Minnesota DFL leaders endorse Dean, tout his knowledge of key issues

Minnesota DFL (Democratic-Farm-Labor) Leaders met at teh state Capitol on Thursday to personally endorse Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to be the Democratic candidate for president in 2004.

Dean supporters, including Minneapolis Mayor R.T> Rybak and state DFL leaders want to try to get the full official DFL party endorsement. Dean must secure at least 71% of the vote in a party-wide straw poll on March 2.

State Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-ST. Paul, said Dean's inside knowledge of health care and higher education issues put him above other candidates.

Minnesota Dean Campaign chairman Ted Mondale (son of the ex-VP) said Dean is also the right choice for students...

http://www.daily.umn.edu/articles/2003/10/03/6800

Among the 37 prominent DFLers who back Democrat Dean are:
Former State Auditor Judi Dutcher, State Senator Becky Lourey and Scott Dibble of Minneapolis as well as having "rounded up" 4,000 grass-roots supporters ready to march into next March's caucuses.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/4132846.html

as any endorsement is. I just don't know enough about DFL to know what kind of weight it carries.

Overall, endorsements don't mean too much to me. Some are palpably important, like Hart's endorsement of Kerry, and some are pointless, like my endorsement of Dean.

Can anyone shed some light on DFL so I know where in the spectrum of things I can place this endorsement?

...because thousands of those little "pointless" endorsements add up to votes...

I'm not saying it is worthless, I just didn't call a press conference to announce it.

it carries alot of weight around here. :)

I think the DFL is not as strong in the state as it was in the Hubert Humphrey-Eugene McCarthy-Walter Mondale glory days of the 50's-70's but it still carries some weight and is helpful especially I think in a caucus state.

Kucinich is coming to MN to announce his candidacy on Oct 13. And he's got a number of "big-name" supporters who back his campaign, too :).

All of these folks have been publicly on board Dean's bandwagon for some time (Rybak since late August, the balance since at least last May) so there is nothing new here other than a staged press conference. A real news story would detail that Senate Majority Leader John Hottinger and Senator John Marty support Dennis Kucinich's candidacy. But of course that would require writing a story on Dennis Kucinich which the Star Tribune has yet to do.

In the end what really matters is who gets their people out to the caucuses.

As far as the names listed in the original post:
Mee Moua and Becky Loury (especially Loury - she's very liberal) would impress me.

Judi Dutcher I like but she's more moderate (used to be a Republican and was elected to office as a Republican - she really didn't belong with them)

Ted Mondale - Not impressed. I've always had the feeling he'd be a Republican if his father was someone else (just a feeling).

I'm locking this thread. Please see:

http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=52992

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