All posts in the topic Hayden Officially Files Papers for House 61B Seat (Short link)
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- There are 10 posts — by 7 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Wizard Marks at Jul 06 23:55 UTC
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| mtoburen | CandidacyFilingRelease.doc | Jul 03 19:06 UTC |
Hayden Officially Files Papers for House 61B Seat
MINNEAPOLIS – Affordable housing advocate Jeff Hayden officially began his
campaign for the open seat in Minnesota House 61B, submitting papers with the
Minnesota Secretary of State’s office on the first day of candidate filing.
“Our campaign is about empowering people and making sure that government helps
those in need,” said Hayden. “I am committed to improving the lives of all
Minnesotans through living wages, universal health insurance, home foreclosure
protections, and greater investment in our public schools.”
Hayden is the DFL endorsed candidate in House 61B, and enjoys the endorsement
of the ACORN Political Action Committee, and three labor unions: AFSCME;
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Local 59; and Teamsters Local 120 PAC. His
candidacy is also supported by several elected officials, including Congressman
Keith Ellison and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.
To learn more, visit www.jeffhayden.org.
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- Name: CandidacyFilingRelease.doc
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I've been in the business of affordable housing advocacy for about twenty
years in the twin cities. Admittedly, most of my attention was on St. Paul
and Brooklyn Park. But, I never ran into Jeff Hayden in that arena.
Can you explain what Jeff has done that has you calling him an affordable
housing advocate?
Thank you, Caty Royce, Bancroft
A couple of people asked why Jeff Hayden is referred to as an affordable
housing advocate, and questioned the statement as they had not heard of him.
I just want to point out that I have heard of him. I met him several years
ago at an affordable housing event with ISAIAH, and have seen him countless
times since.
He has spent virtually his entire professional career working on various
housing issues in one form or another. He is currently a manager at Hearth
Connection - a top notch organization that works with long-term homeless
people to be successful in good supportive housing.
In my volunteer advocacy for affordable housing, specifically mixed-rate
housing deliberately away from areas of concentrated poverty, there were
frequently supportive housing people involved - they are directly connected.
In regards to endorsements, my observation was that many of the people with
whom Jeff has developed trusting and respectful relationships over a long
period of time helped him earn the DFL endorsement, rather than offering
their personal endorsements after that happened.
With complete respect to all the other candidates who sought endorsement or
who are also running, I urge you to get to know Jeff Hayden. He is
hard-working, caring and deeply committed to creating a better community.
Nikki Carlson
Linden Hills
Is this the new campaign tactic this season? Never having heard of someone is a negative -- for the candidate? Meet Jeff: http://www.jeffhayden.org/ On Jul 3, 2008, at 4:31 PM, cathleen royce wrote: > But, I never ran into Jeff Hayden in that arena. > > Can you explain what Jeff has done that has you calling him an > affordable > housing advocate? From the Hayden website: > Creating affordable housing > > > > I understand the need to increase affordable housing in > Minneapolis. I work for an affordable housing organization that > provides a range of services to those struggling with homelessness > across Minnesota. I want similar state programs expanded and > developed in South Minneapolis. Laura Southeast/Como Laura Waterman Wittstock President and CEO Wittstock & Associates 913 19th Ave SE Minneapolis, MN 55414 612-387-4915 www.laurawatermanwittstock.com
Greetings,
The perusal of a candidate's resume is hardly a "new tactic". In all fairness,
there
are many, many people engaged in affordable housing and in the work on
homelessness
in the Metropolitan region. Therefore, it is quite possible for one advocate
working
in this range of advocacy to not hear of another advocate.
What I might proffer, as a rather cogent and germane observation, is this: How
likely
is it that I have served on the following since 2008, and never heard of the
man until
he filed; Hennepin County-City of Minneapolis Community Advisory Board on
Homelessness, Hennepin County Commission (Heading Home Hennepin) to
End Homelessness, Minnesota Assistance Council on Veterans (Board), The
4th Judicial Downtown and Mental Health Task Force under Judge Hopper,
the Boards of at least a dozen organizations dealing with homelessness and
housing, Project Homeless Connect, the work on fielding a sub-prime protection
Ordinance for the City of Minneapolis, Lobbying for the Council on Crime and
Justice at the MN Legislature, and perhaps a dozen other Commissions and
Task Forces dealing with Affordable Housing and Homelessness, if not as
a Central issue at least as a peripheral impact. How likely is it that I would
not, at some point, at least have run into the man somewhere along the line.
I find it a wee bit odd.
Now, all that being said, Hearth Connection is not really an organization
I would consider "top notch". They are, unquestionably, well funded...being
the creature of the Corporation for Supportive Housing. The cutting edge
work is not, in my estimation, being done by such organizations. They
profit from the current crises and, really, have little interest in resolving
much
of anything at all...prolonging, that is where there interest falls...given the
salaries collected, I can understand why. You won't find these types
"in the trenches" for the most part. You also won't find them trying to take
things like the Wilder Research and formulating new ideas.
