Susan Allen Snags DFL Endorsement for 61B

The DFL primary may not have even happened yet, but Kingfield and the rest of state House District 61B now know who the party's candidate to replace now-Sen. Jeff Hayden will be.

Political newcomer Susan Allen got the nod Saturday afternoon at the local DLF committee's endorsing convention. and , her two DFL opponents, have both said they will suspend their campaigns rather than run against the party's endorsement. Her chief opponent now will be , a independent candidate running on a liberal platform.

"I'm really proud to get this endorsement," Allen said. "We all worked really hard for this."

Allen had picked up endorsements from many prominent DFLers around the metro, including City Councilmember Robert Lilligren state Rep. Karen Clark, and state Sen. Scott Dibble. While she praised both her opponents as "really good candidates," Allen said she believes her aim of reaching out to infrequent voters won over delegates, along with her success in what she called "very difficult political climates" in Native American tribal politics.

, Allen said her biggest priority would be serving as "a voice for those left out" of the traditional political process.

She said plans to put that knowledge to use to increase voter participation—a critical issue for Democrats in the 2012 election.

"You get there (the legislature), but you can only do so much unless you have people—voters—voting in large number saying what they want to get done," she said.

Along with increasing voter participation, Allen said she is focused on equal healthcare access, leveraging federal matching grants for infrastructure development, education funding and pushing for a new tax structure that taxes services and increases taxes on the wealthy.