Newbies Welcome
By Mitch Berg
Bess Folsom, a Campus Republican from Gustavus Adolphus, attended her first MNGOP convention this past weekend. She wrote as good a report of the climactic moment – Marty Seifert’s dramatic, aggressively-conciliatory concession – as anyone in this piece on her experiences at the event:
Two ballots, hundreds of handshakes, multiple cups of coffee, and one epic parade of “Seifert v. Emmer” enthusiasts later the delegation was getting ready to start a third ballot. With Emmer in the lead and the Seifert supporters standing firm, we were all prepared for a long night. Suddenly Marty came running to the stage and energetically grabbed the mic. It was then he announced that he wanted to throw his support behind Tom Emmer to elect Tom as the next governor of Minnesota. The Emmer crowd went crazy and the Seifert supporters looked like they’d seen a ghost.
Marty instructed his supporters to take off their Seifert stickers and slap on some Emmer ones. He was passionate as he urged the delegation to unanimously endorse Tome Emmer. And so it was done.
Tom came bouncing to the stage and embraced Marty. Balloons were falling down as the Emmer clan surrounded the two men, all grinning and happy stage one of the fight was over. It was a quintessential scene of unity. As corny as it sounds, I actually had goosebumps.
I was talking with Michael Brodkorb – deputy party chair and my former co-host on the Northern Alliance – as we were walking to the afterparty . The final scene was spontaneous, of course – when Marty Seifert’s vote totals dropped rather than rose on the second ballot, he clearly knew that it was time to wrap it up. He had the option of stalking away petulantly, of course (not that he would have), but he instead chose to make it a dramatic unifying event.
But it almost looked choreographed; it was so perfectly timed. People were casting their third ballots; many had been glued to their seats since 9AM, and there’d been no lunch break, and suddenly at the crack of 5PM, just in time for the evening news and a well-earned dinner, we had this rousing outburst of class, unity and reconciliation?
Of course, if you’ve seen political parties trying to choerograph anything, you’d know how far-fetched that was.
Anyway, it was a great convention – and, I have to hope, a clear signal to Minnesota, coming after the snarky and indecisive DFL gathering in Duluth…was it really only a week earlier?
It was a great convention. I’ve been to three State conventions, now, and this was by far the best. Tony Sutton and Michael Brodkorb and the whole staff should feel proud of their efforts; while there will always be complaints (and I’ll be registering at least one of them), it was a smooth, open and participatory a political convention as I’ve ever seen.
May 3rd, 2010 at 9:23 am
“when Marty Seifert’s vote totals dropped rather than rose on the second ballot, ”
I don’t think that’s correct (minor point). First ballot he had 859, second he had 876.
May 3rd, 2010 at 9:29 am
Hm. For whatever reason, I had the impression he’d dropped around 50. I know Emmer went up in my CD.
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:42 am
As luck would have it, I was out behind the bleachers inhaling lunch with a couple other people when this happened. I got back when Tom was giving his “thank you” speech.
May 3rd, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Both guys scored more votes on the second ballot – after the three 1% candidates were dropped. Emmer took an additional 2% and Seifert took an additional 1% on the second ballot. I’m convinced Marty did the right thing to pre-empt the third ballot. I think it is safe to say an additional 4% of delegates (what Emmer needed for 60%) who voted for Seifert were of the opinion both guys were just fine (I was one of them) and willing to endorse sooner than later.