The MN Senate District 51 Convention

Earlier today I participated as a delegate to the MN State Senate District 51 convention. Here is an account of the day's events.

We started a little late, about 9:12 am. Andy (of Residual Forces) as SD51 chair welcomed. His mother, Bev, would serve as convention chair for the day. Ron Pecoraro would serve as convention secretary.

Bev read a letter from Gov. Pawlenty which talked about GOP accomplishments. (Pawlenty could not be there as he is in Iraq.)

Andy Westerberg, who is not running again as the MN House rep from my district, addressed the convention next. He received a standing ovation from the convention.

The various committees were approved as listed on the agenda.

We received the preliminary credentials report. There were 212 delegates elected to the convention. A total of 122 were seated.

Next, MN State Senator Limmer addressed the convention. He reminded us of the importance of the Senate races this year, as the DFL has the majority. SD51 is currently represented by a DFLer, Don Betzold, who does not represent Republican values to say the least.

We received the treasurers report from Tim Kirk. The district had $2,400 in its account.

Barb Thomas, chair of the Search/Nominations Cmte, explained the duties of the Cmte, and said the candidates for state offices registered with the cmte were in order.

Andy spoke again and reminded us of the importance of volunteering and working for the races and issues at all levels.

We waited for awhile on the second credentials report, which came at 10:15 am. Throughout the day, there seemed to be some dead spots where not much was happening.

The official totals were 149 seated delegates.

Debbie Kennedy, the wife of US Senate candidate Mark Kennedy, addressed the convention next on behalf of her husband. She said he was a perfect voting attendance record in Congress. She talked about the importance of grass roots efforts. She mentioned one of the campaign's signature lines. She said 2 out of 3 Senators are lawyers, so how about sending a CPA to the Senate for a change.

Next, Jonathan Thomas presented the rules. There was a new rule for breaking ties. Ties would be broken by drawing cards from the same suit, Ace high. (Who says politics isn't wacky fun.) The rules were adopted as printed. We then proceeded to the endorsement process.

We started with the SD51 Senate candidate, as there was only one, Pam Wolf. She spoke for a few minutes. She said "God does not call the prepared, He prepares the called." She said that applied to her. She said we should represented in taxation, we should define marriage as one man and one woman, she is pro-life, a teacher, believed in the proper use of eminent domain and the right to bear arms. She received a standing ovation at the end of her remarks.

A motion was made and passed for the convention to endorse her. She proudly accepted.

Next, Ron Carey, the chairman of the MN GOP, addressed the convention. He brought up Dean Johnson and his "sanding off the truth." He said Johnson should be accountable. He said the DFL has said of Johnson "Dean Johnson is a moral leader for MN." (There's the DFL getting their black and white mixed up again.) Carey talked about what is the national Republican strategy this year, and that is to make this election about a choice between Democrats and Republicans. Do we really want Democrats and all they stand for to be elected to positions of power? We need to remind Minnesotans of what we stand for and what the DFL stands for.

We then handled the endorsement for the only candidate for the 51B House seat, Bill Loshe (sp?). He is a retired police officer. The district delegates moved to endorse him, and the motion passed. He accepted the nomination.

Next up was the 51A endorsement, and for that, we rearranged ourselves so we were all sitting in our precincts. (The process reminded me of milling cattle.)

At that point, Michele Bachmann came and addressed the convention, at about 11:27 am. Her husband was also there, and they are celebrating their 50th birthdays. She talked about the growth in the district. The MN 6th is the most pro-life district per capita in the nation. She said it was an honor to be considered by the convention, and she was running for the right reasons. The country should be strong, free and proud. She has several family members in the military. We all have a personal stake in our freedom, and our country is strong and prosperous because of it. Someone is always trying to take it away and we need to fight to keep it. She talked about her accomplishments. She said she has titanium in her spine, and that she's won Woodbury and Lino Lakes, areas where Patty Wetterling won last time around. She received a standing ovation at the end of her remarks.

Next, Jay Esmay spoke. He said he is frustrated with the performance of Congress, including Republicans. (No argument here.) Incumbents are more concerned with getting reelected, and he's running to be something different. He talked about his military background (which I admire and respect), and his business experience. He talked about who could get elected, and said he could appeal to those in the middle. He would compete best with Wetterling, and Republicans win on the issues. He did not receive a standing ovation, perhaps a sign of the depth of support among the delegates.

Jeff Johnson spoke next. He is the only GOP candidate so far for the MN Attorney General. He would focus on protecting MN from criminals, as opposed to Hatch, who uses the office to publicize himself. Jeff said AG does not stand for "Almost Governor."

There was an amendment to the credentials report, with the final total of seated delegates being 157.

Then, we got to the MN House 51A seat endorsement. By random draw, Brad Biers (whom I am supporting) spoke first. He was nominated by David Watkins and seconded by Mark Arnold.

