From SouthSide Pride
By David Tilsen
I decided to help Alondra Cano in her re-election campaign this year because
she stepped up when I asked her to help with the Dakota Access Pipeline effort.
I tend to be in solidarity with people who are in solidarity with me, and
Council Member Cano has shown herself to be a trustworthy leader and ally. It
looked like she was going to face a real race. Former Ninth Ward Council
member Gary Schiff, who had vacated the position to run for Mayor four years
ago, wanted his seat back and Mohamed Farah, a smart representative of the
organized Somali community, had also entered the race for the DFL endorsement.
The word on the street was that the powers downtown wanted Schiff back and were
willing to fund him well, and were not above using Farah if it came to that. I
told Cano that I would help. She asked me to serve on the Credentials
Committee for the Ninth Ward endorsing convention.
After the precinct caucuses Alondra had about 51% of the delegates, Farah about
35%, Schiff only about 4% with the remainder 11% calling themselves
uncommitted. One problem was none of the precincts elected members to the Ward
committees. When I asked the convener about it in my caucus, I was told it was
not on the agenda he was given. I was told later by the Ward chair that it
was, anyway this became a problem. In the absence of committees being formed
in the usual way, the campaigns were each asked to send three people to the
Rules and the Credentials committees.
The call said that all challenges to the credentials needed to be filed within
ten days of the caucuses. In order to preserve our rights, even though all
data entry from the caucuses had not been completed, the Cano campaign filed
challenges against people who attended without signing in, without addresses,
or with addresses that were not in the precinct caucused in. No other campaign
filed challenges before the deadline expired.
At the first Credentials meeting the other campaigns expressed shock that there
was a deadline and that Cano had filed any challenges. Former Councilmember
Tony Scallon was one of Farah’s representatives, and Schiff himself represented
his own campaign. I don’t think inexperience can be claimed. We agreed that we
would be cordial, not antagonistic and accept challenges past the deadline. We
also agreed to have two co-chairs, one from the Cano campaign, one from the
Farah campaign. The Schiff campaign did not have a candidate at that meeting.
Several days later Mohamed Farah and Gary Schiff were on television accusing us
of Jim Crow tactics, of bad faith and of trying to make the Ward convention
“more white.” On the same day, the Farah campaign copied the Cano challenges
that they complained about and filed them with the Party, although we did not
get copies for several more days. The next few days were a circus, with news
cameras and Gary Schiff and former Alderman Tony Scallon attending the next
meeting claiming we acted like “officials in Mississippi.” Lots of work was
done by Cano volunteers verifying addresses. Tony later apologized to me in a
private e-mail.
We learned that the same evening the Schiff and Farah members of the Rules
committee outvoted the Cano members 6 to 3 to change the rules to: 1. Eliminate
the drop out rule, 2. Eliminate the Q&A period, 3. Have the convention adjourn
after 4 ballots or 3:00pm. This seemed to us to be a disaster and we had a lot
of meetings about if we could afford the time to have a floor fight on the
rules to change this. We believed that the Schiff and Farah forces wanted no
endorsement since they could never have enough support to get to 60%, and that
a long convention and attrition favored them. On the other hand delay also
favored them if we had to adjourn at 3:00pm. We eventually decided we needed
to amend the 3:00pm time.
Then the printed rules from the Rules committee came out and we read them. It
didn’t say what the committee members told us they said, or apparently what
they thought they said. The rules said that we could not adjourn before four
ballots or 3:00pm. This was fine with us. No floor fight.
The day of the convention at South High, after registration Cano was within
spitting distance of 60%, our count was about 57%. We just needed to get to a
ballot before our people left. The Farah and Schiff forces were going to
delay, delay, delay. They decided to try to reinstate the Q&A which they had
eliminated in the Rules committee, both to delay the convention fighting about
it and to delay the convention having the Q&A. They delayed about people in the
bathroom, they asked to have secret ballots, they questioned translations, they
confused instructions.
A particularly dramatic moment was when Ilhan Omar, the only Somali legislator
in Minnesota gave a rousing endorsement of Alondra Cano.
Finally we had the first ballot about noon--about 57% Cano, 35% Farah, 4%
Schiff, 1% no endorsement.
We had a second ballot--about 57% Cano, 36% Farah, 3% Schiff, 2% no
endorsement.
It was now three o’clock. A motion was made to adjourn, three speakers for and
three speakers against. The speakers for were generally surprised that we had
to vote at all. They had been informed that the rules said that we had to
adjourn at 3:00pm. Many times the chair read the rules to them, the rules that
the Schiff and Farah campaigns had pushed through the Rules committee and then
had been passed by the convention that morning. Everyone had a copy of those
rules. The above campaigns said that by not adjourning we were disrespecting
the Rules committee, the convention, and the DFL. The convention voted to not
adjourn.
WE had a third ballot with 57.88% for Cano.
Another motion to adjourn.
Things were very tense. I gave a very stirring speech urging people to stay
and endorse.
On the fourth ballot Cano had 59.7%, only 3 votes away from endorsement.
Farah called for all his people to walk out. They did, and the Schiff people
left too. This left about 58% of the original delegates, way over the 50%
required for a quorum. 100% of those left supported Cano. She was endorsed by
acclimation. The convention adjourned.
I have been part of more contested races, better fought races and longer
conventions, but I think this one felt the closest to home. I came to like and
respect some of the people I worked with in the Farah, Schiff and Cano
campaigns. I hope we become friends.
The so called experts made mistake after mistake. They didn’t write their
rules the way they intended, even with total control of the committee. They
misinformed their community. Why did they make these mistakes? Incompetence?
no I don’t think so. Laziness, partially, but mostly I think lack of respect.
Lack of respect for all of us, their allies, opponents, but most of all their
constituents, neighbors and the ninth ward residents. This was evident when
Schiff and Scallon were in office and was more evident in this race. Farah
allied with the wrong candidate. It’s going to be an interesting summer on the
Southside.
David Tilsen
612-281-8576 mobile
612-823-8169 land line
Sent from my iPad