Diane J. Peterson
White Bear Lake

U.S. doesn’t have to have two-party system
Your feature of Farheen Hakeem and Elizabeth Dickinson as candidates for the mayorality of Minneapolis and St. Paul, respectively, was gratifying. Given the general tendency of the “major” print and electronic media to marginalize alternative political programs, your giving attention is exceptional and appreciated.

The U.S. Constitution includes no reference to political parties, nor do there need to be only two always in contention. Lincoln became president in a three-way campaign. Theodore Roosevelt also was involved in a three-way major contest, among other historical events. The Women’s Party, Anti-Slavery Party and many others made significant contributions to the success ultimately of their movements. FDR in the 1930s instituted a number of programs that were already advanced by "alternative parties" - e.g. Social Security, Workman’s Compensation, anti-child-labor, the 40-hour work week, rights of unionization of workers and so on.

The Greens are part of the current German government and are significant political players in other countries as well.

Farheen Hakeem and Elizabeth Dickinson are able, committed, knowledgeable citizens who will enhance the metropolitan area. They will foster sustainable environments, support full gender equality, the rights of labor, respect for human diversity and favor nonviolent resolutions to domestic and international problems.

Don Irish
Minneapolis

Cover story unfair to Progressive Minnesota 
I was surprised and disappointed to read so much about Progressive Minnesota in the last cover story of Pulse. Apparently Assistant Managing Editor and writer Nancy Sartor didn’t feel the need to contact anyone from our organization before printing a number of unfounded criticisms from a candidate who sought but did not receive our endorsement.

Had Sartor bothered to contact anyone at PM she would have known that while Elizabeth Dickinson’s contention that she was only three votes away from blocking a PM endorsement of Chris Coleman is technically correct, it is incredibly misleading. Since a 60 percent vote from our members is needed for endorsement, Coleman was only two votes away from an even 2-1 majority on the first ballot at the largest screening in our organization’s history. This was an overwhelmingly clear statement from a large group of longtime PM members. Dickinson supporters may not like the result, but the process was fair, open and decisive.

Most frustrating, however, is the fact that Sartor literally spent twice as much ink questioning PM’s endorsement and Coleman’s progressive credentials as she did pointing out the real problem in Saint Paul: Randy Kelly. Kelly’s coziness with President Bush, Governor Pawlenty and the downtown business community has been disastrous for the city. His no-new-tax pledge has crippled core city services and he has actively opposed efforts to increase funding for schools.

Rather than take shots at other progressive organizations and candidates, we will continue to talk to voters about the need for change at City Hall. Maybe being dubbed “Pragmatic Minnesota” isn’t such an insult after all.
 
Ben Goldfarb
Executive Director
Progressive Minnesota

Nancy Sartor responds:
Ideologically, Randy Kelly is farther apart from Dickinson and Coleman than they are from each other. If more ink was given to comparing the latter two candidates, it was to illustrate the differences between the self-proclaimed progressives.