ROCHESTER — Tony Eichenlaub of Rochester has knocked on hundreds of doors since he became a team leader for Faith in Minnesota, a progressive group that has endorsed three candidates for Rochester City Council and is seen as a growing force in local politics.
Door-knocking is not everyone’s cup of tea, but Eichenlaub revels in the activity. He enjoys the give-and-take. And he has witnessed how impactful and powerful these front porch conversations can be. He has discovered that many of the people he encounters are as passionate about the issues as he is, such as city housing and transportation. But they didn’t know an election was approaching, much less the candidates and their policy position on the issues.
“Faith in Minnesota is helping us organize and work together, because on our own this kind of work wouldn’t happen,” Eichenlaub said.
Take Eichenlaub’s efforts and multiply that by nearly a hundred more volunteers fanning across the city, and you begin to see how influential a difference-maker Faith in Minnesota could become in this fall’s local elections.
And some people find that worrisome.
Faith in Minnesota, a political arm of Isaiah, a left-of-center Minneapolis-based group, describes its organizing as a grassroots effort. Yet skeptics see something problematic, a group injecting a political dynamic that is making local races more political and partisan, undermining the spirit, if not the letter, of an ordinance to keep such contests nonpartisan.
“Outside organizations have every right to function in a community. What makes this different is that it has become more activist than we have seen historically,” said John Wade, former president of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce. “I would defend their right to do it. It is simply different from what we have seen in the past.”
John MacLaughlin, right, and Sandy MacLaughlin knock on a door for Faith in Minnesota on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 at a home in Ward 2 in Rochester.
Lily Dozier / Post Bulletin
Faith in Minnesota has endorsed three candidates for Rochester City Council: Randy Schubring, who is running against Shaun Palmer for the council’s at-large seat, Nick Miller who is running in Ward 2 against Tripp Welch, and Dan Doering who is running in Ward 6 against Mark Schleusner.
Longtime observers note that endorsements of candidates for local office is not entirely new. When Rochester was a more moderate Republican bastion, a political arm of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce endorsed candidates but has long since discontinued the practice.
What’s different is that Faith in Minnesota, a group seen as aligned with the DFL by many, is not only endorsing local candidates but also using its considerable organizational clout to deploy volunteers to door-knock and phone bank and to do lit drops on behalf of those candidates.
“We have not had endorsement of candidates for local office. The chamber doesn’t endorse. The parties don’t endorse. When I look at the Isaiah group, I don’t see them as a politically balanced organization. I see them as aligned very strongly with the Democratic Party,” said Olmsted County Commissioner Sheila Kiscaden, who is retiring at the end of the year. “So I viewed it as the first step toward making our local races partisan.”
When two of the city council candidates, Schubring and Miller, made inquiries about getting letters of support from the local branch of the DFL to gain access to partisan voter files, it was seen by critics as a further fraying of the line separating local races from ideological politics.
Kiscaden said her worry is that Rochester’s local races could follow the acrimonious path of those in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Hennepin and Ramsey counties, which are “very partisan.”
“When local races become partisan, you’re not seen as representing all of the residents anymore. You’re seen as representing a political philosophy, not the broad spectrum of the residents in your community,” Kiscaden said.
Some see Faith in Minnesota as an out-of-town element seeking to influence Rochester’s elections. Should all endorsed candidates win their elections, they would be one vote shy of controlling the seven-member council.
“They have raised over a million dollars, the third largest fundraiser for the DFL,” Palmer said. “I’m not against the DFL. This isn’t really our DFL. These are the socialists from the Cities who have come down to Rochester to take over Rochester.”
This is not how the Rochester City Council candidates who received Faith in Minnesota’s endorsement see the matter.
Schubring says he is working to build a broad coalition of support, and Faith In Minnesota is one component of that coalition. He noted that all the people door-knocking for the candidates under the group’s banner are volunteers, brought together by a common concern for particular issues. He also disputes that the group is partisan.
