Chair Carlbom,
Our entire family is from a long line of lifetime DFLers.
On July 19, 2025, I attended the Mpls DFL convention as a delegate for 12 grueling hours.
Since reaching the age of majority in the 70s, I cannot count how many conventions I have attended.
How can we trust the outcome of this convention with the numerous irregularities and “thumb on the scale” conduct of the DSA party leaders?
As State DFL Party Chair, your attendance throughout the entire ordeal would have provided you a front row seat to this chaotic, farcical process.
After 11+ hours, by 9:20 pm, the convention had completed one ballot for the mayoral endorsement.
And that ballot created more questions than answers. The credentials report accounted for nearly 800 delegates + upgraded alternates.
But there were only 577 votes tallied on the first ballot. It is unfathomable that more than one-quarter of the delegates departed prior to the first mayoral ballot.
Amy Livingston was introduced as the party official in charge of technology for this first-ever digital voting at a major convention.
The same Amy Livingston who was 86’d by the State DFL Party for her investigated shenanigans favoring DSA candidates while managing the tech for CD5, SD 63, and Mpls Wards 5 & 12.
Livingston was subsequently censured by the State DFL. What was she doing serving as a Mpls DFL convention official?
This fact deserves a full investigation.
By the time the final mayoral endorsing vote was called after 9:30 pm, it was apparent to any casual observer that there was no longer a quorum (50% + 1 of the highest delegate count) present to conduct business. Nonetheless, Convention Chair and DSA member Dan Thomas Commins disregarded the several proper calls from the floor for quorum confirmation and proceeded with a show of delegate badges to vote for endorsement. Such reckless conduct by the Chair makes a sham of the process and an insult to the dedicated delegates who hung in there and played by the rules.
The DSA does not belong in the DFL. Theirs is a very different party and platform of ideas and goals from my DFL. The DSA has cleverly and by design hijacked the traditional DFL brand and organization.
Our party leaders, including you and Ken Martin, have been played like a fiddle by the DSA. It is time for the state party to show a little courage and take a stand to be done with the DSA!!
Just as Hubert Humphrey bounced the socialists from the DFL in the ‘50s.
One last note- our family has a lake place in Stearns County.
Our Steans County neighbors think we are all off our rockers in Minneapolis.
Legitimizing a farcical DFL endorsement for a socialist will not benefit our DFL brand in outstate MN.
I will be filing multiple challenges to the endorsing convention within the 10-day time required under the State DFL Rules.
Regards-
Tim Keane
Minneapolis Ward 11-4.
Tim, we were both at the convention all day (or did you leave early because daddy Frey told you to?).
You know as well as I that the badge vote endorsements were voted on by the whole body of delegates present. If you didn’t agree with that motion you could have stayed to vote it down. But you didn’t.
What has happened to Mpls governance? I appreciate this perspective of chaos at the convention. We have council members who pursue left wing ideology without considering the broader consequences like the war with Uber/Lyft. The economics of tourism was at stake. Do they care? What political leverage could happen with their proclamation on the Israel war? Nothing but why not? These DSA candidates do not have the interests of Minneapolitans. They have an agenda that is not in synch with we who live here.
I am somewhat perplexed that a reputable lawyer in good standing with the state Bar would engage in such egregious libel against another person, but your false, malicious, and harmful attacks on the convention’s technology official are truly beyond the pale. She was not, as you put it, “86’d from the State Party,” nor did she receive a “censure” from the state party, though it is unclear what the difference between these two things would be, even if they were true.
Perhaps you have been lied to. Perhaps you just don’t know any better. Or maybe, and this is a stretch, you know this is untrue, and you’re repeating it anyway. Impossible to tell, of course. Either way, this defamatory invective is below an attorney of your caliber, and must be retracted with an apology to the strangers you seem so intent on smearing.
Having been at the convention all day, I seem to have missed that someone was elected the “technology official.” When did this happen?
If she was elected, that would violate her agreement to not hold any position in the DFL because she actually was censured for her fraudulent activities during the 2023 elections. If you need us to post the paperwork, I can.
Respectful civil debate is the cornerstone of democracy We don’t do personal attacks here at Minneapolis Times. If you have an opinion on an issue, please feel free to post. We love a free-flowing debate among respectful people with differing opinions. But we don’t call people names. We don’t imply that they are lying or are unintelligent. We don’t demand apologies just because we disagree with someone. We don’t demean or harass people just because we disagree with them. Continuing to do these things will result in you being removed from the civil discussion we are having here.
Hi Carol, below is the Letter from the Code of Conduct committee, dated May 20th, 2024, a mere 11 days after the first letter was issued in error.
