Caucus: Independents, Greens embrace the moment

By Robb Murray The Free Press

MANKATO — In a building where it’s not uncommon to see people jumping for joy over a perfectly bowled strike, or where kids routinely have the time of their lives darting around barriers in an intense game of laser tag, the goings on in that room down the hall may have seemed a little, well, tame.

That was the Independence Party in that room, and like the folks at the state’s other major parties, the 21 in attendance at the Wow! Zone Family Entertainment Center were having their caucus.

“It’s now in your hands to shape not only the Independence Party, but the political landscape in Minnesota,” said Mark Meyer, chair of the caucus, moments before the vote. “Our time is now.”

In a straw poll taken to see where party faithful were leaning in the race for governor, former political analyst and public relations executive Tom Horner pulled in six votes while businessman Rob Hahn and military officer Joe Repya tied for second place with five votes. Four people voted “no preference” while one person wrote in Tim Penny, who was in the room for the caucus meeting.

Those present wanted very much to disassociate themselves from the two major parties. Several addressed the group to express frustration with a process that has broken down.

“They created the initial mess eight years ago,” said Penny, referring to the state’s budget crisis. “Now it’s grown twice as large. That’s what you get with the other parties.”

In some ways the party is still working to create an identity.

Paul Kranz, a student at Minnesota State University, volunteered to be the local Independence Party treasurer. And at one point, when Meyer said the party is “fiscally conservative,” he questioned what the party’s version of fiscal conservatism consisted of.

Several attendees said the party is strong on telling the truth when it comes to the state budget, and looks down upon what they called budgetary “gimmicks” to get the books to balance.

Gordon Kuznia, who at one time ran for a seat on the Blue Earth County Board, said he was there to check things out.

“I’m a very conservative person and I don’t even know if I fit in here,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I came tonight; to find out what it’s all about.”

Across town at the Green Party caucus, held at the Lincoln Community Center, the straw poll winner was Democrat John Marty with five votes. Pete Roess pulled in two votes. Six people, however, said they were undecided. One person voted for “none of the above.”

The caucus, run with a relatively rigid adherence to Robert’s Rules of Order, was a mixture of faces familiar to Green Party activity — such as Richard Reisdorf, Tom Marks and Katy Wortel — and a healthy contingent of fresh faces.

Among the fresh faces was Annie Oman, a senior at MSU who has recently formed a student group on campus called PPE. It is made up of philosophy, political science and economics majors.

She said her group sent representatives to all area caucuses Tuesday.

So, how’d she end up with the Greens?

“Truthfully?” she said, smiling. “No one signed up for this one.”

Even though she’s not a registered member of the Green Party, she said that, if she had to choose, she probably would have caucused with the Green Party anyway.

“It was a very fulfilling experience,” she said.

The party also discussed changes or “tweaks” to the 2010 party platform it hopes to suggest to state Green Party officials.

Fourteen people attended the caucus.

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