Chapter VI, Section 38 of the Duluth City Charter states: "All municipal elections in the city of Duluth shall be conducted pursuant to the laws of Minnesota, except that candidates for the offices of mayor and city council shall be named on the ballot and elected without party designation."
Duluth municipal candidates routinely seek and accept endorsement from the DFL, a political party. Can this not be seen as subverting the spirit of the city charter rule? Doesn't this give campaign funding advantage to the endorsed candidates? And doesn't it effectively, and for all intents and purposes, designate a political party to implement control of a municipal seat upon the election of the endorsed candidate?
I think so.
Please take a good look at municipal candidate endorsements, especially by political parties. Ask yourself if they are ethically correct to do so.
Joan Benson Peterson
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Duluth
