For those tracking coverage of Maplewood in the metro media, there were a couple of new examples yesterday.

In the new media realm, the Minnesota Independent followed up on their story from last week with a new article featuring more comment from the candidates. Mr. Llanas, target of the hate literature, says that he "wants to keep the campaign positive" and believes "residents ... are fed up with this type of political nonsense." On the other hand, write-in opponent DelRay Rokke speculates that Llanas "figures if he can get the vast majority of members of those groups [gays and Hispanics] ... he has a good chance to win." As for the flyer itself, Rokke doesn't understand what's the big deal, calling it "quite a stretch to say that it is racist and homophobic."

Dave Hafner told the Minnesota Independent that his campaign committee did not distribute the flyers -- but added that he does not actually have a campaign committee. That seems to leave open the possibility that he answered the literal question asked while evading its substance. Compounding his earlier praise of anonymous pamphleteers ("Cowards? These people obviously are quite the opposite" he wrote in comments on the previous story), Hafner commented, "I wouldn’t identify myself either if I didn’t have to."

The story concludes by reviewing the altercation between Hafner and a neighbor that resulted in a 911 call. It may be worth mentioning that Hafner later called the police on his neighbor in turn, for allegedly "staring at me from his steps" and making "a comment which was inaudible, however I think it was directed at me."

Local radio station KSTP-AM also picked up on the Maplewood story. While praising Llanas for keeping positive and focused on the issues in spite of the deplorable personal attacks, hosts Prebil and Murphy lamented the vicious mudslinging that so often characterizes local elections and discourages potential candidates from serving their communities. You can find the audio on the KSTP website, in the archived podcast MP3 of hour 4 of their October 27th episode; the conversation was between 12:38 and 12:44 PM. (Hat tip to K.R.)

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, media

Posted by John Nephew at 10/28/2009 01:35:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

This past weekend, the Hafner campaign was putting flyers in the Gladstone neighborhood. While the weekend before the flyers in Parkside appeared on mailboxes with anonymous attacks on Jim Llanas (attached with pieces of identical blue tape), in Gladstone a new leaflet accompanied the Hafner material. This one claims to be from Dave Hafner -- it is written in the first person and ends with "Thanks, Dave," and has the almost the same text as the first comment attributed to Dave Hafner on the Minnesota Independent story.

I obtained a copy of the flyer and scanned it. As you can see, Mr. Hafner goes to some length to deny being "racist, sexist, or homophobic." He explains that he has lived in "three of the top four hotbeds for the gay lifestyle in the United States," and has Asian-American neighbors who are the "quietest, most respectful people I know." He writes that besides being respectful (something Dave seems to really appreciate in minorities), Hispanics "are predominantly Christian and I like that too."

One notable difference between the printed flyer and the comment in MnIndy: The last line, "You want honesty, that is all you will get from the entire SMART team," is not in his website comment. Maybe he realized it would sound hollow alongside the revelation from the site's moderators that he had been attempting to post multiple times under different assumed names.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 10/26/2009 05:14:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

After writing comments anonymously under multiple names -- a violation of the Minnesota Independent's comment policy -- Dave Hafner posted two comments under the article about the anonymous flyers attacking Jim Llanas.

After denying that he is racist or homophobic, Hafner went on to say that he sees "no racist or homophobic intent" in the flyer, and "I do see a number of facts, many of which come from Llanas’ website and the website of the Victory Fund (which is the fourth link down on Google). There are a few opinions that appear to be reasonable conclusions to me." He also endorses the use of anonymous attack flyers, saying of the people who distribute them, "Cowards? These people obviously are quite the opposite."

I can see how he would worry that the Pioneer Press would "misquote" him.

