At its Annual Meeting on January 31, 2010, TakeAction Minnesota announced Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, State Representative Paul Thissen, and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher as the organization’s three preferred candidates for Governor.  The meeting was held at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Park . 

 

The three candidates were chosen by secret ballot by TakeAction Minnesota members.  In the days leading up to Sunday’s announcement, members had been given the opportunity to vote in the organization’s first-ever online vote, as well as through mail-in balloting, and voting at the Earle Brown Center prior to the start of the Annual Meeting at two o’clock.    The online vote was conducted through the reNEW.mn website, with members issued member identification and password codes to confidentially enter their votes.  Members were encouraged to vote for their top three choices of governor candidates, the candidates who best matched the spirit of the reNEW Minnesota campaign and who:

 

- most boldly embraced a progressive vision for Minnesota

- have a solid plan to win the November election

- will work with TakeAction Minnesota once elected to implement the vision

- inspires people to give time and money to help get them elected

 

The results of the TakeAction Minnesota vote, cast by a total of 643 voting members, were as follows:

 

-  Rybak  336 votes
-  Thissen   264 votes
-  Anderson-Kelliher  261 votes
-  Marty  250 votes
-  Dayton  138 votes
-  Entenza  105 votes
-  Kelley  104 votes
-  Rukavina  92 votes
-  Bakk  48 votes
-  Gaertner  46 votes

 

In advance of the vote, candidates had been vetted by members through a unique and rigorous set of individual forty-five minute screenings, as well as at candidate events focused on topics such as health inequities, Native-American issues, and a Latino issues forum.  Eight events, drawing a thousand attendees in total, were held over the course of December and January, with videos and member commentary posted on the reNEW.mn website.  The ten candidates also filled out questionnaires which were posted in advance of member voting which opened online last Tuesday, January 26.

 

Before announcing Rybak, Thissen, and Anderson Kelliher on stage, Martha Skold, both an individual member and PAC Board Chair of TakeAction Minnesota, told attendees that the reNEW Minnesota campaign had been “bringing new people into the political process who have spent their entire lives believing that they don’t matter to politicians.”

 

Skold introduced Veronica Mendez, a community organizer and a member of both reNEW Minnesota ’s Board of Directors and TakeAction Minnesota ’s Latino table.   Before becoming involved in the reNEW Minnesota campaign, Mendez had never participated in electoral politics beyond voting in Presidential elections.  She told the crowd that “creating a Minnesota that lives up to our values requires real grassroots leadership and collective action.  But I had never seen that happen in electoral politics before this year, and the reNEW Minnesota campaign.”

 

“ Minnesota hasn’t elected a progressive as Governor in a quarter of a century,” said Dan McGrath , Executive Director of TakeAction Minnesota .   “And Governors, and the quality of state government, really matters in people’s lives.  To win the election this year, we have to do things differently.  The reNEW Minnesota campaign was created to change the way we engage people in politics. It was created to organize diverse individuals, communities, and organizations throughout the state early and around a common set of values that speak to people from all walks of life.  Organizing and inspiring people are the qualities that win elections.  With TakeAction Minnesota ’s help, one of these three candidates will win the Governor’s election in November.”

 

With their candidate field now winnowed to three, TakeAction Minnesota will head into the caucus/convention season with the goal of electing over one-hundred and fifty reNEW Minnesota delegates to the DFL State Convention.  Members will make an individual choice as to whom to support among the three preferred candidates, or remain uncommitted among the three, at their Senate District/County Unit conventions in February and March.   TakeAction Minnesota plans to use its organizational muscle to influence the outcome of the State Convention, as well as the summer primary election, on behalf of the most viable of the three preferred candidates.