Harrington Wins East Side Primaries: Despite increase in voter turnout from Hmong voters, the four Hmong candidates split votes across the board, assuring no Hmong at the Capitol

For weeks now, nearly every phone call on Hmong radio stations in the Twin Cities has been about the same thing: The State Senate District 67 primaries.

One by one, complaints and suggestions continue to pile up on how a Hmong candidate could have prevailed in the August 10th primary elections, which was won handily by former St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington.

“Didn’t those candidates know that having four Hmong candidates will split the vote?” Asked one caller. “They needed to decide who would have been the strongest candidate and stick with that one!”

Again another caller concluded with a similar suggestion. And again. And yet another call.

It has become clear from callers that getting a Hmong candidate to fill the vacancy created by out-going Sen. Mee Moua was a very big deal, which makes some sense considering this district has perhaps the highest concentrated number of Hmong voters of any other voting district in the United States.

By adding up the total number of votes received by the four Hmong candidates (2,921), one could conclude that had a single Hmong candidate consolidated these votes, he could have mathematically exceeded the number of votes that Harrington received (2,150).

Furthermore, if fund raising dollars, number of yard-signs and political endorsements were added to the mix, the Hmong candidates would have outpaced the competition by a landslide.

Chai Lee, the clear winner in terms of dollars raised ($19,044), by himself raised more money than ‘mainstream’ candidates Harrington, Thomas, McGowan and Hilber combined ($16,025).

So could the callers be correct? Had there been just one Hmong candidate, could that candidate have taken the primaries?

“Not so fast,” Said one political insider who wished to remain anonymous. “Take Sen. Moua for instance. She was the rare candidate who was able to bridge the racial and economic schisms to garner the votes on the East Side. Did any of the four Hmong candidates in 2010 possess such qualities? We might not ever know.”

Sen. Moua, the insider reminded, had built a lot of equity and respect within the DFL party long before she ran for office. “What we had in this race were two young phenomenal organizers, a behind-the-scenes dynamo and a political newcomer.”

The reason these four candidates couldn’t come to a consensus on who should remain the lone Hmong candidate, the insider suggested, “Was because nobody could decide who was the superior candidate.”
  
Several attempts to consolidate the Hmong campaigns were actually spearheaded by different community leaders. Rep. Cy Thao, for instance, called an unofficial meeting between the candidates to suggest the idea of unifying the candidates, “Because we all knew a split vote would diminish the chances of getting a Hmong back into the State Capitol.”

On a different occasion, clan leaders from the community invited the candidates to participate in a loosely organized screening process.

“If we as Hmong leaders selected just one of you today to become the lone Hmong candidate, would you be willing to step down?” Asked one notable clan leader.

While only one candidate, Cha Yang, affirmed that he would step down if that were the case, the other candidates left the question much unanswered.

Chai Lee, the one candidate openly opposed to unifying the Hmong candidacy from the beginning, did not show up for this screening. Instead, he sent a non-Hmong speaking representative, Roy Magnuson, in his place.

In translation, Magnuson reiterated Lee’s position on this matter. “He wants to let the democratic system play out fairly.”

For this primaries, perhaps the only officially recognized screening process with endorsement implications took place on Saturday, July 24 when Take Action Minnesota invited all nine DFL candidates to participate in an open forum of Q & A.

After the screening, TAM members were given the opportunity to vote for the endorsement of a candidate. After the votes were counted, Vang Lor was awarded the important endorsement which helped to catapult his chances.

By this time, however, all the candidates had already committed hundred of hours, thousands of dollars and had already built campaign teams. It was obvious that nobody would be willing to drop out in the name of unification.

Foung Hawj, for instance, had already spent 12 hours a day door knocking and phone-banking since he threw his name on the ballot.

“People can complain and say that we didn’t do our part to put a Hmong person in the Capitol, but hindsight is always 20/20. If people were truly that concerned, they could have put more effort to support us!”

For Hawj, the experience he gained was worth the effort. As a man of the community, he said in a post-election interview, he got the opportunity to meet and speak to a wide range of East Siders, some of whom he hopes he was able to persuade to reach over racial lines.

“The one thing that I learned of great value from this experience is seeing the split between the haves and the have-nots and how decisions are often made by the small minority of people in power while the mass majority of  disenfranchised citizens are just too busy with life to bother with politics or even to get out and vote.”

“And one more thing I learned,” Hawj joked. “A lot of East Siders own dogs, so the next time somebody runs for office here, he could probably win on a dog-friendly platform.”

Asked how he thought Harrington won despite raising less money and putting up only a few signs as opposed to the Hmong candidates who spent a lot of time door knocking and putting up lawn signs, Hawj had two answers.

“Name recognition won out over grassroots campaigning and also Harrington was able to get a lot of cross-over Republicans to vote for him in this primary.”

Hawj pointed out the numbers, indicating how over the last two primaries in which Sen. Moua prevailed, the total number of DFL voters averaged roughly 2,500 in each of the primaries. In this election, however, nearly 7,000 voters came out to vote DFL.

“I’m hoping the spike in numbers is an indication that we were able to get out some new voters, because if you look at the demographics, the fastest growing and the youngest East Siders are Hmong. It’s clear to see, therefore, that the Hmong will not go away and I predict in the future, this will not be the last time a Hmong will run for office.”