Given his demonstrated propensity to leave comments on news articles while pretending to be multiple people agreeing with one another, one wonders how many of the anonymous commenters in the Pioneer Press article discussion are actually Dave Hafner's sock puppets as well.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, media

Posted by John Nephew at 10/25/2009 10:00:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

The Maplewood Review's sister publication, the Woodbury-South Maplewood Review, appears earlier in the week. Thus it already has posted this year's voters' guides, one for city council candidates and the other for mayoral candidates, with candidate answers to questions posed by the editors of the newspapers.

I have to admit, I find Dave Hafner's answers particularly entertaining, as he proposes to "rid the city of the acrimony," touts his "people-skills," proclaims himself "good, decent, honest" and proposes "charging zero taxes" (I guess that's one way to one-up Longrie's proposal to cut the tax levy on top of losing our MVHC), which he thinks would be "the kind of imaginative thinking that we need in Maplewood." "Imaginative" as in "fantasy," I guess, much like his pal Erik Hjelle's belief in a free lunch. Maybe, persuaded by Hafner's legendary people skills, volunteers would run all city services for free, donate blacktop for roads, etc.?

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, media

Posted by John Nephew at 10/21/2009 11:03:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

On September 14, Maplewood resident Pat Downs described an encounter with city council candidate Dave Hafner that resulted in him calling 911. In response to Mr. Hafner's statements attacking Mr. Downs at the October 12th council meeting, Mr. Downs stated that he had obtained a copy of the 911 call audio recording and intended to put it on the internet so that people could hear for themselves.

Mr. Downs provided a copy of the audio to me. I'm told his family has also posted it on Facebook, but you need a Facebook account to access it.

Note: I made two edits to this audio, as will be obvious if you listen to it -- I inserted a tone over the parts where Mr. Downs states his home and cell telephone numbers to the dispatcher.



(Use this direct link to the MP3, if the embedded player doesn't work for you.)

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 10/20/2009 08:36:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

All over my neighborhood this morning, anonymous flyers attacking council candidate Jim Llanas -- "a non-native of Maplewood" who "apparently spends much of his time in Minneapolis supporting gay politicians" -- showed up on mailboxes, appearing at the same time and attached with the same distinctive blue masking tape as flyers from one of the campaigns.

Would it surprise you to learn that the non-anonymous flyer is for Dave "911" Hafner and his write-in running mates, Ken Smart and DelRay Rokke? It would appear that Hafner's campaign wanted to make sure, if you are the kind of person who is frightened by an anonymous flyer talking about gays and "non-natives," that you know that he and his lily-white not-at-all-gay "dream team" are ready and eager to receive your vote.

(For whatever it's worth, I don't think those three were born in Maplewood either, but you know that's not really what the flyer is getting at with the term "non-native"...)

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 10/18/2009 03:41:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

At Monday's council meeting, city council candidate Dave Hafner declared, "I called the police on him twice," in reference to Mr. Downs, the neighbor who had previously brought issues to the council about Hafner's behavior.

After the meeting, Mr. Downs provided me with a copy of the police report from one of those calls. On 9/19/09, Hafner called the police to report what he regarded as harassment. As recorded by the responding police officer, the "harassment" consisted of Hafner's neighbor "staring at me from his steps" and making "a comment which was inaudible, however I think it was directed at me."

I've uploaded two pages of the report (redacting some information in the interests of privacy) so you can read the whole narrative for yourself.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 10/15/2009 09:19:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

In what was undoubtedly the dramatic highlight of the evening, City Council candidate Dave "911" Hafner came forward at visitor presentations this past Monday to defend his self-image, to rebuke one of his neighbors (along with sitting councilmembers), and to ask voters to write in his teammates who didn't make it through the primary -- Ken Smart and DelRay Rokke -- on the November election ballot.

Here's the video, including a rebuttal from the neighbor, and Mr. Hafner's effort to come forward again to rebut the rebuttal.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, video

Posted by John Nephew at 10/14/2009 01:21:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

City council candidate Dave Hafner -- who received 911 votes in the primary and will appear on the November general election ballot -- is the subject of an article entitled "Resident calls 911 on Maplewood candidate" in this week's Maplewood Review.

