Minnesota Republicans and Democrats to fight like cats and dogs over 9,000 votes to figure out who will be the next governor...

Letter to the Editor; Submitted for publication exclusively to the Bemidji Pioneer.

As an ardent supporter of Governor-elect Mark Dayton, I hesitate to bring this issue forward; however, I feel in the interest of fairness in the electoral process there is something that needs to be considered.

Ironically, Dayton could be done in because of the racism in the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party perpetrated through its collaboration with the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association which has schemed to elect Democratic Party politicians beholden to enforcing a cheap pool of Indian labor which is responsible for the poverty on Minnesota's Indian Reservations--- pay casino workers poverty wages and then deprive them of all rights accorded other workers under state and federal labor laws, and the workers and their families and the entire community will be poor.

As Frances Perkins, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor repeatedly pointed out: Workers without rights are not likely to organize labor unions to defend their rights and livelihoods or strive to have a voice at work; the consequences are obvious: termination.

So, in order to assure and secure the required number of votes for these Democratic Party politicians who can be counted on to enforce the racist poverty inherent in the anti-labor "Compacts" creating the Indian Gaming Industry, one of the front groups of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, the Native Vote Alliance of Minnesota, was allowed to register voters improperly in a manner in which residences could not be verified in any manner; and, election officials, many of whom are backed with campaign contributions from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, failed to enforce state voter registration laws so no one has any way of knowing if the tens of thousands of Minnesotans registered to vote by the Native Vote Alliance of Minnesota are even real people and if they are actually live in the districts in which they are voting.

Ironically, it was the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, the recipient of tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, which used these very voter registration rules to prevent the Warriors for Justice from attaining ballot status.

Now what will happen if the same rules as applied to the Warriors for Justice in keeping them off the ballot are applied to the votes cast in this November 2 Election?

Once these Voter Registrations are examined by the attorneys hand-picked by Karl Rove at the request of the Minnesota Republican Party to scrutinize everything, might Mark Dayton's votes derived from these "registered" voters be challenged? Thirty-thousand votes challenged; with a 9,000 vote lead. I wonder what some high-priced attorneys whose intent it is to overturn the will of the people through legal shenanigans might do with all of this? Have the Democrats done themselves in by keeping the Warriors for Justice off the ballot? Certainly the United States Supreme Court is going to rule that if these thirty-thousand votes casts by "illegally" registered "voters" are appropriate; the signatures obtained by the Warriors for Justice are also valid... now what happens; an expensive new election is ordered just because these disgusting DFL leaders and elected public officials beholden to the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association are intolerant towards allowing others on the ballot to compete with them for votes have no tolerance for democracy when their casino profits and campaign contributions are at stake?

I wonder what is in store for Native American Indians when boundaries are redrawn and redistricting takes place?

Will anyone be seeing to it that redistricting takes place in a fair way enabling Native American Indians to have a chance to get elected to the real seats of power in Minnesota: the Minnesota State House and Senate?

I venture to guess that there are many Minnesotans, just like me, who are fed up with Democrats and Republicans who want our votes but do nothing for us as they look after the interests on the health insurance companies and the casino managements who fund their campaigns; people, fed up just like me, who would appreciate the opportunity to vote for people like the Warriors for Justice who really care about all of us, ending poverty, protecting the environment and the general welfare of the public.

As Republicans and Democrats now quibble and fight like cats and dogs over 9,000 votes... who do we have among the politicians just elected who will fight with the same determination to see to it that casino workers enjoy the same rights as all other workers protected by state and federal labor laws? Who among these newly elected politicians will stand up a fight to end poverty with the same determination they now fight over 9,000 votes?

By-the-way; does anyone find it strange that the Native Vote Alliance of Minnesota has no interest in electing Native American Indians to the Minnesota State Legislature? Why not? Would the issue of poverty be too much for these cheating and lying casino managements who force casino workers to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights to withstand? Or, would the issue of poverty constantly being brought forward be too much for a group of two-hundred plus legislators who don't receive any campaign contributions from the poor be too awkward to deal with?

I find it interesting how election laws can be twisted and perverted in interpretation by the well-heeled who think they, and only they, have the right to engage in politics while hypocritically claiming to be representing all of us when they really only care about the financial interests of those funding their campaigns.

Come on, let's not be afraid to talk about what is going on in Minnesota; do politicians getting campaign contributions from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association care as much about the plight of 40,000 casino workers and their families as they care about John McCarthy, the head of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, living high on the hog up on a hill in an exclusive neighborhood as a direct result of the poverty the Indian Gaming Association forces upon Native American Indians and their communities so that cheap labor, the source of all the wealth that continues to flow into their coffers.

Someone, anyone, from our great free mainstream media please go take a picture of the home and neighborhood where John McCarthy lives and the homes casino workers forced into poverty on reservations live.

Come on... let's have an explanation from former DFL State Senator Mary Olson explaining how it is that she and her campaign manager John McCarthy live in such luxury so many of her former constituents have to live in the most deplorable housing and scrounging and scraping to get by from day to day.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had elected public officials who would step forward and fight for workers' rights and for an end to poverty the way Republicans and Democrats are now fighting over 9,000 votes to determine who the next governor will be!

And then we have these worthless party hacks and worthless politicians like Jim Oberstar crying a trail of tears wondering why people don't vote!

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541