Until this year, I did not think much of parades and I learned differently. Parades are especially important when name recognition is an issue. The Sheriff's race is non-partisan so there is not even a party label on the ballot to help build support. Parades also build community, it is an easy way for community leaders to reach out and connect with community members. Add literature, stickers and good presentation to a parade, and it is the best political outreach.
The Matt Bostrom for Sheriff campaign outreach in parades was extraordinary! First of all, the candidate, Matt Bostrom, is amazing. Matt is obviously in great physical shape, so he greets everyone that he can, going from side to side, sometimes running to catch up. Matt Bostrom has great charisma because he really cares about people and it shows. Then we have a team of happy smiling folks handing out literature, handing out stickers and handing out candy. One person is constantly introducing Matt and leading the "Say hello to Matt - Hello Matt" shout-out. With everyone in the emblazoned black and gold shirts, some just carrying signs, it is quite a crowd. An antique police car leads the parade group, occasionally announcing its presence with a siren. Sometimes the antique car needs to "rest" a few minutes, and to the great amusement of the crowd, a half dozen Bostrom people push the car. Can you tell that we are having great fun? This is a group enjoying each other on a social occasion that happens to also be political. At the end of the parade, we share the best Vote-Matt-Bostrom stories from the event, and sometimes surprising stories. Like we had a great response from the Vadnais Heights parade and Vadnais Heights is where our opponent Bob Fletcher lives. That caused me to start using the phrases, "To know Matt Bostrom, is to like him! To know Bob Fletcher is to NOT like him!".
While I have worked at the highest level of our party, across many campaigns for both issues and candidates, this is the first time that I have contributed all of my volunteer efforts for one candidate - Matt Bostrom for Sheriff. My colleagues have urged me to give you an inside look at what that kind of volunteering is like.
In this volunteering, the most important feeling comes from this campaign being a most important cause - a cause worthy of dedicated volunteer effort. Matt Bostrom is that type of candidate. We needed a candidate with a great record that the opponent would have no traction on attacking. Matt Bostrom has 28 years of experience with the St Paul police in multiple leadership roles, with great projects and great awards. For example, Matt Bostrom won the 2009 Preparedness Award by the Association of Minnesota Emergency Responders his organizational skills and demonstrated fiscal responsibility. In addition to being a great police officer, Matt Bostrom has great speaking skills and the ability to talk to everyone. And most importantly for me as a progressive, Matt Bostrom has great character and integrity.
In high contrast, our incumbent opponent Bob Fletcher has over 16 years of experience, with a record that should remove anyone from office, which I summarized from news sources. Bob Fetcher's pet project, the Metro Gang Force, that he touted on his campaign for years, was so bad that it was disbanded. His management of the jail is so bad that a young person died from not receiving insulin medication when the mother had personally brought the medicine to the jail and explained how important it was. Bob Fletcher sued the county government so he would have the privilege of over spending his budget as much as he wants, which he does. But the whole truth is worse, much worse. As a known citizen journalist, people come to tell me stories about Bob Fletcher that they are not willing to go public with - just so someone knows. What is publicly published is only the tip of the iceberg. There is huge dam of information waiting to break. This knowledge makes this campaign, a peace and justice mission of the highest importance. We should have never allowed this to happen here in Ramsey county. So everyone on this campaign has this sense of an important mission.
The reason that Bob Fletcher is able to get away with so much is that the sheriff is a low visibility office, which the media ignores. In fact, Bob has cultivated the media with favors so his press releases are not critically examined. Those press releases are frequently re-published as news articles. This year, news staffs are cut so deeply that only the governor's race is getting coverage. So the only people who really know about Bob Fletcher's record are active in local government and local politics or follow local politics closely. And in this case, the incumbent is so bad, that it has motivated people from both parties, DFL and GOP, to work together. It has attracted people who do not care about any other campaign or any other politics, over 120 endorsements so far. We have dedicated peace advocates working with dedicated gun-carry advocates. Never before have I seen such a diversity of political causes and views on one campaign.
Now for the best part, after the fold are some personal stories based on the diversity of the campaign.