The article afforded Mr. Hafner a chance to respond to the complaint made by his neighbor at the September 14th city council meeting visitor presentations. His response is that his accuser is "a dishonest person and a thief," who (Hafner claims) committed a crime merely by telling his story about interacting with Hafner.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, media

Posted by John Nephew at 9/24/2009 10:21:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

At the Monday, September 14, city council meeting, a resident spoke in visitor presentations to describe his recent encounters with city council candidate Dave Hafner (and a resulting 911 call) and express his concerns about candidate conduct and ethics.

Hafner received, coincidentally, 911 votes in the primary and will be one of four city council candidates appearing on November's general election ballot.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, public safety, video

Posted by John Nephew at 9/17/2009 11:32:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Results are in from today's primary election.

For city council, the top four candidates — Juenemann, Llanas, Hafner, and Cave — advance to the general election in November. The total votes for all eleven candidates are:

KATHLEEN JUENEMANN	1759	22.00%
JAMES LLANAS	1415	17.70%
DAVE HAFNER	911	11.40%
REBECCA CAVE	871	10.90%
DELRAY (ROCKY) ROKKE	828	10.36%
DICK SEPPALA	650	8.13%
ELIZABETH A. SLETTEN	414	5.18%
ROBERT MARTIN	370	4.63%
MARY Z MACKEY	351	4.39%
MARK D BRADLEY SR	266	3.33%
JULIE BINKO	159	1.99%

For the mayoral race, the November ballot will feature Rossbach and Longrie. Results for all seven candidates are as follows:

WILL ROSSBACH	1457	34.24%
DIANA LONGRIE	843	19.81%
KEN SMART	712	16.73%
MARVIN C KOPPEN	617	14.50%
BOB CARDINAL	547	12.86%
JOHN WYKOFF	54	1.27%
FRAN GRANT	25	0.59%

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 9/15/2009 11:47:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Can the team of Dave Hafner, DelRay Rokke, and Ken Smart be trusted to responsibly steward the city's finances, or even to discuss them honestly? Setting aside their apparent difficulties with their own campaign finance reports, let's consider Dave Hafner's past public statements.

Despite his recent claim to have been unhappy with Maplewood elected officials for the past 18 years, Hafner was full of praise for the team of Longrie, Cave and Hjelle in 2007. In fact, he came forward in visitor presentations on March 26, 2007, to compliment that council majority for, among other things, raising his taxes. (As you may recall, the 2007 city levy increase was one of the largest in recent history.)



The 2007 levy had a 10.2% increase, passed by Diana Longrie, Rebecca Cave, and Erik Hjelle. For Mr. Hafner personally, this meant an increase of 3.57% for his home's city taxes ($24.39 -- more than his $22 total increase), according to Ramsey County property tax records that are publicly available online. In comparison, the previous year -- under a budget passed by the "old regime" that Hafner reviled -- his city tax bill had increased just 1.41%.

Looking at his comments and the facts, it appears that Mr. Hafner's tax policy views are determined by whether or not he likes the people proposing a tax increase, not how big it is or whether it is necessary in the balance between taxes collected and services provided to our residents.

As a caveat, I should note that the above really can only be ascribed to Mr. Hafner, not to his running mates Rokke and Smart. It's possible that they did not vet him very well, or familiarize themselves with his past statements and positions, before signing on to run a joint campaign with him.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, finance, video

Posted by John Nephew at 9/10/2009 07:25:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

There's an interesting nugget in the pre-primary campaign finance reports on the City website.

If you look at the reports of the team of Ken Smart, DelRay Rokke and Dave Hafner, there's something funny: Only Rokke and Hafner appear to have paid for the "Smart" signs (which also have Rokke and Hafner in the small print) around town. Rokke's report lists a $430.50 expenditure for signs; Hafner's lists $847.55; and Smart's doesn't list any sign expense, even though his name appears most prominently. Since their campaigns are explicitly coordinating (joint signs and literature, etc.), this suggests that the $400+ that Smart owed for his share should be reported -- either as an in-kind contribution from Mr. Hafner (and an illegal one, over the $300 limit), or as an expenditure of the Smart campaign (if his campaign did actually pay for some or all of it).

