Right now, the D in DFL stands for debt
The party needs a $5,000 contribution just to meet this week's payroll. Competition among political campaigns, internal party disillusionment and extra staffing are complicating budgeting. State Republicans, meanwhile, have off-year fundraising troubles, too.
By Doug Grow
Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007
The DFL, which always has presented itself as the political party of the little guy, should have more empathy than ever for all of those Minnesotans living check to check.
A year before a huge election, the party is in debt. Meeting its own payroll has become a week-to-week, white-knuckle ride. One of its big fundraising events of the year lost $48,000. And to complicate matters, a major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), is on the verge of leaving an important DFL campaign committee.
DFL party problems go deeper than finances and debt
There were no signs of unrest. No hard questions about the red-ink budget.
When the DFL Central Committee, a vast body of activists who run the party, met Saturday at Prior Lake High School, good feelings filled the air about financial and electoral successes that surely are just around the corner. Even when the party's chairman Brian Melendez said the party may not be out of debt until January, no one blinked.
All the good will inside the building almost covered the fact that there seem to be structural fissures in the party that could affect its campaign effectiveness next year. Some large bodies of the labor movement are "re-evaluating" their relationships with the DFL.
In both words and actions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the union showing the most unrest. But the AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization of unions representing 300,000 Minnesotans, also is cautiously expressing concerns about DFL leadership.
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Take heart conservatives. I have a hunch the real cause of low contributions to the DFL has been misdiagnosed. Just maybe the high tax load the DFL always throws on taxpayers is affecting DFL donors! Maybe there isn’t enough moolah to go around. This is probably the case even though DFLers are frustrated that they could not get a $4 billion tax increase passed the conservatives and Gov. Pawlenty in the last legislative session. If they had won, then they would really be in a pickle for donations!
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