Progressives all over the country are mobilized.

They've beaten establishment candidates in Birmingham, Alabama and Jackson, Mississippi, and may soon do the same in Atlanta, Georgia and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This in no way means that the Democratic establishment will just roll over, and what happened in Minneapolis the other day is proof.



that first vote was counted and announced, with the results as follows: State Rep. Ray Dehn got 32.44 percent of the 1,253 voting delegates, Council Member Jacob Frey 27.83 percent, Hodges 24.19 percent and former Hennepin Theater Trust leader Tom Hoch 10.6 percent.

...

But that second ballot never happened. After another 90 minutes of hanging around, some backroom deal-making and a brief-but-still-somewhat-bitter debate, the convention was adjourned without an endorsement for mayor.

That came after operatives for Hodges, Frey and Hoch agreed to support the adjournment vote over the objections of Dehn. While he said he doubted he would have gotten to the 60 percent endorsement threshold, Dehn said he thought his share of the delegates would have grown in subsequent votes. That he was denied that opportunity played into his message — that he's the outsider taking on a party establishment frightened by the incursion of new activists.

Betsy Hodges is the incumbent and establishment candidate who has the endorsements of the SEIU, Senator Al Franken and David Wheeler, president of the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation.

State Rep. Raymond Dehn, the guy who was leading, has the endorsement of just Our Revolution. Do you think that endorsement matters?

Hell ya!



In the race to get the endorsement for the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, 19 candidates were vying for three at-large spots and six district seats, a group that included five incumbents (although one was leaving a district seat to run for an at-large one). By the time voting was completed, all but one of the candidates endorsed by Our Revolution were endorsed.

In a related note, DINO Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. announced today that she'll be running for re-election eventhough half of Democratic voters want her to leave.



Feinstein has bucked the left wing of her party on occasion, including during the state's recent push to enact single-payer health care, and she is almost certain to face a primary challenge. On social media, allies of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., were quick to express their hunger for a fight.

In an amusing side-note, who do you think Markos is endorsing?



An even bigger threat might come from more established Democrats, like state Senate President Kevin de Leon, who has been openly considering a run for months...

Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the liberal Daily Kos blog, which is based in the Bay Area, said he wants to work with de Leon to "beat the most pro-Trump Blue-state Dem in the country!"

What a coinkidink? Markos wants to replace one establishment candidate with another.