According to MDE, Tom Emmer is now in a statistical tie with Marty Seifert for the GOP Gubernatorial nod, with more than enough undecideds to completely change things by convention time, coming out of last weekend’s “Super Saturday” orgy of district conventioneering.

This means a bunch of things.  The remaining “Basic Political Organizational Unit” (BPOU – a legislative district in more populated areas, a county outstate) conventions are going to be fu-u-un (mine is Tuesday).  If you ever felt neglected at a convention before, that’s over.  And if things keep going this way, the state convention is going to be a donnybrook, perhaps every bit as intense as the 2002 MNGOP convention, where the vote for the gubernatorial endorsement took 16 days and 389 ballots.  Seeing as I’ll be covering the convention with the Northern Alliance this year, I can hardly wait.

But here’s the important part:  This is the one, single, solitary time in all of electoral politics when compromise truly is worthless.  Now is the time to get out and stand unstintingly for whatever it is you believe, and pull like crazy to see that those beliefs are enshrined in your candidates.  If you think Marty Seifert is the one hope the MNGOP has to hold onto the governor’s office (other than, of course, the DFL), then get out there and take no prisoners at your BPOU convention.  If you think Tom Emmer is the one person with the plan to save Minnesota, then come home with your shield or on it!  Carry the battle on at the Congressional District conventions, if you are selected as a delegate; when things progress to the convention in Minneapolis, then carry on the battle to the hundredth ballot, if need be.   Now is the time for principle to win out over compromise, politics and pragmatism!

And then, if you’re a Republican, once the last ballot is cast and the winner gives his acceptance speech, it’s time to look at the candidate.  If he’s the guy you supported all along, congratulations.  If not, ask yourselves two questions:

1. Look at what the nominee stands for.  Can you honestly say you agree with 70% of it?  And if you disagree with him on a few issues, but agree on most – or, even more so, if you disagree on a few issues that are not vital to Minnesota’s future, or over which the Governor really has no say anyway (I’m looking at all of you who clucked about Tim Pawlenty’s brief and fairly meaningless dalliance with the global warming cult, as if the Governor of Minnesota would be able to control the environment)?  Then bury the hatchet, and do it immediately.  Because the important question is…
2. …even if you disagree with the GOP nominee on 29.9% of issues, do you suppose you might disagree with one of the DFL’s pod of gabbling hamsters, Margaret Anderson “Ze Legislachah is an instrument and I am ze musician!” Kelliher and Mark “DUCK!” Dayton and Tom “Look, a shiny object” Rukavina and RT “look, tax money!” Rybak and John “All your health insurance are belong to me” Marty, even more?

If you can honestly say that you disagree with Tom Emmer or Marty Seifert more than any of them, then by all means, vote your conscience.

But if you believe that some vote that Tom Emmer or Marty Seifert took two years ago somehow makes them less fit to be governor than some vacuous DFL bobblehead, and you plan to sit the election out because of it?  We need to talk.