Of course, if you challenge these guys (and I would love to engage them
in a debate anytime) on the issues their response, customarily, is to assume
a very haughty, "above it all" attitude and portray themselves as somehow
privy to information the rest of us lack. Artful, but BS nonetheless. If you
look for new and innovative strategies to overcome the root causes of
homelessness or the crisis in affordable housing....don't look to this sort...
they have no interest and, certainly, will never risk their butts trying
anything
resembling "new". In short, they are hacks.
Send 'em all a pot of coffee, a bag of doughnuts and hunker down for
3 more decades of the same myopic, risk-averse and unproductive crap
that has landed us right where we are...with more homeless people now
than we had at the start of the widespread problem. But don't believe me,
pull the Wilder Executive Summary,.2006. Look at the big trends then
take a gander at Hearth's Legislative agenda...how in the Hell any sentient
being could derive one from the other is worthy of an episode of the
Twilight Zone, but not within the annals of worthy social policy.
Guy Gambill
(Northeast).
To be clear, my question about Jeff Hayden was in no way meant to be
negative. I was really curious about his history and work in affordable
housing.
Caty Royce Bancroft
I'd like to point out, respectively, that we, as affordable housing and
homeless advocates would be wise to do everything we can to support anyone
willing to be a champion for our cause at the legislature. Like some of our
existing champions say at the legislature, "there is no real sense that we are
all marching to the same song." And that, my friends, can in the end have a
negative impact on the people we are trying to help.
B. L. Campos: "While I am supporting a candidate for the race, I am not working
for a campaign. And, frankly, it is a legitimate question to ask questions
about a candidate that is seeking to represent my community. While many who
have replied to this thread are DFLers with a vested interest in the DFL, I am
a long term resident of the community and am asking questions about a person
that is seeking to represent me."
I'm having a real hard time finding the logic in the post above. If you are
supporting one candidate, whether signed on as a campaign worker or not, and
have stated so, then the other candidate's particulars are immaterial. You've
declared for Hakeem, why should you care what Hayden's about except to argue
for the candidate you've chosen.
If, on the other hand, you are writing to promote your candidate, implying that
your candidate's opponent is not really a community advocate because you have
not seen him around advocating is no more than shilling for your candidate. Of
course, it also posits yourself as the center of the universe around which all
planets revolve. Very hard position to maintain.
As a wishy-washy DFLer, on the other hand, I do have to have some knowledge of
the other candidates because there might be a non-DFLer out there who could be
better at the job of representative, so I should know about those candidates'
particulars in order to judge.
Alas, that is not the case this time. From what I can gather from Ms. Hakeem's
friends and supporters, her approach is an in-your-face challenge to prove to
those she challenges that they do not have sterling diversity credentials,
while she has. In so doing, she proves that she is both more argumentative and
less genuine than the next guy, but that is not necessarily a plus at the
legislature. Politics is still the art of the possible; digging your heels in
for the impossible makes it very difficult to see the path to better conditions
for constituents.
There is a very particular ethos that is District 61B. Nothing that Ms. Hakeem
has said or done to date demonstrates that she has even the tiniest clue about
that ethos. Without understanding that, she would be a beached whale at the
legislature, unable to articulate the needs of 61B or write bills that would
keep intact the gains we have made under a series of legislators and further
the aspirations of constituents.
On the other hand, I've found Jeff Hayden to be a listener and those who listen
and ask questions are more likely to learn. No one goes to the legislature
without signing on for a steep learning curve that continues for the whole time
he or she is there. Once declaring that you know everything as Ms. Hakeem
repeatedly does, there is no reason to try to learn anything new. After the
last eight years of the Bushies, I've had it up to my eyebrows with that kind
of arrogance.
Greetings,
I disagree with that surmise for some very specific and germane issues. First
of
all, on that aspect of affordable housing that deals with the homeless we pay
millions
of dollars per annum to a large number of people to deal with this social
problem.
The truth is, they have done a rotten job, overall. If they had done a good job
would
we have more homeless now than ever? The way I see it is this: Legislative
agendas
in Minnesota, invariably, when looking at housing and homelessness put far too
much
emphasis on "the lack of affordable housing". This is seemingly largely based
on
National research. While such an assertion may be true in places like New York
where they are dealing with things like rent control or in DC where my younger
brother pays 1450 per month for a 1 bedroom smaller than mine, it is not true
in
most of Minnesota.
I spent the better part of a decade as a caseworker dealing, largely, with
housing
placement. I cannot think of a single client for whom I could not find an
apartment
or place to live. Most folks who are homeless have other barriers; criminal or
civil
records (UDs), mental health or CD issues, geographic restrictions, lack of a
credit
rating or employment history, etcetera. In fact, most of the research
corroborates
my assertions in these matters. So why is it that the mainstream advocacy
organizations put almost no energy into fixing or overcoming any of these
barriers?
