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Friday, March 02, 2007

Is Repke Bad Mouthing Wellstone?

Please click onto the comments for the post.

posted by Bob at Friday, March 02, 2007

4 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

Bill Dahn asked me to post this.

Is Repke Bad Mouthing Wellstone Below ?



"lol - no I just get frustrated with those who spend a great deal of time fretting about how the public doesn't vote for their minor party candidates and want to take this three card monti game and make it appear as something else. The fact is that the 500 people who vote for Bill Dahn will be the first people who's votes get redistributed in a IRV system and next the 600 people who voted for Sharon. The impact of those sophisticated voters choices could determine who is in second or who is in third and consequently who wins or who loses an election. And I want them to control the fate of who is on the City Council for what reason?

I am as left as they come, but I have always felt that it was better to take over the DFL then to stand outside it and moan that it isn't liberal enough. Why would I want to create a situation that empowers the creation of stronger minor parties turning my party more to the Right? That is the question that will be asked of Saint Paul caucus attendees Tuesday night, "do you want to create an election system in Saint Paul municipal elections who's desired effect is to elect more people that are not DFL?" That is what IRV is for. Its to empower those who aren't members of the two major parties. Those who don't think that all of the time and effort that people spend at the DFL conventions is worth anything, those who don't think that people like Paul Wellstone should be elected because he was a life long Democrat and an active member of the DFL Central Committee for close to twenty years. Paul was a long time party hack, I served on the DFL Central Committee with him back i
n the seventies. Clearly, a party hack like that is bad. We need to weaken the two parties so that party regulars like that are not elected.

They're breaking my heart, they can't get their candidates elected by an open and honest system that is practiced by 99% of the country and they determine that the problem isn't their candidates and their issues but the system that allows one person one vote.

The other issue is the opportunity to give voters clear choices is gone. Most voters are not as sophisticated as the Harvard professors in Cambridge (where they tout that this system has worked well for 100 years). They like knowing who is who. Municipal primary elections just winnow it down to 2 people that can be clearly defined to the voters as left/right, for/against. Most people will not spend the time to determine the subtle differences between Bill and Sharon that a Harvard professor would. And, many voters would feel that they would not have completed their task if they didn't rank all of the candidates from 1-8. So, most of them will have to guess. The IRV system will reinforce for them that the action of voting does not matter. If it doesn't matter where I rank Bill or Sharon and it doesn't matter if every once in a while I throw away my first vote (because I'll get my second choice) then elections truly don't matter.

So, yes this notion upsets me. I actually think that it makes a difference who gets elected to public office and having done campaigns for thirty years, I think it gives me some idea of how voters make their choices (you don't do this for thirty years without learning something).

One thing that IRV supporters have right is that it will make the candidates all sound alike and very milk toastie. You can not do comparative pieces in a IRV system without potentially driving your second place numbers down. So, those of you who have liked candidates that are willing to take a stand on issues, be careful what you ask for, because doing that is very dangerous in an IRV system.

So, as a campaign manager, in IRV, I would be telling my candidate to quit talking issues and wrap themselves in Mom, apple pie and the flag and raise a lot more money. Because the secret to success in the IRV system is high name recognition and low negatives (first or second in first choices and a lot of second choices). The task to the candidate in IRV is to be non-offensive, don't take a stand on issues like human rights, public health, or anything that might drive up your negatives.

Think about this folks is that what you want? Because, the people who run campaigns are all going to do just that. I've run campaigns. Under the current system, I urge the candidates I support to define themselves, take stands on issues and drive out like minded supporters. That would be stupid in an IRV system, because it increases your negatives.

That's what we want less informed voters.

Just My Opinion Not Those Of My Employers Past Present Or Future

Chuck Repke
DFL Hack




-----Original Message-----
From: GjerryBerquist6@msn.com
To: Chuckrepke@aol.com; saintcurmudgeon@earthlink.net; stpaul-issues@forums.e-democracy.org
Sent: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 8:25 AM
Subject: Re: [SPIF] Better Ballots, Better Politics,Don't Fear IRV


Wow Chuck,
Your last post trashing the IRV system sounded too much like an addict defending usage of his drug of choice. The two party system has a strangle-hold on our election systems and will do whatever they can to keep their power. As a society, I believe we need to more inclusive in our selection of public servants. IRV is one attempt to help that process along. As long as the DFL continues to field qualified candidates, they should have nothing to fear.

Gjerry Berquist
West Side Best Side

8:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is not mentioned anywhere in the state or federal constitution. IRV will only increase the possibility that a wingnut would get elected. Regular voting has been working for over 225 years, lets not give the potheads their wacky new way of voting stoned, and stick to what works.

6:51 AM  
Blogger Bob said...

6:51, POTHEADS got Jesse elected without IRV. The current system is good. I don't see a need to change it.GRASS ROOTS efforts can give anybody a platform to be elected.

Watch this next election closely!:-)
Some people haven't even annouced their running yet.

8:39 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8:28 PM  

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