More readers have been emailing me with pictures of lawn signs planted by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher's campaign on vacant property. Once again, as far as I know you can only plant signs if you have the consent of the owner. Furthermore and once more as far as I know, banks and businesses cannot host lawn signs on their properties.
Keep the evidence coming ... eric at mnprogressiveproject dot com.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, aka Gestapo Bob, is flaunting election laws. He is placing lawn signs throughout Ramsey County on vacant properties. Reports have been trickling in, but now the evidence is mounting. If you see a Fletcher lawn sign on an foreclosed, abandoned or vacant property, please take a picture and email me the picture along with the address at eric at mnprogressiveproject dot com.
This photo was taken by a reader at W. 7th St. and Dousman (400 block of W. 7th).
[please see end of diary for Bob Fletcher's response]
[and now, see also link to a flickr page with some pictures I just snapped]
St. Paul's East Side has been plastered with obnoxious colored yardsigns for everyone's favorite sheriff, Bob Fletcher.
I happened to be driving down East 3rd St. (which becomes Kellogg Blvd. once one crosses the bridge out of Dayton's Bluff and into Lowertown) on the day that the Sheriff's goons, I mean, campaign volunteers, were putting up signs.
I noticed later that signs had appeared in the yards of many registered vacant houses. For those who aren't familiar with this term, registered vacant houses are houses which are empty and registered as such with the city (presumably to keep out squatters). Many of them are foreclosures. In order to legally place a sign on one of these properties, one would have to contact the owner of the property (in many cases, a bank) and get permission.
When you see 6 or 7 such houses in a single block, all of which have Fletcher signs, you start to wonder. Especially when the signs were all put up systematically on the same day. Did they really get permission from all of those owners? It seems unlikely.
As I am talking to folks across Ramsey county, I surprised to hear Republicans splitting themselves into two groups: Roosevelt Republicans vs Tea Party Republicans. The Roosevelt Republicans are Republican brand loyal from the days of President Roosevelt, yet they feel alienated from the current Republican party. Both groups are calling each other not-real Republicans.
Roosevelt Republicans like less taxes and yet are winning to raise taxes if the cause is worthy enough. Roosevelt Republicans like balanced budgets, government that actually works and would rather stay out of social issues.
Tea Party Republicans think think that taxes are forbidden unless one is building a stadium. They think that government should disappear except for enforcing social issues as long as the social issues are only considered from only their perspective.
The point here is that if someone gave the Roosevelt Republicans some visibility and if a leader appeared, then Republican party will probably go to full out war. Emmer is clearly a Tea Party candidate. Is the independent Tom Horner a candidate for the Roosevelt Republicans? Can Tom Horner be that leader?
The split is there. Can Democrats craft persuasions that will appeal to Roosevelt Republicans? Can we identify and track them? Here is an opportunity for better government in Minnesota, if we can find a way to build bridges to connect with Roosevelt Republicans to win elections.
Today, the new St Paul Chief Thomas Smith is announced by Mayor Chris Coleman. The city council still has to approve this choice. Thomas Smith was picked from four very strong Internal candidates. The finalists for the chief job were: Commander Todd Axtell, a watch commander; Senior Commander Colleen Luna, head of the Western District; Senior Commander Bill Martinez, head of the Eastern District; and Assistant Chief Thomas Smith, who is in charge of operations. One of the other Assistant Chiefs, Matt Bostrom is currently running for the elected office of Sheriff of Ramsey County. The St Paul police is known for its culture of community policing, where the St Paul police partners with the community to solve problems. Though community policing, and through emphasis on character and integrity, St Paul police has gained strong respect and trust from the community.
And the outgoing chief, John Harrington, is one of three finalists to be the police chief in New Orleans. That final decision isn't expected soon. Normally, St Paul police do not move to other departments, so this may be the beginning of a new trend.
More videos will become available throughout the day.
The foreshadowings of troubles-to-come happen when I show up to my committee, candidate information, which this time has about 12 members. The normal numbers are about 4. The rules committee is bursting as well. The nominations committee is fine. Yet there are arrangements and credentials with only 2 or 3 people. I resolve to join credentials after my committee meeting.
