Focus on local units in the face of endorsement challenges

The Minnesota State Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party has had years of trouble connecting with it’s local party units, but things are slowly turning around with Party Chair Brian Melendez. Melendez was elected to be Chair in 2005 stepping in after Mike Erlandson (currently running against DFL endorsee Keith Ellison for Congressional District 5) stepped down early.Melendez said, “The state party had not been paying enough attention to local units and our party unit chairs are very important, they are the party.