For a trio that touts their financial expertise as CPAs and whatnot, this isn't a good sign, suggesting that they either can't be troubled to comply with campaign finance law or fill out their paperwork correctly. Remind you of anyone? What other contributions or expenditures might they be failing to report, either out of sloppiness or an intent to deceive?

Under Minnesota law, any resident has standing to file a complaint with the Office of Administrative Hearings to pursue violations of campaign finance laws like this. Maybe they'll file corrected reports before someone else files a complaint.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 9/08/2009 02:57:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Over a two year period from mid-2006 to mid-2008, city council candidate Dave Hafner was a somewhat prolific writer of letters to the editor concerning Maplewood politics. A look at these letters may give us an unfiltered impression of his personality and political leanings.

For example, in a Pioneer Press letter published July 28, 2006, Hafner blamed "endless gridlock in Maplewood" government on councilmembers Juenemann and Rossbach. A couple months later, the September 27, 2006 Maplewood Review included Hafner's complaint that "the Lillie News has published 0 articles supporting the new Council members" (Cave, Hjelle, Longrie), thus doing a disservice to the "good, decent, honest citizens of Maplewood."

In another Pioneer Press letter to the editor, published January 1, 2007, Hafner attacked previous letter writers (including yours truly) who had criticized the 2 AM hiring of Greg Copeland. Hafner said that if Will Rossbach had wanted to be present for that vote, he could have had the agenda item held for a later meeting. Of course, that would have required Rossbach to know in advance that Erik Hjelle planned, under the agenda item "Selection of Firm to Coordinate the City Manager Hiring Process," to throw that process away and simply hire Copeland permanently.

In the February 4, 2007, Pioneer Press, Hafner accused the newspaper of publishing "slanted, unfounded propaganda," and complained of the paper's treatment of Mayor Longrie: "After giving our mayor the only truthful interview she's had in 14 months and giving us hope, you ripped her apart the very next day."

An April 4, 2007 letter from Hafner in the Maplewood Review defended Erik Hjelle from the "angry, hostile" letters of Christine M. Stone (a Maplewood senior citizen who Mr. Hafner has often singled out).

Hafner's efforts to support Mayor Longrie's coalition came to naught in the 2007 election results. After I joined the city council I can only think of one Hafner letter I've seen: In the April 8, 2008 Maplewood Review, Hafner suggested that the newspaper could increase its circulation by stopping its reporting on Maplewood politics, which he characterized as "inaccurate + irresponsible."

Besides his printed letters, you can also find Hafner's comments on various media stories around the internet. On one Maplewood Review story online in February 2008, for example, he defended former city manager Greg Copeland, and claimed that “Slick Willie” (as he called Councilmember Rossbach) "instigated" previous media coverage of the city and “incessantly contrived 'huge issues' over the last two years.”

Hafner's letters display some recurrent themes (already familiar from his appearances before the city council and at the mayor's forum):

• Attacks on Will Rossbach and Kathy Juenemann
• Lavish praise for Diana Longrie, Erik Hjelle, Rebecca Cave, and Greg Copeland
• Attacks on critics of the Copeland-Longrie regime, singling out individual residents by name
• Complaints about what he sees as media bias

Given Hafner's record as an outspoken supporter of Mayor Longrie and former Councilmember Cave, it is striking that this year he is running as a slate with two different candidates, DelRay Rokke and Ken Smart. I have the impression he still seethes with hatred for Rossbach, Juenemann, and me, but I'm not really sure how his thinking evolved to apparently place Longrie and perhaps Cave on his enemies list as well.

