Being the amazing, true-to-life adventures and (very likely) misadventures of a writer who seeks to take his education, activism and seemingly boundless energy to North Minneapolis, (NoMi) to help with a process of turning a rapidly revitalizing neighborhood into something approaching Urban Utopia. I am here to be near my child. From 02/08 to 06/15 this blog pushed free speech to the envelope, so others could take heart and speak unafraid. Email me at hoffjohnw@gmail.com
In the hotly contested DFL primary in 59B, these are what appear to be the results of yesterday's vote:
RAYMOND DEHN 876 37.12%
IAN L ALEXANDER 627 26.57%
TERRA COLE 857 36.31%
But on the North Talk Facebook forum there is a livid discussion about dirty campaign tricks used by the Raymond Dehn camp, click here for documentation. Word is Terra Cole has not conceded, but this is not confirmed and could change by morning. Given the margin of victory, there is no automatic recount. Any recount would have to be paid for by a losing campaign and these things don't come cheaply.
Considering the dirty tricks that CAN be seen, this blogger wonders aloud about dirty tricks that CAN NOT be seen. Therefore...
Johnny Northside blog--your number one source of Northside news--has provided not only the best coverage of the State Senate District 58 convention--but, actually, apparently it's the ONLY media coverage. (Readers, please comment and leave links if you can find other media coverage of the events at this convention) When DFL staff were sitting at the forlorn, lonely press credentials table, waiting to issue credentials, who were they waiting for? Apparently, just Johnny Northside Dot Com.
More exclusive JN-SPAN video is in the hopper--including an elevator speech by one candidate for governor--but in the meantime here is part of the debate between State Senator Linda Higgins and her challenger, Raymond Dehn. Higgins took the endorsement on the first ballot by 68 to 31 percent.
In this short video segment, Higgins and Dehn debate what I feel is one of the most important and pressing concerns in State Senate District 58: scummy slumlords, many or MOST of which don't actually live in District 58.
Linda Higgins and Raymond Dehn were first asked what their top three issues are. That video is shown above. After that, things got more nitty-gritty as questions were asked around... Community safety, an issue that is becoming unfortunately more and more pressing.
Problem landlords was the next question. This blog has covered the slumlord issue extensively, so I must say I felt quite a bit of gratification to see it brought forward at the convention.
The candidates were also asked about economic development and entrepreneurs.
Thank goodness both Linda Higgins and Raymond Dehn support the Bottineau corridor coming down Penn and Broadway.
The final question that I shot video for was around housing in general.
The highlight of Saturday's Senate District 58 DFL convention was the unanimous endorsement of Linda Higgins (plus a 68-31 vote tally on the first ballot), but plenty of other interesting things happened too. Well, interesting to a policy wonk like myself.
But this was the DFL convention for all of NoMi and part of downtown. It'd be nice if we had enough political diversity where other parties had a shot, but the reality is that the DFL endorsee - especially an incumbent - is pretty well guaranteed to be re-elected. So the day was rather important for our community. And Dehn was commended by Don Samuels, Linda Higgins, and this blog for the classy way he ran his challenge. Put all that together, and these videos deserve a JNS post.
Above, we have the videos of Linda Higgins being introduced and making her opening remarks. After the jump... is Raymond Dehn's introduction and opening remarks.
Up next, footage from the question and answer session.
Post, first photo, and video by the Hawthorne Hawkman. Second photo by Megan Goodmundson.
State Senator Linda Higgins, endorsed by this blog, has won the Senate district 58 endorsement by unanimous consent. The tally really was 68.5% to 31.5% after the first ballot. But in a classy move, challenger Raymond Dehn withdrew from contention and made a motion for unanimous consent. That procedure is in the video above. Also shown above, I took the high ground and placed Higgins signs on top of each mound of snow outside the convention at North High.
Although I felt that Linda Higgins has been doing a fine job and no challenger was necessary, I will second her comments and applaud Mr. Dehn for the way he ran his campaign. He consistently contributes to our community and I hope he and others like him continue to be a part of the public discourse.
More videos and commentary to follow, but for now, we celebrate with Linda! (Do not click "read more." Also, the video may not be immediately available until fully processed by youtube.)
Image from Raymond Dehn's website, blog post by John Hoff
After getting back last night from the rockin' Linda Higgins campaign party on the Jordan Pond, I did some checking to find out how the party went for her opponent, Raymond Dehn. Dehn threw a party the same night. At this point I don't have much information about how many people attended Dehn's party and who they were, however, one interesting nugget of info came from Facebook.
