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In response to Annette Meeks' piece "Get rid of Minnesota's precinct caucuses, go to primary elections up and down the ballot" on April 24, and former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak's "We needn't be bound by caucuses" published on May 1, I'd like to offer not a rebuttal, but a "yes, and."
Meeks and Rybak are right about the partisanship that is perpetrated at the local caucus gatherings. They are right about the small number of people who are granted outsized influence in the power to decide which candidates appear on ballots.
Want to know the great thing about their being right? The power to shape the ballot, to influence who gets to run and who doesn't, lies entirely in your hands. Voters and candidates don't need to wait for political parties to change their processes. And voters can deploy that power right now, in this election year.
Endorsements achieve the goal of narrowing the number of names on the primary ballot only if other candidates abide by the endorsement decision and stop running.
One of the reasons endorsement conventions are held early in the year is to discourage a lot of candidates from running in the primary. The people who participate in the endorsement decisions, including and especially candidates, have a personal stake in that being the case.
But every candidate has the option to keep running even if they didn't get the endorsement. There's no legal obligation holding them back. Abiding by an endorsement is a part of the political tradition, not an ironclad rule.
As Rybak experienced, it used to be that candidates could get in trouble with party activists for not abiding. Saying you'd continue to a primary was almost an automatic way to shoot your endorsement hopes in the foot.
Potential candidates aren't just limited to those who participate in the early endorsement process, either. It's a myth that anyone launching a campaign after the endorsement races are over is "too late." But in fact, it's totally possible to start a campaign by filing — even on the last day — and there are multiple examples of candidates who took this route and won.
If you don't like the choices you currently have to pick from among the declared candidates in your district, you can do something about that. Right now — encourage the best person you know to run for office. If a candidate wants to run under a major-party banner, they pay their fee and file. If they want to run as a minor-party member or as an independent, the filing process involves getting signatures. The filing period for the primary election period is coming up soon — May 21 until June 4 at 5 p.m. (Interested? More information about becoming a candidate can be found on the secretary of state's website.)
In Minnesota, to vote in the primary you don't have to attend a meeting or debate with your neighbors. There is no prerequisite of party affiliation because there's only one ballot. (This is slightly different from the presidential preference primary in March — that contest had a couple of extra rules and separate ballots that the August primary doesn't have.) Just walk in, cast your vote and walk out. It's as simple as that.
While some argue that primaries are inconveniently scheduled in August, a time of year when many Minnesotans are preoccupied, remember this: Decisions are made by those who show up. And there's really no "slow" time in our lives anymore. Making a plan to vote in the primary isn't just participating in democracy — it's helping to shape it.
If you're afraid you're not going to like your choices in November, then it's even more important to vote in the primary.
Parties don't have to change, and Minnesotans don't need to wait for the Legislature to act. Voters and candidates have the power to make the current system irrelevant, and they can do it right now.
Shannon Watson, of Minneapolis, is founder and executive director of Majority in the Middle.
