Screening and Endorsement Committee

Chair: Jeff Johnson Endorsement Process Panel My name is Jeff Johnson. I am a retired Army guy who is currently serving as a Director at large to the DFL Veterans Caucus. Currently, I am looking for Veterans Caucus members who wish to serve on five panels. There is no limit to the number of members that can serve on these panels but I am hoping that at least 10 members will be found for each. Moreover, I want to emphasize that it is possible to use phone conferencing as a means of supporting the involvement of our out-state members. The Endorsement Process Panel is intended to explore methods, processes, procedures, and to make recommendations to the executive board regarding the manner by which the DFL Veterans Caucus endorses candidates for: Federal offices, state-wide offices, individual seats in the Minnesota Legislature, and local offices. This panel is expected to meet on several occasions between early February and late May. The panel is expected to interview current office holders, senior officials and staffers of the DFL party and its constituent caucuses, legislative staffers at any level, as well as any other interested party members that can bring constructive advice and information that can be reasonably acted upon. I wish to emphasize that this panel may likely expand to several sub-committees to look at specific issues. Moreover, it is my hope that some of these sub-committees can meet and be conducted in out-state / non-metro area locations. It may be wise to meet as a committee of the whole on the same weekend(s) that the State Central Committee meets so that we can interview its members as take care of our business at the same time; and, hopefully, in the same facility, should the DFL Party be able to support us in this manner. One of the issues I hope this panel can resolve is how to deal with a constitutional / By-Law restriction as a constituent caucus of the DFL Party that requires us to either endorse the Party's endorse candidate or make no endorsement at all. Personally, I have no problem with this, but I think that the Veterans Caucus could state that it has a "preferred" candidate up to the time of the "official" Party endorsement. It is noteworthy that the executive board encouraged caucus members from the Third Congressional District to organize and endorse local candidates in last fall's election. It is my hope that several of those caucus members will serve on this committee and share with us their experiences. I will be glad to receive e-mail responses up to and including 20 February and will begin contacting interested members shortly after that. Please reply regarding your interest in serving on this panel to: DFLMajorJeff@comcast.net DFL Major Jeff Director DFL Veterans Caucus Executive Board