MINNESOTA DFL PARTY

FAQ: DFL Business Conference and Leadership Elections

Below is a primer for media on this Saturday’s DFL Business Conference. Please contact Kristin Sosanie
at 651-251-6315 or ksosanie@dfl.org if you have any questions.

I. Business Conference Basics

II. Conference Proceedings
III. Party Leadership Elections

I. Business Conference Basics

When & where is the 2011 Business Conference?
The Business Conference will be held on Saturday, February 5 at 11:00 a.m. at the Dassel-Cokato High
School (4852 Reardon Avenue SW, Cokato, MN 55321)

What is the Business Conference?

The DFL Business Conference is a meeting at which the DFL Party holds elections for State Party
leadership. This includes the offices of Chair, Associate Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Affirmative
Action Officer.

Who runs the Business Conference?

The outgoing State Chair will convene the Conference. The Conference will then elect a chair (and up to
two co-chairs, with gender balance) to run the proceedings. The Conference Chair will then appoint a
Conference secretary, timekeepers, judges, clerks, tellers, sergeants-at-arms, parliamentarians, pages
and other assistants to conduct the business of the Conference.

Who participates in the Business Conference?

The voting members of the State Central Committee make up the Business Conference. This includes
alternates who have been seated in the place of members who could not make it to the meeting.

What is the State Central Committee?

The State Central Committee is the governing body of the Minnesota DFL Party between State
Conventions, which occur every two years. The Committee meets three to four times a year and its
members and committees are responsible for conducting the official business of the DFL Party.

The State Central Committee is made up of the State Executive Committee, ten elected officials, the
leaders of the Minnesota Young DFL, the chairs and associate chairs of each senate district, and 332
representatives elected from organizing units.

The Committee's duties are to:

• Conduct Business Conferences to discuss party issues, training and outreach, and party building
• Reconvene an adjourned State Convention
• Grant charters to a constituency caucus as an organization within the Party
• Modify the Action Agenda
• Fill vacancies among state officers, statewide delegates, and alternates to the Democratic
National Conventions

II. Conference Proceedings

What is the Business Conference agenda?
The day will begin with an Elected Officials Convocation at 10:30 a.m. The Business Conference will be
called to order at 11:00 a.m.

The Conference will begin with opening business and then hear informational reports from the current
State Party officers. The Conference will then hold elections for Chair, Associate Chair, Secretary,
Treasurer, and Affirmative Action Officer.

The State Central Committee meeting will be held concurrently with the Business Conference, and once
the Conference concludes the elections, members will take up the business for the Central Committee.
This includes the reading and approval of minutes, and declaring and filling State Director vacancies.

How does someone run for office?

In order to run for office, a person must be nominated from the floor of the Conference. Once they
accept that nomination, each nominee is allowed a total of five minutes time for a speech to the
Conference.

Immediately following the nominations, there will be a Question & Answer period where candidates will
take questions from members and alternates. For the election of State Chair, the Q&A period will last 30
minutes. For all other officers, the period will last 10 minutes for contested elections and 5 minutes for
uncontested elections.

III. Party Leadership Elections

Who is running?
Candidates can announce at any time up to the nominations for their office at the Business Conference.
But the candidates who have announced as of February 1, 2011 are (by office, in alphabetical order):

Chair: Ken Martin

Associate Chair: Marge Hoffa
Secretary: Vanessa Blomgren and Jacob Grippen
Treasurer: Tom Hamilton and Lil Ortendahl
Affirmative Action Officer: Frank Brown and Eric Margolis

What is the process for voting?

For all uncontested races, voting will be by voice, unless a written vote is requested by the Conference
chair or by one third of the Conference.
For all contested races, voting will be by written ballot using ranked-choice voting (RCV). The rules for
RCV are as follows:

For each office, delegates rank the candidates in their order of preference. First, their votes are
distributed to the most-preferred nominee on each ballot. If a candidate reaches a simple majority after
the most-preferred votes are counted, they have won the election. But if no nominee reaches a simple
majority, then the candidate with the fewest votes is dropped.

Once that candidate drops, the ballots where he or she was most-preferred will be transferred to the
second choice candidate. The process continues until a candidate reaches a simple majority. If the active
nominees become deadlocked, then the person with the most first-choice votes is elected.

Are there gender balance requirements for the leadership positions?

Yes. The Associate Chair is required to be of opposite gender from the Chair.

Where can I get more information about the Business Conference?

The 2011 Business Conference Call and Agenda, which contains the full set of rules for the Conference,
are both available on the DFL website at www.dfl.org/scc.