DFLer Mark Dayton’s bid for governor was endorsed Sunday by TakeAction Minnesota, no big surprise since the group exists to help elect progressive candidates and neither Republican Tom Emmer or Independence Party candidate Tom Horner fit that bill.
More than 200 of the group’s members showed up and gave Dayton the endorsement on the first ballot.
TakeAction Minnesota is the parent organization of reNew.mn, the group that was deeply involved in the DFL convention held in Duluth at the end of April. About 150 reNew.mn members went through the caucus process and were elected to be convention delegates, promising to work together to select a DFL candidate that shared their progressive vision.
Before Duluth, they’d narrowed their ideal field to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, Rep. Paul Thissen and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and vowed as a group to support one of them at the convention when the going got tough.
The convention, though, moved more quickly than anticipated in selecting Kelliher, and most of the drama was over by the time reNew.mn had a chance to become the king-maker.
Sunday’s TakeAction Minnesota meeting also produced endorsements for 11 state legislative candidates:
- Kevin Dahle (SD25, Northfield);
- Paul Meunier (SD49, Ham Lake)
- Becky Siekmeier (SD52,Mahtomedi)
- Sandy Rummel (SD53, Shoreview)
- Mike Obermueller (HD 38B, Eagan)
- Kevin Staunton (HD 41A, Edina)
- Paul Rosenthal (HD 41B, Edina)
- Paul Gardner (HD 53A,Lino Lakes)
- Kate Knuth (HD 50B, New Brighton)
- Sharon Erickson Ropes (SD31, Winona)
- Gail Kulick-Jackson (HD16A, Milaca)
“Take Action” is the Dayton family “doing business as”…who the heck did you expect them to endorse?
TakeAction is about more than elections. It exists to bring more people/groups into the democratic process, to educate and organize (and develop organizers), to foster acceptance of those different from oneself, to learn to analyze public policy, to support progressive solutions to problems that affect us all — and I’m sure much much more.