It turns out... Raymond or somebody affiliated with his campaign put out an "RSVP" invitation on Facebook. That invitation went out to about 120 people. Of those 120 people, only two replied and indicated they would guests at the party.
If I had to take a guess, I'd say Raymond's campaign is going "not so hot" right now and has an "uphill battle" as one political operative has reportedly put it. Of course, I think to be a genuine "political operative" you have to actually support people who win and be able to win yourself. I'm just saying.
If history is any guide, Republican or third party candidates won't be able to make any serious challenge in Minnesota State Senate District 58. So it seems better to endorse State Senator Linda Higgins when it matters, right before Tuesday's caucus, rather than waiting for November.
Linda Higgins has been an outstanding state senator, whose long service has given her valuable seniority which--as informed voters know--is a key to getting stuff done in the legislature. She is energetic and involved in the nitty gritty day-to-day happenings in her district, always showing up at the events which matter where stuff gets discussed and decided. I could stop right there but, well, regular readers know I won't.
Linda's challenger, Raymond Dehn, is (for lack of a better word) a non-entity. When Dehn announced he was running against Higgins, this was the first time I'd heard of him. And I like to think I'm pretty informed.
Instead of real issues, Dehn has slogans like... "The solutions of the past are not going to solve the problems of our future."
Who said this first? Well, it was Raymond Dehn himself. Only one problem with the saying: it's not even remotely true. There are all kinds of solutions that work over and over, past and present and future. Boiled right down to its essence, the saying seems to mean "Try something new for the heck of it, vote for Raymond Dehn even though there's REALLY NOTHING WRONG WITH LINDA HIGGINS." I can't help be reminded of Kenya McKnight's "Why not?" slogan.
And, actually, Raymond Dehn has a little too much in common with Kenya McKnight for my taste. Dehn was the subject of a positive article in Insight News, just like Kenya McKnight, Lennie Chism and Natalie Johnson Lee. This really tells me all I need to know about Raymond Dehn. The Hillside Chronicles blog was also not impressed with Dehn, click here.
At the recent debate with Higgins, Dehn made a point of mentioning his youthful mistakes which caused him to be incarcerated and receive addiction treatment, including a stay at a "halfway house." He talked about how there are crimes which, thirty years ago, weren't even crimes. Well, I think that makes perfect sense since THIRTY YEARS AGO OUR STREETS WERE NOT AWASH IN CRACK COCAINE. Dehn sounds like an ultra-liberal thug-hugger who wants to forgive, forget, and let the criminals out of jail to re-occupy our streets because, oh gee, their lives are so hard and society has been so unfair. There, but for the grace of God and addiction treatment, goes Dehn himself. (I'd like to point out drug/alcohol treatment is a fine example of a "solution of the past" which just keeps working, over and over)
Well, I'm glad Dehn is a productive, contributing member of society instead of somebody whose life has been ruined by addiction, but Dehn's not fit to replace a really great state senator. Vote for Linda Higgins, and don't forget to caucus on Tuesday.
Guest post, photos, and video by the Hawthorne Hawkman.
And we continue with another edition of JN-SPAN, the Johnny Northside version of nitty gritty politically detailed video footage. Tonight's episode: the Senate district 58 DFL debates held on Tuesday, January 26th between incumbent Linda Higgins and challenger Raymond Dehn.
I should note that the video included below is not the debate in its entirety. I was working and could not arrive until a few minutes after the event started. Even then, I tried to record questions that seemed pertinent to me, since I don't have a tripod and holding a small camera steady can get tiring after a while. If anyone has a link to the entire debates, please post it here and I'll put it "at the top of the fold."
Finally, I won't hide my personal bias: I support Linda Higgins and I don't expect to change my mind. But every video I post below will include statements from both candidates. If I recorded their answers on separate clips, then I will post both segments here. Also, I'll keep my comments until the end (mostly) so that viewers can go through this with minimal bias from me until my closing analysis.
Without further ado, the first video... ...on jobs and economic development.
Here is a three-part question on jobs, a metro casino (where did that idea come from?) and a Vikings' stadium.
The following question is on ex-offenders' re-entry:
And then there was a question about youth and crime:
Higgins and Dehn were asked about transportation in general on the northside...
...and about the Bottineau line in particular.
You can't really have a political debate in NoMi without bringing up the impact of foreclosures on our community and how to respond.