In his candidate profile submitted to the Maplewood Review, Hafner states that "We have not been proud of our government for the last eighteen years," now suggesting his resentments go much further back in time. I leave it to the reader to decide if his profile reflects disingenuousness in his previous letters and public statements (if he was never really "proud" of Longrie and her regime, while he was vocally defending them), or simply an effort to rewrite history and hope voters don't associate him with the disastrous period of city governance that he so publicly supported.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, media

Posted by John Nephew at 8/25/2009 11:55:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

This past Wednesday's Maplewood Review contains more candidate profiles for the city council and mayor's races: Julie Binko, Mark Bradley, Rebecca Cave, Dave Hafner, Kathy Juenemann, Marv Koppen, James Llanas, Diana Longrie, Mary Mackey, Delray Rokke, Will Rossbach, Dick Seppala, Elizabeth Sletten, Ken Smart, and John Wykoff.

Remember that these profiles are provided by the candidates themselves, so their claims sometimes need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, media

Posted by John Nephew at 8/23/2009 07:54:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

I received an e-mail this morning from city council candidate DelRay Rokke. He writes, in apparent reference to my Monday entry:

John,

I would like to know where I have ever done one thing publicly to support Diana as the Mayor of Maplewood. Also, I am certain that Erik Hjelle knew nothing about Ken Smart except through seeing the same Truth-in-Taxation meeting you attended until he saw the list of candidates. And I am absolutely certain that Erik knew noting of Dave's or my plans to run until he saw us registering the last day of filings. If you continue to print what I know to be pure guesses and speculation about Ken, Dave and me, it is hard to believe much of the rest of what you have to print about anyone else. That kind of political speculation and blogging is both an embarrassment to the City of Maplewood and the DFL Party. It may fit well in a fantasy RPG you are playing, but it does not now, nor will it serve Maplewood well when we have a new Mayor and two new Council Members about whom you've been lying.

Take Care,

DelRay

I sent him the following reply.

Dear DelRay,

Remember that I ran against you in 2007. I spoke to a lot of Maplewood voters, and I think any reasonable observer could see that most people supporting you then did so understanding that you were running as part of Mayor Longrie's team. After you signed on to run with Rebecca Cave, you even adopted the mayor's conservation easements as a major campaign issue.

Mr. Hafner has numerous statements on the record since 2006 praising Mayor Longrie, Erik Hjelle and Rebecca Cave, and attacking their critics (in council meetings, letters to the editor, and at the mayor's forum).

Your campaign literature at the DFL meeting made it clear that you, Mr. Hafner, and Mr. Smart are running as a single team with a common perspective. It lists various qualifications and life experiences without stating which applied to whom. So if one of you is linked to Mr. Hjelle or Ms. Longrie, a reasonable person would link all of you -- after all, your own literature emphasizes how you all stand for the same things. Since Mr. Smart made the decision to run as a team with you and Mr. Hafner, I assume he knows of and accepts your past political associations and allegiances -- if not, that may itself raise questions about his political judgment.

If you are concerned by the public perception of your team's past support for the dysfunctional city council of 2006-2007, you are the one who needs to persuade people that now it's different -- and you need to take that message directly to the voters. I'd suggest that some very clear and public repudiations of Hjelle, Longrie, Cave, and their failed policies and leadership might do something to put some distance between you. Even then, people may not believe you. You'll need to provide a plausible narrative of how you and Mr. Hafner came to reexamine your past political collaboration with them, and why you have both decided now to reject them.

I have to tell you that I'm pretty skeptical about your statements. At the DFL meeting, I overheard you telling someone that you did not run as a team with Rebecca Cave in 2007, despite your numerous examples of joint literature. At the same meeting, Dave Hafner stated to the audience that he did not campaign against the DFL-endorsed candidates in 2007, which would surprise some folks in his neighborhood. People who are familiar with you guys may already have been given the impression that you're more interested in winning votes than in being truthful.

