By Jim Troyer
news@postbulletin.com
Despite losing New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as the Independence Party’s presidential candidate, Frank MacKay, the party’s national chairman, told the party’s Minnesota
1st District annual convention that the Independence Party will continue to push its efforts.
"We need to establish another major party in this country," MacKay told the 19 convention delegates Saturday in Austin.
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MacKay criticized the Democratic and Republican parties, saying their money and party policies don’t come from the people but from lobbyists and special interests outside the democratic process.
Tim Penny, who carried the Independence Party flag in the 2002 gubernatorial race, took the floor to defend the Minnesota Independence Party’s biggest victory, the election of Gov. Jesse Ventura. Penny recalled that the Legislature rejected Ventura’s transportation plan only to face a new Republican governor who presented no plan at all.
If they hadn’t ignored the plan, "maybe we wouldn’t be seeing bridges falling down and bridges closed," he said.
Though clearly disappointed by Bloomberg’s withdrawal, MacKay insisted that the third-party effort still is viable. "We need to build," he said, "to lay the groundwork for 2012 so that we can attract somebody. We need another major vehicle to attract men and women who find themselves stuck in the Democratic and Republican
parties."
For their part, the 1st District officers presented their own candidates:
• Stephen Williams, a Brownsdale farmer, is seeking the U. S. Senate seat held by Sen. Norm Coleman. He will seek the endorsement at the May 3 state convention.
• Jim Daley of Byron, whose great-grandfather served in the state Legislature during the 1880s, told the group he planned to run for state representative or the Olmsted County Board. Daley ran for the state Senate in 2006.
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• Waseca Mayor Roy Srp will run for a third term.