Brad talked about his background, and public service. He is pro-life, pro-marriage, a fiscal conservative. He supports something like Colorado's effort to limit the increase in government spending to the rate of inflation. He wants tax credits and vouchers for real school choice. He believe Anoka County should get to vote on the stadium tax issue, and he's been endorsed by David Strom and the Taxpayers League.

Next, Dave Clark (Blaine City Council and Andy Westerberg's campaign manager) nominated Robyn West. Seconded by Kent Bender.

Robyn spoke then, said she's lived in Blaine for 16 years. She wants a cap on property taxes.

There was a 10 min. Q&A period. Both candidates said they would abide by the endorsement. (On the whole, Brad was stronger on specifics in answering the questions. In my humble opinion.)

We cast our ballots and then broke for lunch till 1:15 pm. The ballots were counted over lunch. When we returned, the results were announced. Brad Biers had won the endorsement by a vote of 80 to 31.

Both candidates then spoke. West spoke first, and she received a standing ovation. She graciously asked her supporters to support Brad. A largely ceremonial motion was made to make the endorsement unanimous, and it passed.

We then split into our various congressional districts. Districts 4 and 5 went out of the main hall, and we in District 6 stayed in the main hall.

At that point, Phil Krinkie spoke to us. He started with Ben Franklin's quote, that we'll have a republic if we can keep it. He asked what do we need to do to keep this republic. He said we have enemies who want to harm us. Illegal immigration is a burden. He quoted Jefferson, "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." He would go to Washington and take up the fight. He supports a Balanced Budget Amendment. (That was clearly meant to be an applause line, but there was no applause. Not entirely sure why. Perhaps people were getting tired by that point.) After his remarks, a multimedia presentation on Krinkie played on the screen. It was stopped before it was over as Krinkie's allotted time limit was up. He received a partial standing ovation when he was done.

Jim Knoblach spoke next. He said only 5 of the last 96 MN House elections have been open seats. He said all four candidates are similar, so how to distinguish between them. He said he was a record of getting things done in the MN Legislature. He referred indirectly to the other candidates. He said one was behind Wetterling by double digits, one was a single-issue candidate, and one voted against Katie's Law. He argued he can get elected in the fall. He did not receive a standing ovation at the end of his remarks.

Then, we got to the matter of electing delegates to the Congressional District and State conventions. Anyone who wanted to stand for election registered there name. There were 72 people who came forward, including me, to stand for the 21 allotted delegates and 42 alternates.

While we were doing that, Harold Shudlick addressed the convention. He is also running for the US Senate, and is a long long shot.

A motion was made to have separate elections for delegates to the CD and State conventions, but that failed. So, delegates elected would go to both.

Also in the middle of all this, we talked about the resolutions. Some were stricken. After going through the first couple of sections, we were running out of time, so the remaining sections were passed in blocs.

A motion was made to reduce the time allotted for delegate candidates to speak from 1 minute to 30 seconds. All of us who wanted to be delegates spoke briefly then. Basically just our names, and a little something about ourselves.

When that was completed, we voted for the delegates. There were no printed ballots. Our names were on the overhead screen, and we just wrote down on a sheet of paper 21 names.

The Bachmann campaign is highly organized, and they had a slate of their candidates already prepared. Those of us who support Bachmann could then vote for other delegates we knew supported Bachmann. The lack of a printed ballot made it easier for us who had this printed slate.

Some have objected to the use of slates, (e.g. see here and here) but I say I would expect every campaign to do exactly that. It is a numbers game, it is the system we have. I am surprised the other campaigns did not do this.

I think one thing very apparent in this race is that the Bachmann campaign is out-hustling the other candidates on the ground. Bachmann is running a professional political campaign, and it shows in details like the prepared slate. They have kept track of who their supporters are, they have called their supporters to see who would attend the convention, and they kept track of who came today.

I received a call from the Bachmann campaign not long after the caucus, and as I wrote about earlier, Michele was kind enough to visit me at my home. Since that visit, I received several calls from the Bachmann campaign making sure I was planning to attend the convention, and asked if I intended to stand for delegate to the CD.

I received a couple of calls from a representative from the Krinkie campaign, but wasn't home at the time. To their credit, they kept trying till they did get ahold of me. I received one call from Jay Esmay himself a couple days before the convention. I received no calls from the Knoblach campaign.

In a variety of ways, the Bachmann campaign is the best organized, and to me it is another sign of why Michele would be the best US Representative from the MN 6th.

After casting our ballots, the convention adjourned at 2:52 pm.

Since the votes were cast by writing 21 names on a piece of paper, counting the ballots was going to take a long time. They said we could be contacted about the results. As of this writing, I haven't heard the results yet, so I don't know if I will be a delegate to the CD convention on May 6th.

-----
Apparently I missed the spy in our midst.

Andy is going to get some sleep.