Well, first of all they believe what they are doing, for the most part. While
they
make a great show out of "getting the opinions of the homeless" when those
opinions
differ from their own, they simply ignore them. Thy've done that for a long
time now.
Gail Dorfman, while not actively engaging in this shunting aside of "the
impacted"
certainly does very little to actively repair the breach or better the
situation.
The end result is that the vast majority of the "advocates" derive agendas
that
don't meet realities.
Saying we all need to agree fails to acknowledge the very real problems on
the ground. Failing to acknowledge the problems helps the problems to persist.
I recently offered the mainstream folks the chance to address these gaps
between
research and reality, but received no response. I received no response for what
reason? Most homeless people would tell you legislative agendas don't match
realities. So why no discussion. The mainstream folks want to contain and
sanitize the discussion, even at the cost of NOT accomplishing what they say
it is their most earnest desire to accomplish.
So, quashing descent due to some notion that, somehow, the providers and
advocates are more savvy than the folks who live it is dubious at best.
But hey, many of these guys, most with BAs in the Liberal Arts, at least in
the leadership positions, earn a pretty penny for what they do. I don't think
their
in any big hurry to really make a dent. But they will do as they do. 8-9 years
ago, Margaret Hastings called them "poverty pimps". At the time I thought that
very harsh...I don't think that any more.
Guy Gambill
(Northeast)
Guy Gambill: "I disagree with that surmise [Mr. Hayden has affordable housing
credentials] for some very specific and germane issues. First of all, on that
aspect of affordable housing that deals with the homeless we pay millions of
dollars per annum to a large number of people to deal with this social problem.
The truth is, they have done a rotten job, overall. If they had done a good job
would we have more homeless now than ever? ..."Huge numbers of the middle class
and lower class strivers are employed managing the poor. The middle middle
class and above are employed legislating acts and appropriating money to manage
the poor. My first job out of high school was on the tail end of that food
chain as a clerk at the welfare. And I was very lucky to have that job so
quickly. Of course, in the days of city patronage jobs under the ward healer
system employed then, I got that job through a well-placed friend of my Aunt.I
submit that there is presently no incentive to change that, particularly in
uncertain economic times. Those with the jobs are going to hang on to them
tooth and claw, it is in the ruling class's interest to keep the economy afloat
at all costs, and our much vaunted puritan work ethic is also a puritan
punishment ethic aimed at the unfortunate.In terms of Mr. Hayden, I do not know
his personal stance on housing the poor--yet--but I think it of secondary
importance. What strikes me as of first importance is does he do the job he was
hired for intelligently, as effectively as possible according to his job
description? It's his job. He has himself and his family to feed. You can tell
by looking at the man that he is a striver, not within hailing distance of
those born with even one silver treasury bond in their mouths.Very few people
in District 61B are in the middle-middle class; most of the people in 61B are
strivers, either of the petit bourgeoisie or the upper lower class. Many are
only two or three paychecks away from losing their grip on their class
position. The greater number are born in this country, with or without green
card. They keep treading water to keep from falling into an equivalent of the
shanty Irish. (Shanty Irish is a term I equate with the hopelessness of those
who, for too many reasons, all of which exponentially pull them downward,
cannot cope. The sadness that implies cannot change that hard fact.)
Any candidate for the position of state representative has to understand that
on a very deep level. Considering the two candidates I've looked at (contenders
have until 7/14 (?) to sign up), the one who comes closest to that standard is
Mr. Hayden."Poverty pimp" is a harsh, harsh term for everyone engaged in
keeping the revolving door spinning. While it is true, those folks are also
choosing to deal with the reality that the system we use to contend with
poverty is not designed to help anyone but obscenely wealthy and their
sycophants. The objective of this system is to keep a certain percentage of the
population hugely disadvantaged, but not riotous, so as to keep the cost of
wages down. The armed services used to keep a healthy number of those
disadvantaged occupied, but we have opted to use the prison system for that
instead (really dumb move IMO). So most of the people working at the level Mr.
Hayden works at, are there to ameliorate the worst conditions of regulations as
written. A great many of those jobs are much better than scrubbing floors or
digging ditches, even with a back hoe.The question for voters to answer about
their chosen candidate is, then, does my candidate understand exactly what
he/she is doing and >does the candidates have some understanding of how to go
about persuading their hoped for colleagues to shift the paradigm.< Of the
announced candidates, Mr. Hayden is, by far, the more personable of the two,
which will make it easier for him to make alliances with other legislators so
that he is in a position to persuade.Finally, the question a voter needs to
satisfy his/herself on, is a candidate more community-oriented or
self-oriented? If the voter does not ask himself that question, he could easily
vote for another Norm Coleman, a narcissist. Now there's a fate worse than
death.
BTW: As to what sparks are flying out of B. L. Campos' back pocket, all
speculation would be scatalogical.