gordonThe one Minneapolis City Council seat in the clutches of the Green Party is likely to stay that way, unless a credible Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) candidate comes forward to take the place of Charles Carlson, the newly departed — and truly incredible — challenger to incumbent Cam Gordon. The Green stalwart, who won by 141 votes in 2005 after losing by only 106 votes in 2001, told the Minnesota Independent he plans to campaign for re-election as usual, but wouldn’t be surprised if the DFL decided to endorse no one to oppose him.

Competition to represent the area around the University of Minnesota campus has been hot since the 2001 primary loss by longtime incumbent Joan Campbell:  The 2005 contest to replace Campbell’s retiring successor, Paul Zerby, attracted four DFL rivals who battled for three ballots at the party’s endorsing convention   — has cooled off considerably.

“There obviously must be confidence” in the job he’s doing, Gordon said of his vanishing opposition, though he admitted he could improve and said he looks forward to suggestions from voters when he knocks on doors this year.

Coming from the Green Party, which unlike the city’s dominant DFL often takes a pass on endorsing in local races, Gordon said “it wouldn’t seem strange and unusual to me” for there to be no DFL endorsement in his race.

The lack of a credible DFL opponent “is a testament to Cam’s hard work and the fact that he represents the values and needs of the Second Ward,” says Michael Guest, a political consultant and campaign manager (most notably for DFL incumbent Don Samuels in the city’s Fifth Ward). But Guest (who I asked to comment after running into him just as I started to write this post) downplayed the differences between the two parties: “What DFLers are not [also] Green?”

One way the parties differ is the process by which they select candidates. While the DFL holds precinct caucuses to elect delegates to ward and city endorsing conventions, the Green Party gathers for citywide meetings on March 22 and again in April to discuss city election endorsements they’ll finalize at a May 9 meeting.