———————————————————————
Let this letter serve as notice that the Public Letter of Censure for Amy Livingston dated May 9, 2024, is hereby withdrawn, and the matter is remanded to the Full Code of Conduct Committee for a formal hearing. Ms Livingston shall have no restrictions on any of the volunteer work or positions she holds.
The reasons are as follows:
• The Petitioners had expressed a desire for a full hearing after the announcement of a cancellation of the previously scheduled hearing.
• Ms. Livingston had not been afforded the opportunity to express a request for a formal hearing according to the Committee’s rules, which would have superseded a Summary Judgment process.
• The Committee did not release a Summary Judgment at the same time as the Letter of Censure, as is customary per its internal procedures, leaving both the Petitioners and Ms. Livingston without important context, thus lacking any terms upon which to appeal.
Due to the above-mentioned issues, it is the committee’s judgment that the most reasonable cure for these defects is to remand this case to the Committee and move to a formal hearing with proper notice and at a date and time negotiated with the Petitioners and Ms. Livingston.
The Withdrawal of the Letter of Censure and Remand to the Code of Conduct Committee will be initially distributed to:
• State DFL Chair
• Minneapolis DFL Chair and Vice Chair
• CD5 Chair and Vice Chair
This letter should be shared to increase awareness to ensure those who previously received the Letter of Censure are informed and aware of this change in status for Ms. Livingston. This would include social media, email lists, and other tools and lists previously used for distribution.
Respectfully,
Code of Conduct Committee
So do you have the letter of censure?
Per my last comment, the letter of censure from May 9th was withdrawn on May 20th of last year. Unless there is a different letter you think exists?
So do you have the letter of censure?
I read this today in the New York Times. It was written by David French. And I thought of you.
“But we’re living through something else, a furious anger in which it seems people actually want to end friendships, where they want to inflict pain with their words. It’s one way to demonstrate your commitment, your great and high ideological or religious or political calling. The cause demands it, and you serve the cause.
We create relational rubble and find that it’s hard to live in the ruins.”
Nick/Donovan: Can you tell me why Amy Livingston was chosen to be the convention technology official? I can’t speak to the misconduct claims, but what we saw at the convention was on the level of Pete Hegseth incompetence. Once Amy saw the signs that the ballot counting required manual intervention, she should have recommended going to a manual ballot. Did the convention organizers make any requests to the state DFL for assistance with the ballot counting. I understand the DFL has a system – election buddy, or something like that for this purpose.
Carlbom was there to make opening statements and emphasized that democratic socialists were welcome, to much applause by the DSAers. (Note: The strain of DSA we have here in the Twin Cities is well to the left of Bernie Sanders.)
One thing I don’t see talked about much is the beyond sketchy upgrade process. Some alternates were upgraded before the convention, and the selection process wasn’t transparent. People asked how it was done, and no clear answers were given. I have no confidence that alternates weren’t handpicked based on who committee members believed the delegate was supporting.
Then there was the supposed “automatic” upgrade process with the failed electronic system. My husband was an alternate and was told at the beginning there was no reason to get formally upgraded to delegate credentials and move to the delegate area. He would vote regardless and if more delegates were needed, some alternates’ data would be used. Of course there was no transparency on whose data would be used and whose would get chucked. It was clear from the vote tallies that not everyone who should have been counted was counted.
Then hours into the convention, it was announced that alternates COULD formally get upgraded and sit with their respective wards. There was a massive rush to the upgrade tables. Delegates testified that there was a massive number of people waiting to be upgraded, but the convention co-chair hurried on with the proceedings anyway and froze upgradable alternates out. In the end, it was clear that many of the people who should have been upgraded and sitting with their delegations were not even able to participate in the (sketchy) show of badges.
I’ll stop there, but obviously there was so much more wrong with this convention.
If your husband has not filed a challenge about his experience as an alternate, please ask him to. It must be submitted by EOB Tuesday July 29. Link to the form below. Attach to an email to chair@dfl.org
If you are unable to complete the PDF, pls copy the elements in the form to another document, then attach both the PDF and your doc with the info to the email. In the body of the email, say that you are filing a challenge to the July 19 Mpls DFL convention, and you were unable to complete the PDF.
Thank you for sharing your story here and with the DFL
https://dfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DFL-Challenge-Fom-Updated-8.2023.pdf
Tim, please let us know if Chair Carlbom replies to your open letter! It’s kind of surprising that the State Party Chair didn’t attend this convention.
It’s way past time for primary elections if the DFL wants to endorse someone (which may or may not be necessary with ranked-choice voting).
Did anyone follow the money on this?
What money? The millions from the wealthiest people in Minnesota and the big corporations that fund Frey’s PACs?
Thank you Tim excellent commentary!