Lack of support does not mean the process is unfair or unrepresentative. It simply means they don't like you. Not a difficult concept to grasp, unless you happen to be Jeff Anderson or Tarryl Clark.
After losing all 14 Democratic-Farmer-Labor conventions held to date and suffering humiliating defeats at conventions in both Duluth and Ely last weekend, former City Councilor Jeff Anderson of Duluth announced Thursday he would join former State Senator Tarryl Clark of St Cloud in forcing an August primary in the 8th district congressional race.
Well, isn't that special.
Former Congressman Rick Nolan of Crosby ran a strong grass roots campaign and successfully built a broad based coalition of support all across northeastern Minnesota. With only a few more conventions to go, he has 70% of the delegates and is in the position to win the endorsement by an overwhelming margin. One needs to ask the following question: If either Anderson or Clark were in the same position as Nolan is today would they still think the process is unfair?
History tells us no.
Anderson sought and received the endorsement for Duluth city council, the only elective office he has ever sought.
No complaints about the process.
Clark sought and received the endorsement for each of her state senate races in St Cloud and for her only other campaign for Congress.
No complaints about the process there either.
In fact, For the past several months Anderson and Clark actively campaigned for the 8th district DFL endorsement and by all indications would have gladly accepted it.
The process became unfair only when it didn't favor them.
Unfortunately, instead of behaving like responsible adults worthy of representing us in Congress, they are instead behaving like angry young children on the playground shouting 'no fair, no fair' after having just lost a game at recess.
But Jeff and Tarryl, the reality is that you played the game. And you lost.
With his base in his hometown and the city he represented for four years having deserted him, Anderson is even desperate enough to start making things up. He's been in numerous debates with Nolan. He's heard the same things we have. He's heard Nolan time and again express the same unwavering support of mining and timber, and more importantly, the insistence that we hold the mining companies' feet to the fire and enforce the rules and regulations that protect our environment and the health and safety of our workers. Either his memory is extremely short or he is not being honest with us, neither of which are qualities one wants in a congressperson. Or is it that Anderson thinks that marching in lock step with the mining companies' drum and touting the company line is how you support miners? Ask Jim Oberstar if that is true. Like the Company Man that he is, Anderson doesn't discuss enforcing rules and regulations and simply parrots the company line of environmentally responsible mining and jobs. In the early days of mining, Company Man Anderson would likely have been the stooge who told Louis Oberstar to just shut up and vote the right way in order to keep his job. Like Mesabi Ranger Oberstar (who was endorsed by the DFL dozens of times), Cuyuna Ranger Nolan loves mining and supports the workers but knows we can't trust the mining companies. It's a nuance that Vermilion Ranger Anderson just doesn't get.
Anderson and Clark can spin the results any way they like, but the numbers don't lie.
For the past 10 months Anderson and Clark have been looking for a job and after four straw polls and 14 conventions one thing is very clear: almost no one in the 8th congressional district wants to hire them.
And let's take a look at their roadmap for winning a primary against the endorsed candidate and going on to defeat a Tea Party incumbent:
*Lose every straw poll in the race
*Demonstrate little to no grass roots support
*Lose every DFL convention to date
*Lose several large union endorsements and the personal endorsements of leaders of all the labor councils in northeastern Minnesota
This is a recipe for success?
It's a delusion.
And it's all about Me, Me, Me.
It is indeed disheartening that two DFLers who claim to want the best for the working families of the 8th district are acting in their own self interests instead of for the common good...which in this case is defeating Michele Bachmann-clone Cravaack in November. Clark herself acknowledged how difficult it is to beat an incumbent during her ultimately unsuccessful run for Congress in 2010 against Bachmann, stating that a unified DFL team has a better chance to unseat an incumbent. That task is so difficult in fact, that no democrat has ever defeated an incumbent republican congressman in Minnesota after first battling their way through a primary. Never.
This isn't about the process. It isn't about mining or differences in policy. And It certainly isn't about the people of northeastern Minnesota. It's about Jeff Anderson and Tarryl Clark. It's about two angry people whose campaigns didn't work and now want to be spoilers. It's about people who are so narcissistic that they'd rather force a divisive primary that helps no one but Chip Cravaack. And rather than showing that the process doesn't work, it shows that DFLer's were wise enough to figure out that neither Anderson nor Clark are really interested in representing them and being their champion.
They just want a job.
Cross posted from Minnesota Progressive Project