Thoughts about the MN Independence Party

One of the oldest questions asked by ancient philosophers is the casualty dilemma, “what comes first the chicken or the egg?” Metaphorically the ancient philosophers were discussing life with that question but as we look towards the future of the Independence Party of Minnesota we have a similar problem. What comes first the Money or the Structure?

The infrastructure of the Party is dependent on Money but without the infrastructure can the IP raise the money? It is another casualty dilemma that will be plaguing the Party Leadership as the year progress and the Party begins to prepare for the 2012 election cycle.

The IP cannot hope for success without building the party infrastructure. The infrastructure the party needs is branding itself as being different than both parties, keeping people active in the party, the ability to organize volunteers, and the ability to raise money.

As William Labovitch in his letter to the Editor of the Star Tribune writes “It's time the Independence Party stops running candidates and runs on the only message it ever had: None of the above.” The problem of course is that is nowhere near the truth. Anyone who watched the Tom Horner’s campaign saw the message “No Left, No Right, but Forward” to borrow Peter Hutchinson’s campaign slogan. Horner proposed many vastly different solutions than either of the other candidates and spent hours explaining the difference but if the common Joe only knows or hears “None of the above” than there is a branding issue that needs to be addressed.

As Tom Horner suggests in his editorial to the Star Tribune:

the political center needs to be branded. Accurately or not, Minnesotans define the political left as the defenders of social justice, where the interests of Everyday Joe or Jane take priority over Wall Street. If this requires bigger government, so be it. On the political right, Minnesotans see a party perceived to be for business and smaller government. The right is seen as the home of "traditional values."
As for the political center, for too many Minnesotans there is no definition. It's a political mash-up, a bit of this and a bit of that without any clarity and, worse, without any core principles. There needs to be a clear and compelling answer to the question, "What does it mean to be a political centrist?"

Of course as a former Moderate Republican, I instinctly know what the center of the political spectrum, but how do I explain and “sell” that knowledge to another potential voter. Maybe the new motto should be “the best of both worlds; working to improve the life of the common Joe by partnering with the Business.”
“Best of Both Worlds” needs to be a starting point a simple rallying point for the political center and it needs to be expressed in a platform and plank. If the platform of the Party continues to be centered on the Party and not political spectrum than the slogan is lost.
The current first item of the core values of the IP reads “A democratic process with integrity and broad citizen participation” I would suggest it should be rewritten “Empowering and Engaging citizens to be involved in the democratic process with integrity and tolerant ideals.” Well that is my first attempt at that sentence, but while they mean virtually the same thing the second sentence is more appealing and attractive to the casual voter.
This concept needs to be heard by more than those in just the Party and sooner than the next election, and that’s what the Party Leadership needs to do, speak out. MPR, morning news shows, letters to the editors, speaking engagements,

The next issue is one that I have complained about for years, the inability to keep people involved with the party after the election. I’ll be honest I am no different than your average Joe, none election season and I hardly write or post anything, however once the election season starts. For the party to grow and bloom that needs to change. Where are people like John Binkowski, Jim Haviland, Peter Hutchinson, Tim Penny. A few of us know that some of these people are still involved but the IP needs to better engage these former candidates and get them involved in preparing, recruiting, and fund raising for the party and it next generation of candidates.
But it goes beyond the former candidates (and their staffs) but to the general volunteers and those that provided financial support for the process. These people are just as important to the party, especially moving forward. Horner has called these people the Grassroots of the party. It could be something as small as a $50 donation to the party or attending a political rally or fundraiser. All of this is important as the party moves forward.
One of the problems with the IP and many geographically dispersed groups’ is that the call for action is both local and regional in nature and that requests sent to everyone become toned out because there are so many. I can’t tell you how often over the past year I saw requests for “volunteers” in places well beyond my general vicinity. In the end all these requests became no better than spam. The IP needs a better system of ‘spearing’ or getting the people closest to the event notified and leaving those further away off the list. Even if it means losing one or two people from across the state if the requests seem more local more people should want to involved. You live in SW Minnesota than you should hear about the events in the South West Minnesota, not the NE or the NW or… Stay Local.
This also needs to include expanding the “get togethers” and the what not. The next time that the IP gets together shouldn’t be the caucus in spring. We need to start now to empower more people.