“They are often retirees, grandparents, and what brings them together is the fact that they care about bringing real affordable housing to Rochester,” Schubring said.
Schubring said he did not see himself as part of a Faith-based bloc of candidates seeking to control the city council. He was running a city-wide campaign for council president. And to underscore his independence, he was not endorsing any of the other candidates endorsed by Faith in Minnesota.
Rochester City Council President candidate Randy Schubring introduces himself at a Faith in Minnesota meeting on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 at Harriet Bishop Elementary School in Rochester.
Lily Dozier / Post Bulletin
Miller described the volunteers under the Faith banner as a coalition of people brought together by a sense of shared values — and a belief they can make a difference. When people feel they have a voice and can influence the outcome, it engenders and builds trust.
“What I hear in the partisan conversation is a lack of trust, a lack of belief that those elected leaders have the common sort of interest and values,” Miller said.
“What I found Faith in Minnesota to be is a local, bottom-up sort of organization,” Miller said. “I have never felt that anyone from the statewide organization is telling us what to do in Rochester. I think we share a lot of values.”
Faith in Minnesota seeks to organize people around three main pillars, says Olivia Bergen, a Rochester organizer for ISAIAH. They include realizing a multi-racial democracy, a caring economy and a just climate future in Minnesota.
Those shared goals are bringing together an eclectic group of people who share those goals, including parents and grandparents, teachers and retired pastors, interpreters and writers, she said.
“What ties us together is those three things that we’re working toward in Rochester,” Bergen said. “At this moment, we’ve been thinking: How do we create a Rochester where everyone can afford to live, where everyone can have a voice in the city regardless of where they come from, what you look like or how much money you make.”
In addition to endorsing the three city council candidates, Faith in Minnesota is working to pass a levy referendum for Rochester Public Schools. An earlier effort to pass a levy increase, which was also supported by Faith in Minnesota, failed.
Bergen said it was Rochester leaders within the organization who decided what races to focus on and who to endorse. But unlike some endorsements that carry little beyond the organization’s imprimatur, Faith’s support brings considerable organizational benefits meant to make a difference in an election.
“For us, when we endorse a candidate, we intend to organize substantial volunteer support for that candidate in the form of voter contact,” Bergen said.
As of last week, Faith had nearly a hundred volunteers. And those volunteers have so far completed 289 volunteer shifts. Each shift represents one person doing three hours of door-knocking or two hours phone-banking, and “this increases every day,” Bergen said. In all, the group has reached more than 10,000 voters and talked with 2,900 people on behalf of the candidates or referendum.
Bergen said Rochester was going “gangbusters” in terms of the scale of organizing.
“We’re talking to people about: How are they feeling about Rochester right now as a city? How are they feeling about the schools?” Bergen said. “The fact that we are bringing 3,000 more people into the conversation and helping them become aware of what’s happening locally that wouldn’t happen otherwise, to me, is amazing.”
Bergen said the kind of organizing initiated and undertaken by Faith is no doubt new to Rochester. She disputed that it was making Rochester more partisan and political. She said it was a healthy thing for more people to become aware and get involved in what’s happening in their community and advocate for solutions.
“I think it severely underestimates the people of this community and their imagination for what’s possible here and their commitment to shaping it into the place they want to live,” she said.
Instead of less grassroots organizing and political involvement, it would be a good thing for Rochester if there were more, Bergen said. And there was nothing stopping any other group of engaged citizens from organizing to realize and promote an agenda different from that if Faith in Minnesota.
“I think that’s healthy for our democracy,” she said. “And I’m excited that we have so many people for whom this is resonating.”
Faith in Minnesota team leader Tony Eichenlaub, left, and Carter Evans hand out pamphlets and door knocking maps to Troy Kowalski on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 at Harriet Bishop Elementary School in Rochester.
Lily Dozier / Post Bulletin
Sandy MacLaughlin leaves campaign literature at a door for Faith in Minnesota on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 at a home in Ward 2 in Rochester.
Lily Dozier / Post Bulletin
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 03:02:00
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