I came prepared to my candidate informational committee with a proposal, with many questions so people could make choices and still could be time efficient. Since I was prepared and obviously willing do even more work, the committee made me the chair. Speed was not going to happen, for every candidate had representatives there. By keeping the questions focussed on the job not the candidate, we reached agreements. We even came up with standard set of oral questions, including a surprise scenario question that informed, impressed and entertained the 4th CD/Ramsey County audiences. By the time my committee had finished its first meeting, everyone else was gone.
Every committee had a ton of work, yet I think my committee mostly had fun. And we were successful. We successful even though one candidate choose to not turn in proper questions and answers, turning us into an excuse. When committees are successful, then volunteers come back. Those committees without enough members probably need process fixes and probably lack sufficient expertise. The low membership means more stress and workload,
There's more after the fold on the credentials woes of this last Ramsey county convention.
At the Ramsey county level, we have an endorsed candidate for sheriff, Matt Bostrom, and an endorsed candidate for county attorney, John Choi, who will work very closely together to provide world-class public safety and justice. Both the Sheriff's department and the County Attorney's office are actually high level management positions of hundreds of employees and huge multi-million dollar budgets. Both won awards for great management. John Choi has the Joseph I. Mulligan Jr. Distinguished Public Service Award. Matt Bostrom has the 2009 Preparedness Award by the Association of Minnesota Emergency Responders. Yet what really impresses me, is that both are well liked by employees, by associates and by even their bosses. St Paul Chief John Harrington has endorsed Matt Bostrom and Mayor Chris Coleman has endorsed John Choi. The wealth of endorsements is also a measure of their involvement with the community. Both have strong fiscal responsibility. Both are strong innovators. Both are known for economic justice. Both are known for defending civil rights under great pressure. Both are strong advocates for working with the community to solve problems. And they are also great campaigners and speakers as these videos from the endorsing convention show:
(Some good points here....the weird almost-convergence between a CD convention and a county convention makes for an ugly situation....
Hoping for a full roundup of today's results tomorrow. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
One of the first things I must comment on, and this is NOT the first time, but the CD4 and Ramsey County DFL Organizations MUST DO AWAY WITH THE ASSININE DOUBLE DELEGATE SYSTEM!!!! It leads to much confusion and delegate/alternate seating problems. Or they need to clear up the rules so that when subcaucuses ELECT their delegates and alternates there are no problems. I spent at least an hour and a half of the morning trying to straighten out the f'd up system and get our delegation properly seated (thank goodness I had photocopies of everything from our Senate District convention!!!), so I missed some of the speeches from gubernatorial candidates. Anyhow, here are some things that went on....
In the latest of many endorsements, the DFL Veterans Caucus has endorsed Matt Bostrom for Ramsey County Sheriff. Matt Bostrom also has the endorsements of 36 Ramsey County elected officials, 18 law enforcement endorsements, 6 labor endorsements as well as many individual endorsements. Matt Bostrom champions the St Paul Police style of community policing, where law enforcement works with the community to resolve community problems.
The Veterans caucus is particularly concerned with law enforcement because veterans can go into a mental health crisis from traumatic stress or simply encounter law enforcement because a higher proportion of veterans are homeless. So it is particularly important that all law enforcement, including Sheriffs' departments are trained in identification and handling of veterans.
"Matt Bostrom is committed to training line officers to recognize and identify someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis and ensuring that anyone who has served in the military is identified and connected with appropriate services" said Trista Matascastillo, military veteran and Chair of the DFL Veterans Caucus. "This includes mental and physical health services, shelter and chemical dependency services."
Ten Ramsey County deputies are in this picture, waiting a least half hour before a hearing on Sheriff Fletchers Gangnet Database. There are more off camera, since I could not capture them all in one shot. Sheriff Fletcher is standing in the hall, so he has to know and approve of all of these deputies being here. So that raises some very important ethical problems and budget problems!
So if all these deputies were ordered here on the clock, then that explains Sheriff Fletcher constant over budget problems and lack of ability to maintain good Gangnet data. Hmmm, Sheriff time used to fill a political room, a really bad waste of taxpaper money!
