that some might show at that (Bradley showed at one 4 years ago) but I wouldn't count on that.

As for the fair being a good cross section, according to the fair officials, that ain't necessarily so. It draws mainly a metro area crowd (you may have noticed that Machinery Hill no longer has any of the big tractors and combines on it the manufacturers decided they were meeting so few farmers it wasn't worth the expense of hauling the equipment in) and, one thing that disturbs fair officials, is that it is an event that minorities seem to stay away from. Nobody seems able to figure out why this is.

However, on an economic note, one of the things I noticed on Thursday was that people didn't seem to be spending money. I make this judgment based mainly on the lines for some of the more popular food items. They just weren't there. I don't think I saw more than four or five people lined up at any one spot (even at the pork chop on a stick line - there's usually a good 20 minute wait there and Thursday we it only took about 5 minutes.) I doubt that this is because Minnesotans have all decided to eat healthier. I also noticed that not as many people seemed to be caring around the kind of stuff you buy at the Grand Stand or Merchandise Mart.

By the way - Welcome home!

(I have attended on some of my visits to relatives over the past 18 years), but I noticed more African-American and other people of color than before. True, nothing like their percentage of the population, but I even saw some Somalis this year.

You're right about the lines for food, though. I saw surprised at how quickly I was able to get my cheese curds. :-)

I was at the fair last year passing out information about Lyme Disease. We can't get enough people well enougg at one time to man a booth so I tried a few places to sit and hand out things but people we not much interested in any information I had either. Afterwards I had some time to think about it.

I think we are well trained to expect certain things in certain places and don't expect to see health stuff at the band stands or political stuff in the colleseum. If people were of a mind to look into who is running and what they had to say they would go to the DFL or candidate booth (or in my case the KARE11 Health builing).

I certainly don't think that your efforts were wasted. The fact that somebody cares enough to promote a candidate will stick in peoples minds and the more people they see promoting one candidate the more they will pay attention later. (We always do a fair rehash when we get together with the extended familly usually around Labor Day.)

BTW I live just south of the Snelling overpasses and we have to alter our lives when the Fair is on but I wouldn't trade it or the Back to the 50's car show for any place else

we tabled for DK in AZ- "we" being the grassroots directors of the Sedona,Prescott & Flagstaff campaigns yesterday.

Our DK table was awesome...we had a TV going with DK videos...a huge photo (3'X4') lots of info, t-shirts, yardsigns & bumperstickers and this humungous banner about 4'X6" which we hung in the conference room. Probably 150-200 Dems....quite the crowd...all sorts of Dems...

Edwards, Dean and Kery also had tables- even Clark had volunteers handing out info...we all chatted it up fairly nicely....although there was one Dean supporter who came after a DK supporter bigtime .... very angry about the women right thing...she grabbed her & got all in her face...not very nice....but everyone else was very cool.....and they all liked our table the best! :)

The more we get DK out there the better...gonna take each & everyone of us to connect with folks...hurray to all who handed out leaflets & made the connect with the public!!

Thank you!!!!

Peace
DR

edit for clarity -probably missed the typos....

I helped man the DK booth at Sunset Junction, a Los Angeles street fair yesterday. I would agree with the earlier observation that about 1 out of 5 people would accept pamphlets. Our booth was pretty lo-tech--nowhere near as fancy as the Dean booth (who was the only other presidential candidate represented there).

We were registering people to vote as well and I split my time between asking people if they'd heard of Dennis and asking them if they were registered to vote. I was surprised how many people proudly proclaimed that they don't vote. Being Los Angeles, a lot of these people were cooler than thou young people, who apparently haven't realized yet that the person in the White House actually does effect their lives. Other people don't care about voting because they seem to think resistance is futile, all politicians are crooks, etc.
Many people who showed interest in DK didn't know what the Patriot Act or NAFTA were or who John Ashcroft was, which was depressing.

No one argued politics with me, though. A lot more apathy than opposition.

Running voter registration and DK at the same time.

Biggest stumbling block. So many that approve of DK think it is just "too early" to be thinking about real support and volunteering and $$ to DK.

But when I remind them that we are an early primary state, FEB.3 and we actually GET TO CHOOSE who will be our next President,,,,then they perk up and get with it!! Have handed out more contribution envelopes for people who are not on the net...

BTW. 4 weeks of registering voters, 2 out of 3 are registering Democratic.