Finally the party needs a better fundraising apparatus. It needs to allow people to contribute on different scales and means than the current system. The average donation is like $45 a year per individual and if the IP wants to move forward than it needs to get that amount from the core group and next orbit of people. Simple math if 100,000 people donate $45 a year than the IP has raised $4.5 million dollars, considering that amount is nothing compared to what the big two parties raise it is more than enough to be competitive in 2012.

Well I am going to start with my opinion that the IP of Minnesota continue as a political party. There has already been much discussion about whether or not a 527 Organization would be a better fit for the existing IP. A 527 is a tax exempt organization created primarily to influence nominations, elections, or defeat of political candidates for office.

Moving to a 527 would free the IP from recruiting, fund raising, and doing many things that Political Parties do while giving them a free hand at looking at which candidates would be the best or most moderate view.

The first and most important problem/issue I see with this “whom is the party going to support?” As the Republicans party continues to move to the right and the DFL/Democratic party continues it weeblo wobbling about how far left the party can go, where will the moderate or middle of the road candidates come from.

I had a Political Science teacher use the example of teeter-totter to explain American Politics, on the Right you have the Republicans and on the left the Democrats and everyone else needs to decide which side of the fulcrum they need to sit on. That example probably worked fairly well in the 70’s and 80’s as a majority of the population considered themselves either Democrats or Republicans and parties boasted numbers in the 40% range. As parties increased in size the more left and right leaning aspects of the parties learned that they could gain much in being active early. Today those numbers that indicate the size of the parties has decreased to closer to 25% and even a smaller portion of the party is active.

Tom Horner was asked why he didn’t run as a moderate Republican in the Primary, but the answer is simple. As a man who was Republican for 25 years the party had moved and changed so much he was no longer a Republican in the current sense of the word. "They own the brand and as such the right to define what a Republican is." To paraphrase Tom Horner.

As the Democratic and Republican Party has moved over the years they have of coursed assimilated other parties that were to the left and right of their positions. In both cases it can be argued that what they assimilated became the dominant aspect of the party.

This of course leaves a very large hole in the middle of the political spectrum. If there is no Independence Party than there will be no candidates with anything that resembles a viable chance of succeeding as such no one to endorse or support.

That doesn’t mean however that a 527 is a bad idea, and I would hope that at least one such group is created to help work the middle of politics rather than the fringes that we in today’s political landscape.

As I write, rant, blog, white board, brainstorm, and even publish my thoughts on the future of the Independence Party in Minnesota I will be the first person to tell you that my thoughts are not complete, are not finalized, and will be changing from today going forward as start putting them down on paper (in the blog). So what I say today could change by tomorrow, or next week, or three weeks from now, or…
I know that there are a small number of readers to this blog and it is my hope these thoughts help you formulate your own ideas, help you express your ideas, and hopefully provide a forum for others with similar inklings to maybe help me define my thoughts.

Before you can say this is what the Independence Party of Minnesota must do, you have to see if it has been tried before and whether or not it was successful. I forget who said this originally, but as a History Major I whole heartedly concur. When you look to the future you must understand the past for failure to do so creates a mandate that past mistakes will with all certainty be repeated.

After the humbling defeat in the 2010 Governor’s election much has been made on the future of the IP, should it continue as a party, should it become an 527 Political Entity, should it not endorse a candidate for 2012 Senator’s race, should it… The list of questions goes on and on and on. Makes one wonder if the DFL in Minnesota and Democrats nationally are asking the similar questions after the beating there party took at the polls.

Not to be missed in the MinnPost

While it has consistently retained its “major party status” on the strength of gaining at least 5 percent of voters in a statewide race — and while IP
candidate Jesse Ventura won the governorship in 1998 with 38 percent of the vote
— can the IP burst out of its tiny silo?

A very important question that been asked and reasked over the years.

However most article stop at that point, Jay Weiner instead takes us into the issues that are facing the IP.

But the party apparatus and treasury has barely grown, with Uldrich allowing that there are today about 5,000 Minnesotans who consider themselves IPers, with about 500 statewide activists.

Jay even focused on the Legislative Races

While the IP ran an extensive slate of candidates, even those that Uldrich and other party faithful thought might do well in legislative races, didn’t. The IP ran seven state Senate candidates and 10 House candidates. Of those 27 challengers, two scored higher percentages in their races than Horner did in his. The rest were in single digits.

“It needs to be more focused," Carlson said of the IP.

All in all an extremely well and though provoking article.