And if the deputies are here on their own time, then why are they wearing uniforms? When I asked the deputies if they were on duty, most would not answer. One deputy finally said that he was on vacation. Yet all the deputies were in uniforms, doesn't the use of uniforms on off duty time have to be directly approved? Did Fletcher approve of the use of uniforms for a very political activity? That would be a high contrast policy in comparison to other professional police organizations. Also, how can the department afford to have more than ten officers on vacation at the same time?
Halfway through convention season, the Ramsey County Attorney race is starting to take shape - and John Choi's message is resonating with DFL delegates. With a little over 180 possible delegates identified, DFLers are over halfway to selecting the 304 delegates that will endorse for county attorney. While the endorsement battle for the governor's office has not resulted in a clear-cut leader, John has established himself as the frontrunner in the race.
At this point in the race, two key indicators are strongly in Choi's favor -- the numbers of "named" delegates and "superdelegates." While they each make up a fraction of all delegates, both categories demonstrate the general support a candidate has at a convention. Currently, John has earned 30 named delegates, compared to 6 for all of his opponents combined, and he holds a 12 to 2 advantage in the superdelegate count.
John's leadership has attracted a team of long-time DFL activists and lawyers who have earned a reputation for highly-organized, well-run efforts. Heading into this weekend, John and his team show no signs of slowing down. For more on John's experience and innovative leadership, visit www.votejohnchoi.com.
The Star Tribune reports that Patrick Uzalac, the gentleman suing Sheriff Fetcher for lack of medical treatment on frozen feet, has now died. It will take an autopsy to determine cause. If there is cause from the jail treatment, then we will have yet another wrongful death case.
Even more telling, is that more and more cases of lack of medical treatment are coming forward. This is also confirmed by the anonymous notes that I have been receiving:
"What has emerged is a pattern of, I don't think neglect, but almost to the point of affirmative abuse," Hajek said. "One guy fell off a cot and broke his heal. He went without medical care for two to three months ... now he's disabled. Another guy, he had broken stitches from an appendectomy and they didn't treat him."
Hajek said he expects to file additional lawsuits.
What the Star Tribune is failing to say, let me say very clearly. This is a widespread pattern of mis-management that displays that Sheriff Fletcher ought to retire to Florida immediately. This is a peace and justice issue of the highest urgency! Only the voters of Ramsey county can manage to force Sheriff Fletcher's retirement. Fortunately, a number of us have been able to persuade a current St Paul Assistant Chief Matt Bostrom to take on the challenge. Matt Bostrom is the opposite of Sheriff Fletcher is in every way: professional, capable, calm and reliable!
At the Ramsey county sheriff's office, Sheriff Fletcher rules everything by personal command, so anything that is not standard procedure has to go through Sheriff Fletcher. It gets worse: the standard procedures and processes do not cover much. In fact, the processes and procedures have rarely been revised. Now since I wrote this, I do expect Sheriff Fletcher to do a last minute election revision. Rarely does any government get as badly broken as Sheriff Fletcher's jail. Innocent people now have to fear Sheriff Fletcher's jail, as Patrick Uzalac found out.
After locking himself out of his apartment in the pre-dawn hours of a bitter January day, Patrick Uzalac started tossing snowballs at his neighbors' windows for help.
Somebody called the cops.
What followed, according to Uzalac, was 42 hours of suffering with red, frostbitten feet as his pleas for help fell on the deaf ears of New Brighton police and then Ramsey County jailers...
At the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, Uzalac said he again complained about his painful and, now blistered, feet. Jail staff ignored him, he said, and placed him in a cell.
(Star Tribune Article by James Walsh)
This follows a long history of medical help failures even leading to death and a long history of courts assigning damages to be paid out by Sheriff Fletcher. More details and new information below the fold.
In the latest of many endorsements, the DFL Veterans Caucus has endorsed Matt Bostrom for Ramsey County Sheriff. Matt Bostrom also has the endorsements of 36 Ramsey County elected officials, 18 law enforcement endorsements, 6 labor endorsements as well as many individual endorsements. Matt Bostrom champions the St Paul Police style of community policing, where law enforcement works with the community to resolve community problems.