Best of luck,
John

P.S. I will post your message and my reply to my blog, so that readers can be aware of your objections.

Re-reading Rocky's e-mail, it's not clear to me that he actually denies supporting Mayor Longrie, or if he is just saying that he doesn't think there's any public proof of it. He also does not actually deny that Hjelle supports his slate; he only states that Hjelle didn't in advance know they were running. Perhaps he'll come forward with a more clear and unequivocal statement about these matters.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 8/12/2009 10:40:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

One of the things I find most interesting about this year's primary ballot is the divisions it shows among what had been the Longrie-Hjelle coalition. I guess it's not terribly surprising, as Erik Hjelle's contempt for Mayor Longrie is often apparent. Their alliance has always seemed to be one of convenience founded upon mutual enemies (such as all the people Erik went into office intending to fire, as he told the Pioneer Press way back in 2006), not mutual respect.

There seem to be more Longrie allies running in the council primary than there are spaces on the general ballot. But two former Longrie supporters -- Dave Hafner and DelRay Rokke -- are now running as a slate with a different mayoral candidate, Ken Smart. They filed rather late, and my speculation is that they're the slate that Erik supports. If Erik has contempt for Diana, his distaste for some of her supporters -- particularly the ones who filed for office relatively early -- is even stronger. (Notice that Hjelle is the sole member of the council who voted against reappointing council candidate Robert Martin to the planning commission earlier this year.)

By way of example, here's a passage from an e-mail that Erik wrote to me (dated 2/12/09, 8:33 AM, and copied to city staff) when, at the request of Environmental and Natural Resources Commission members, I had asked for the council to consider removing Frederica Musgrave from that commission. He wrote:

And let me be clear, I view this "tiff" amongst the DFL liberal/progressive/environmental nazis your guys' problem, not mine. This is what happens when you coddle and enable victims on every scale. Just because your DFL progressive environmental/greens don't get along with Diana's DFL progressive environmental/greens is NOT my problem.

(What's with Erik's gang's fascination with Nazis, anyway?)

Just like Erik promised in his e-mail, there was a frivolous lawsuit from Ms. Musgrave. When her request for a temporary injunction was denied in no uncertain terms, she dismissed her own suit shortly thereafter. A few months later, Musgrave's housemate, former parks commissioner and current council candidate Julie Binko, filed her own frivolous small claims action against the city on a different matter.

As an observer, I'm curious to see how Erik's contempt for the "victims" and "environmental nazis" in Diana's camp balances against his hatred of fellow councilmember and mayoral candidate Will Rossbach. Will Hjelle go for the trifecta, violating campaign finance/practices laws in a third consecutive municipal election cycle -- and if so, which candidates will his violations be supporting or attacking this year?

Labels: campaign 2009, council politics, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 8/10/2009 11:02:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

On February 12, 2007, current city council candidate Dave Hafner gave a lengthy visitor presentation:



The audio of his comments at the Mayor's Forum, which he referenced, is available in an earlier posting. You can also see my notes from the meeting, which Mr. Hafner discusses.

While in 2007 he praised Mayor Longrie, Rebecca Cave, and Erik Hjelle (or at least the "good, decent, honest citizens" who support them) in this presentation, today he is running on a slate with two different candidates: Ken Smart for mayor and Delray Rokke for council.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner, video

Posted by John Nephew at 8/05/2009 08:16:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Last night I attended a meeting of the Central Committee of the Senate District 55 DFL. The SD55 DFL was considering whether or not to give resolutions of support in the city council and mayoral races.

A resolution of support is not an endorsement, and there are important differences. For example, endorsements are limited in number (up to two council candidates could be endorsed, since that's the number of seats up for election, and only one mayoral candidate); they require a convention (inviting all delegates who were elected to the 2008 SD55 convention by their precinct caucuses); candidates must receive 60% of the delegate votes to be endorsed; and they allow a candidate to advertise the endorsement in campaign literature. In contrast, the resolutions of support were decided by the Central Committee (which includes precinct chairs, Senate District party officers, etc.). They can be given to any number of candidates. A simple majority is all that is necessary to receive a resolution.