Here are Raymond Dehn's closing remarks:
And Linda Higgins' closing remarks:
One question that was being addressed just as I was settling in was in regards to the use of federal stimulus dollars (called NSP or Neighborhood Stabilization Programs, NOT to be confused with NRP, Neighborhood Revitalization Programs). Dehn admitted right off the bat that he wasn't very familiar with these funds, and that immediately put him even farther behind in my opinion. I work fairly closely with these programs and in some ways it's almost scary how quickly these federal funds have come down the pike and how quickly the government wants them utilized. Frankly, we're in too critical of a phase to bring in someone who has to be brought up to speed on one of the most rapidly evolving opportunities our community has right now.
On the stadium/casino/economic development question...okay, first of all I have to be very critical of this question in general. I know Pawlenty flirted with the idea of a METRO area casino, which could obviously include Minneapolis, but I'm not aware of any plans that narrowed it down to our fair city. I've looked and looked, and can't come across any links on google searches to that effect either. JNS readers, if you know of any, please share. Even so, rolling essentially three questions into one while trying to limit candidates to two minutes for a response is just bad forum moderation.
Dehn's answer was quite unsatisfactory to me: "...incentivizing programs for employers" is just a string of meaningless words. In fairness, see the above paragraph; the question was poorly worded and Dehn was obviously running out of time when he got to the actual meaningful part of his answer. Higgins at least pointed to a specific bill she'd passed, allowing parents to add their children (if children are unemployed) to their health care coverage up to age 25. But even she was cut short by time constraints.
On the issue of re-entry, Higgins mentioned work she has done in the budget division she chairs, and pointed to the importance of health care for ex-offenders - many of whom need such services as they either suffer from a mental illness or are recovering from chemical dependency. She said that sometimes a community's guidelines about "who can live in a neighborhood" may border on NIMBY-ism. Dehn countered that it IS NIMBY-ism. My take is that at least parts of our community already have their fair share or more of ex-offenders. So I don't see it as NIMBY in NoMi, but rather "N-JIMBY." Not JUST in my backyard. Concentration of poverty or ex-offenders doesn't help anyone; not the poor, not the ex-offenders trying to become productive members of society again, and not the community as a whole.
The rest of Dehn's answer was easily his strongest and most poignant area. He said the best re-entry program is "not incarcerating" people in the first place, and that there are crimes that we didn't incarcerate for 30 years ago, and that's resulting in overflowing prisons now. (Hawkman asks: what crimes are those? And what do we do instead? De-classify certain criminal activity or come up with alternatives to incarceration?) Then Dehn spoke eloquently about a past conviction he has had, and how many of the opportunities he was afforded upon re-entry were likely due to the color of his skin as much as anything else. I may not support Dehn's candidacy, but I certainly support what he stands for in this regard and what we can talk about as a community because of his openness.
I disagree with Dehn's premise on crime in the following question, however, and see that answer as a manipulation of statistics to back up his own opinion or agenda. And Higgins made up some ground regarding the work she has done and the knowledge she has around issues regarding youth and crime.
Higgins really started to pick up steam with the question on transportation in general. Dehn stated that if we called our buses a "community circulator" then more people would ride them than if the buses were known just by their route numbers. If he's right, I certainly don't see that connection. He also said he did not know how to influence the Met Council to make them understand how important transit is to our community. Higgins, on the other hand, jumped right in and said we need to get a governor into office who DOES understand that, and who will then APPOINT Met Council people that truly serve NoMi.
I didn't see significant differences between the two on the Bottineau question. We need to ensure that the line comes through our neighborhood instead of bypassing us via Theo Wirth and 55.
Thanks, Dehn, for mentioning the work of NCRC in preventing foreclosures. I like Dehn's words about the issue of foreclosures, but I'm more impressed by Higgins' actions and accomplishments. While it seems to me Dehn has a good grasp on how our community is impacted, Higgins has a proven track record of accomplishing real change at the legislature.
Dehn's closing remarks...I find it off-putting when a candidate starts out with negatives like "If you want (bad thing #1) don't support me." Other than that, his remarks were strong and well-worded.
If there weren't rules about holding applause until the end, I'd have been clapping throughout much of Higgins' closing remarks. I think she's got a proven track record, connections that serve our neighborhood well, and she's a dedicated, hard worker on behalf of our district.
Ultimately, Dehn did as well as one could expect for a challenger in a first debate; he came in, held his own without any major flubs, and even won a round or two. Granted, my position has already been clearly stated, but I didn't get the sense that he made a strong case for why he deserves the job more or would be better than our current Senator. Dehn came off as likable and competent, and I think he would serve our community well. Right now, I only have one negative thing to say about him: he's running against someone who has been doing a fantastic job and who deserves the continued support of this community.
