Minnesota Lawyer
Rena Moran’s plan is more than simply to get elected. Moran wants to deliver as many votes as possible to up-ticket DFLers. (Submitted photo)
In the last 23 years, House District 65A has sent just two lawmakers to the Capitol: Andy Dawkins, who represented the central St. Paul district from 1987 until 2002, and his successor, Cy Thao. During that time, the district boundaries have moved twice, but much has stayed the same. It remains among the most ethnically diverse, poverty-stricken and heavily Democratic legislative districts in the state.
Following Thao’s retirement, district voters will send a new representative to the Legislature in November, and by all accounts that will be the DFL-backed candidate, Rena Moran. She’s facing perennial Republican candidate Paul Holmgren, who hasn’t received more than 21 percent of the vote in the last three cycles.
One thing is bound to be different this time around: No black lawmaker has ever represented St. Paul in the Legislature. (Moran is likely to be joined in that distinction by former St. Paul police chief John Harrington, who is running for Sen. Mee Moua’s old seat in Senate District 67.)
The significance, it seems, isn’t lost on Moran and others in the district. “Of course it’s exciting,” said Johnny Howard, a community activist in the Frogtown neighborhood. “It’s history.” Moran says some voters in her district aren’t even aware of that fact. “It really fascinates me,” she said plainly, “that in the 21st century I would be the first African American legislator from St. Paul.”
Just eight years ago, the district broke comparable diversity barriers. Thao was just the second Hmong state lawmaker in the country, following close on the heels of Moua, who won a special election earlier that year.
But amid the recession, the most urgent issues facing the district cut across racial and cultural lines, and most of them boil down to whether residents can provide for themselves and their family. “Having a good job crosses all cultures,” Howard said. “One of the things she’s talked about is really addressing things we have in common.”
Forcefully addressing those issues is a role that would seem to fit Moran well. Her activist sensibility about campaigning – she’s door knocking multiple times a week and goes out twice on Saturdays – was shaped in large measure by her path from being homeless to a candidate for state Legislature.
After arriving in the Twin Cities 10 years ago with six of her seven children, Moran and her family initially lived in a Minneapolis homeless shelter. Eventually, she got a job at Camp Snoopy in the Mall of America and moved out of the shelter. She later became an organizer with Urban Embassy, an outfit seeking to encourage political involvement by African Americans.
She also picked up organizing experience as a Wellstone Organizing Fellow, a graduate of the public policy program with Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington Counties and a veteran of neighborhood activist groups.
Those experiences, and the connections she’s made along the way, have carried over into the campaign. “It’s helped me continue to push through,” Moran said. “This is not easy work, so by doing it, and having done that, it allows me to keep that kind of spirit.”
That kind of background is a must for any lawmaker from House District 65A, according to former Rep. Andy Dawkins. That was where Thao fell short: He was seen as ineffective – too far removed from on-the-ground interaction with the people in his district and not active enough at the Capitol. It’s a gap Moran will need to fill, perhaps now more than ever as the district continues to reel from the recession’s effects.
“Some legislators are good at giving speeches and vote right, but are they activist types?” Dawkins said. “A poor district needs to have a very activist legislator.”
From housing and jobs to education and health care, there’s no shortage of issues facing the district, and putting those matters on legislative radar can be difficult for a lawmaker from a reliably DFL district, Dawkins said. “When you come from an 80-percent district, no one’s going to come try to help you,” he said. “But if you come from a suburban district that’s fairly well-to-do but is a tossup, you get all the help you need from lobbyists and leadership.”
The district, while reliable for the DFL, has had poor voter-turnout showings in the past, consistently running 10 to 20 percent lower than the state as a whole. And it certainly has issues that need addressing: Many in the district have lost their homes, the median income is $30,000 per year and just 6.4 percent of the people living there have a college degree. The coming Central Corridor light rail line has also spurred concern and debate among many of the residents and business owners along University Avenue, the district’s main thoroughfare.
Despite the sturdy DFL demographics of the area, Moran has continued campaigning heavily. The plan is more than simply to get elected. Moran wants to deliver as many votes as possible to up-ticket DFLers and thereby build influence for the district within the party and at the Legislature. The goal, she said, is to have 1,000 more voters at the polls in the district on Election Day than in 2006, when 51.5 percent of the district’s eligible voters cast ballots.
“It is a heavy DFL district, and I think if we come out and vote in numbers we have the potential to really impact the governor’s race,” Moran said. “My campaign is a campaign about all of us. It takes more than me at the Capitol to do that.”
The DFL has responded well to the infusion of get-out-the-vote efforts and activity in the district. Moran has appeared at rallies with figures ranging from gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton and Ramsey County sheriff candidate Matt Bostrom to county attorney candidate John Choi and U.S. Rep Betty McCollum.
Bob Spaulding, the DFL district chair, said that in his eight or nine years around the district, he’s never seen such a high level of excitement among voters, much of which he attributes to Moran. He said that after she won the 65A primary over the party’s endorsed candidate, Jeremiah Ellis, Moran immediately pronounced it her goal to help bring more DFLers over the finish line with her on Election Day. “The DFL hasn’t been great in these districts” in the past when it comes to stirring voter enthusiasm and turnout, Spaulding conceded. But he added, “She has specific goals in terms of really boosting turnout. That has been a passionate driver for her.”