So if it isn't an endorsement, what is a resolution of support, and what does it get you? In essence, it's a statement that you are regarded as a "good Democrat" -- the party recognizes you as one of its number, and supports giving you limited access to certain party resources.

Written questions and questions from the floor understandably focused on the party activities of the candidates. What DFL-endorsed candidates have you actively campaigned for (or against)? What party activities have you participated in? After brief speeches and audience Q&A, the nine credentialed Central Committee members cast their votes, yes or no, for each candidate under consideration.

Ten of eleven city council candidates came to ask for resolutions of support: Julie Binko, Mark Bradley, Rebecca Cave, Dave Hafner, Kathy Juenemann, Jim Llanas, Robert Martin, Delray Rokke, Dick Seppala, and Elizabeth Sletten. The only candidate who did not come was Mary Mackey.

Five of seven mayoral candidates appeared: Marv Koppen, Diana Longrie, Will Rossbach, Ken Smart and John Wykoff. Not appearing were Fran Grant and Bob Cardinal.

The candidates who were given resolutions of support were Marv Koppen and Will Rossbach for mayor; Jim Llanas and Dick Seppala for city council.

The candidates I am supporting are Jim Llanas, Kathy Juenemann, and Will Rossbach. Of course I was disappointed not to see Kathy get a resolution, but I was pleased to see the party's recognition of Jim and Will, both of whom have put in a lot of work for DFL candidates in the past. Both Seppala and Koppen have long records of DFL involvement, so I have to agree that it was appropriate for them to get resolutions.

One interesting twist of events was that Robert Martin did not receive a resolution of support. Robert has done a lot of hard work as a DFL volunteer, and was even one of the Central Committee members casting a vote. However, he has become more and more associated with Diana Longrie and her efforts to recast herself as some kind of Democrat -- something that does not sit well with DFL activists. The vote on Martin probably would have been different a few months ago, when he would not have been perceived as part of a team with Mayor Longrie and her allies.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 7/31/2009 02:57:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

My first encounter with city council candidate Dave Hafner was memorable. At the time, I was taking meeting notes for Maplewood Voices and making plans to run for city council myself. I attended the February 3, 2007, Mayor's Forum, where Hafner had some opinions to share. He was very concerned to make sure that Mary Flister, who was recording the Mayor's Forums at the time, saved his comments for posterity.

In Mr. Hafner's view, citizens who were monitoring the actions of the Longrie-Copeland regime and writing about them on Maplewood Voices were comparable to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. If the "good, decent, honest citizens" of Maplewood were not alerted to this threat, he feared that "these organizations with their computers will raze our cities just like Berlin in the early 1940s." He also stated that residents can't trust what they read in the newspapers, but should call Mayor Diana Longrie, Councilmember Rebecca Cave, or Councilmember Erik Hjelle in order to get the truth.

I'm not making this up! And as it happens, I have a copy of the digital recording. (If you don't want to listen to it all, skip ahead to the 4:10 mark for the start of the good stuff. You can also still read my notes from the meeting.)



At the end of the mayor's forum, Mr. Hafner came back to share more of his thoughts, working himself up into something of a rage:



(Direct links to audio, if those embedded players don't work for you: here and here.)

According to Mr. Hafner's certified Election Candidate Information Form, he is running as a team with Delray Rokke and Ken Smart. No word yet on whether or not they share his concern about a looming threat of National Socialism that hangs over Maplewood.

Also no word on whether Mr. Hafner still thinks as highly of Ms. Longrie and Ms. Cave as he did two years ago. I suppose the fact that both are candidates, but he is now running on a slate without either of them, speaks for itself.

Labels: campaign 2009, Dave Hafner

Posted by John Nephew at 7/27/2009 03:28:00 PM | Permalink | Comments