This coming Tuesday, February 7, both the Republican and Democratic parties hold important neighborhood political meetings. In other words, it’s time to caucus. These grassroots gatherings offer attendees a chance to cast a straw poll to gauge candidate preferences for state or federal elected offices. Republicans this year will be splitting their votes among the four Presidential candidates still vying for their party’s nomination. Four years ago, at the DFL caucus, there were an avalanche of people showing up to cast their preference ballot for President Obama or Hillary Clinton. Since the President is unchallenged this year, you may think your attendance at a Democratic caucus is not as important. Choosing a candidate to represent the party is but one of the agenda items. Delegates, nominated and elected at the caucus, will move on to represent the party at County and legislative conventions, and if elected again…eventually moving on to Congressional, State and National conventions. These delegates play an important role in deciding which candidates at all levels of government will be on the ballot in November. If you’ve ever wished you had a better choice of pro-public education candidates on the November ballot you can see why delegates are so important. Caucuses provide a forum for citizens to engage their neighbors in a conversation on a wide range of public policy and political issues. In addition, caucuses also give voters a chance to discuss the party platform, propose resolutions, and action agenda items. These serve to help set the legislative and political agenda for our elected officials. Caucus attendees also elect officers who will be responsible for organizing political activities within the precinct.
You can choose to attend the party of your choice but must not be an active member of any other political party. You must attend your assigned caucus meeting in order to participate. In addition you must affirm that you live in the precinct, you will be 18 by November 6, 2012, and are eligible to vote. You can attend if you are 16 and still participate in caucus business but you are unable to vote or run as a delegate.
In general, Northfield Republicans will be meeting at Northfield High School and Northfield Democrats will be meeting at the Northfield Middle School. For specific locations, log on to the Secretary of State’s Caucus finder at:
http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=886

Virtually all Minnesotans would agree that the last legislative session was a major disappointment and the historic shutdown we endured was an embarrassment to our state.
This session, it’s important that we work to rebuild the public’s trust in the legislature by setting aside things like divisive constitutional amendments and focusing on the things Minnesotans care most about: getting people back to work and fixing the state’s economy.
Despite welcome signs that our state’s economy is beginning to stabilize after a long and painful recession, Minnesota still faces a serious jobs deficit. That is why it is essential this legislature work with Gov. Dayton to pass a jobs plan to get Minnesotans back to work.
The DFL Jobs Plan will help businesses grow and retain good jobs in Minnesota by:
* Providing new incentives to companies that hire unemployed workers, veterans or recent graduates.
* Creating new opportunities for Minnesotans to get job training in high-demand fields.
* Putting new money into the Minnesota Investment Fund, which has a successful track record of attracting new businesses and helping existing Minnesota companies grow and expand.
* Making targeted and strategic investments in the state’s infrastructure, putting more than 20,000 Minnesotans back to work repairing and improving the state’s roads, bridges, waste water treatment facilities, and higher education research facilities.
This jobs plan includes good ideas to create jobs — but they aren’t the only good ones. Productive dialogue is needed to find other ways to get Minnesotans back to work. The important thing is that something gets done.

What we shouldn’t do is say jobs are the priority but then focus on something else. We already tried that last year. The Republican majorities proclaimed a “laser focus” on jobs, but instead focused on divisive constitutional amendments. For the sake of what most Minnesotans want and expect of their legislators, we hope the same won’t play out again this session.

Jobs should be our priority – not divisive constitutional amendments. Let’s work together, bring our good ideas to the table, and act quickly to pass a meaningful jobs bill that will get Minnesota working again.