Shot in the Dark

Caucasus Tonight

It’s Caucasus night throughout Minnesota tonight.

Mount Ushbra, Georgia

Throughout the state, people will be joining their favorite tribe, dancing traditional their traditional folk dances, getting drunk on fermented goat milk, arranging marriages, and firing guns randomly into the air.

At the end of the evening, all the tribes will declare war on each other, duke it out, and adjourn til next year.

A Caucasus event in Chaska, 1994.

Hope to see you there.

UPDATE:  Ooops.  My bad.  Tonight is Caucus night.  Not Caucasus night.  I regret the error.

Tonight’s the night the the four major parties in Minnesota (the GOP, the Independence, and the DFL/Take Action Minnesota) pick the delegates that will lead to the endorsements to run for the major offices – Governor, Senate, and the various Congressional and State Legislative seats.  If you don’t like the way your party is working, tonight’s the night to try to do something about it.

I’ve never been to a DFL caucus, but I know Republican caucuses are usually not a huge time investment, especially if you duck out before the endless debates over the meaningless resolutions. Which I usually do.

DFL and Take Action Minnesota canvassers at caucus night, South Minneapolis, 2012.

If you’re new to caucuses, here’s the deal:  the point is not to write resolutions about issues that matter to you.  It’s to get people who support your candidates for the various offices – Governor, Senate, Congress, the Legislature – elected as delegates to the various rounds of conventions.

  • If you get selected as a delegate tonight, you’ll go to your “BPOU Convention” – that usually means your legislative House or Senate district, although in outstate Minnesota it might mean your county party convention – in March.  Those usually happen on a weekday evening, an hour or two.  No big deal.  There, you’ll endorse legislative candidates, and elect delegates to go to your…
  • …Congressional District convention, in (I think) April.  They usually eat up a Saturday morning.  There, you’ll endorse people to run for Congress, and elect delegates to the…
  • State Convention, in May, in Rochester.  This eats up a couple days.  There, the delegates that are at the end of the chain will endorse candidates for Governor and Senator.

It seems convoluted – but it makes sense, more or less.  To the extent the “Ron Paul” faction took over the GOP two years ago, or the Tea Party four years ago, or Michele Bachmann did it in the 6th CD eight years ago, they did it by getting their people out to caucuses and electing delegates that moved up the chain and elected more delegates. That’s pretty much it.

(On the DFL side, the conventions are run according to a system designed for utmost political correctness, so they are long and grueling, and lead to a series of conventions that end in the endorsement of candidates who will then lose in the primaries to whomever Alida Messinger and Take Action Minnesota support).

For further information on where and when your party’s caucuses are:

Hope to see you there!

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Mitch Berg

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13 responses to “Caucasus Tonight”

  1. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    We don’t caucus formally down here in real America. Neighbors just gather informally, usually on the porch, with a cold beer in hand, and agree it’s gonna be great to watch those stinking hippies get crushed like bugs again this year.

    (Yes, they’re still called hippies in South Carolina)

    This year we’ll probably agree that Lyndsey needs to be put out to pasture, and wonder who can beat him. That’s about it.

  2. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Caucasians only?

  3. Dog Gone Avatar
    Dog Gone

    I am fighting off a bad cold, but I think I’ll head over to the GOP caucus if I go; it’s likely to be more interesting.

    I want to promote a resolution deposing Kurt Daudt as minority leader of the House after his embarrassing gun incident which of course only serves to underline that the so called good guys with their guns, the cc permit holders, are not law abiding, not safe, don’t keep their guns secure, and exercise poor control over their firearms and even worse judgment in their conduct.

    Add to that his political judgment sucked; he should have not tried to keep it quiet, but should have taken control of the narrative and got it out himself.

    If the SYG legislation comes up this next term at the lege, the fact that his idiot friend is apparently still eligible for a cc permit as well, in spite of threatening a family with children with a firearm, having been physically violent with police, etc., if he plea bargains the Montana charges down to a misdemeanor.

  4. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    I want to promote a resolution deposing Kurt Daudt as minority leader of the House after his embarrassing gun incident which of course only serves to underline that the so called good guys with their guns, the cc permit holders, are not law abiding, not safe, don’t keep their guns secure, and exercise poor control over their firearms and even worse judgment in their conduct.

    Statistically, you are dead wrong, or as we have come to say around here, “you are dog gone”. One incident doesn’t change an entire nation full of evidence. Carry permittees are two full orders of magnitude less likely to commit any sort of crime than the general public.

    If the SYG legislation comes up this next term at the lege, the fact that his idiot friend is apparently still eligible for a cc permit as well, in spite of threatening a family with children with a firearm, having been physically violent with police, etc., if he plea bargains the Montana charges down to a misdemeanor.

    You are clearly unfamiliar with the law.

    But then, DG, I’m sorry to say – but when in doubt, I’ve come to find “the opposite of whatever DG says” is the right answer for pretty much every question.

    But get well soon.

    Hey – go back through a few of your more recent comments. I asked you a few questions. You wouldn’t duck a challenge, would you?

  5. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    DG,

    Here’s a question for you, while you fight that cold.

    You keep saying that carry permittees are “not safe”. But the statistics – I’ve posted them here many times in the past – utterly refute that claim. You are making things up, and have no statistical or evidenciary basis for your claim. It is a chanting point.

    But feel free to post the “evidence” you use to make that claim.

    I will, of course, not only debunk it, but post it prominently. But then that is the just consequence for making stuff up on a blog, isn’t it?

    So – let’s have it.

    Deal?

  6. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    It was nice to see gubernatorial candidates Kurt Zellers and Scott Honour endorse Congressman Kline’s campaign in the 2nd. Candidates Thompson and Johnson declined (no pun intended) to endorse Kline. Looks like the adults (with help from the business community) are back in control. Maybe there is hope for the GOP in MN this year.

  7. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    “I am fighting off a bad cold”

    Parvo.

  8. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    I am fighting off a bad cold, but I think I’ll head over to the GOP caucus if I go; it’s likely to be more interesting.

    Hahahahahahahahahahaha (cough, choke) hahahahahahahahhahahaha

    A very tense night at a caucus site in Minneapolis where DFLer Mohamud Noor is challenging longtime DFL state Rep. Phyllis Kahn. The heat in one Minneapolis location resulted in police being called out. With 300 people at the Byan [sic] Coyle Center, a fight broke out and people rushed the stage. After the melee, the Minneapolis police shut down the caucus.

  9. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    JPA – it’s a good thing the DFL is committed to keeping its constituents disarmed.

  10. kel Avatar
    kel

    doesn’t anyone have video of the Mohamud Noor/Phyllis Kahn multicultural lovefest?

  11. Scott Hughes Avatar
    Scott Hughes

    ” the cc permit holders, are not law abiding”

    DG, this is just another incident in an endless list where you let your mouth run! I could give a rats ass about your feelings for Kurt Daudt, but you need to specify what LAW or what CRIME he is accused of, and if you can’t then STFU.

  12. J. Ewing Avatar
    J. Ewing

    Hmmm. Usually, delegates elected at the BPOU conventions go to BOTH CD and State conventions. There isn’t another delegate election at the CD convention, except in Presidential years when a National Delegate (or two or three) is chosen.

  13. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    J. Ewing,

    You’re right. I need to do something more than every other year to remember it reliably .

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