Wishful Thinking
By Mitch Berg
Now that the DFL has endorsed Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, they get to answer the question “we endorsed who? How? Why?”
The DFL endorsement is a traditional kiss of death. The DFL’s real candidates, Dayton and Entenza and Gaertner, are all going directly to the primary – itself an indication of how out-of-touch the DFL’s power elite and activists are.
The conventional wisdom is that the GOP, which will have a candidate this weekend, is going to have a three month head start on the actual campaign, while the DFL dukes it out among itself until the August primary.
The conventional wisdom omits that the Strib is going to be running interference for the DFL:
Republicans claimed to be gleeful over Kelliher’s endorsement. GOP Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb said Kelliher has presided over an “ineffective Legislature.” He visited the DFL convention to watch its party contest.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Marty Seifert said, “While the Republican Party will be united behind one candidate in less than a week, the DFL will have a bruising primary battle for months.”
But Democrats were quick to praise their convention for its civility. “This was the most courteous, cordial convention I can remember,” veteran delegate Randy Schubring, of Rochester, said Saturday.
So what? Let’s see if they can say that in July.
Republicans may not be able to say the same thing. In advance of Friday’s gathering to pick the GOP gubernatorial candidate, Seifert and Tom Emmer, both members of the state House, waged a heated, testy fight for their party’s nod.
The two men have battled inside the party for years, developing a bitter rivalry even before they were leading candidates for their party’s endorsement. Their supporters appear to have no end of enmity for their rivals, shaping a battle thatwill spill onto the GOP convention floor.
Rubbish. There is an end to the emnity. It’s what conventions are for, for starters.
And if for some reason the GOP forgets what’s really at stake in this election, there a couple hundred thousand Tea Partiers (or as the Strib says, “dozens”) out there who’ll be happy to remind them.
It’s in the Strib’s interest, of course, to try to fan the conflict – or any conflict the can find – within the GOP. Because if Kelliher is the DFL’s idea of a gubernatorial candidate, it’s gonna be a rough summer for the DFL and, thus, the Strib.
Fearless prediction: expect a “Minnesota Poll” showing Kelliher with a decisive lead in the very near future.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:25 am
Just think of all the non-democrats that will vote in the primary!
April 26th, 2010 at 7:25 am
Mitch, This wasn’t a lovefest in Duluth. I collected a bunch of tweets in this post that didn’t sound all that gracious. That’s before talking about the DFL preventing Mark Dayton from the convention hall but letting Matt Entenza deliver a speach. At the end of his speech, he announced, to nobody’s surprise, that he was taking his name out of consideration for the endorsement & heading directly for the primary.
April 26th, 2010 at 8:54 am
Fearless predicitions #1: The Strib will shill for any DFL candidate regardless of identity. #2: they will do more than one big story about Emmer’s DUI history because it’s “important”. #3: Kelliher will stumble walking off stage and crush Nick Coleman to death.
April 26th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Was the DFL convention courteous and cordial before they banned Dayton or only after the fact?
April 26th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Kermit, your #3 will be seen as an incitement to violence and a damning indictment of all Tea Party followers.
April 26th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I can’t hardly wait for the next Lori Sturdevant column!
April 26th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Nah, #3 will just lead to a call for better inspection of political podium construction. They’ll name the bill the Nick Coleman Public Safety Measure in his honor.
April 26th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Iwas hoping, actually praying that they would endorse Maggy. From what I’ve heard she spent a ton just to get the endorsement and at the current time has very little money. We’ll see if she can raise some more dough, Dayton and Entenza can spend like drunken sailers from their own pockets, and most certainly will. This is going to be fun, fun, fun to watch!!!!!!
The Emmer and Seifert battle may get a little messy but I don’t think it will be anything even close to the Dem bloodletting.
April 26th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mitchpberg. mitchpberg said: Strib – already running cover for Kelliher: http://bit.ly/dANDYD #hhrs #narn2 – Expect a "Minnesota Poll" showing her w/big lead soon! […]
April 26th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Regarding the DFL primary, someone’s gonna get the plurality of the vote. I see Entenza and Dayton spending a lot of money trying to get non-party activist DFL’ers to the polls. I can see Large Marge winning the primary just because of her party endorsement and the benefits (money, voter lists, volunteers) that go with it.
Each candidate has their flaws. The hard part is gonna be trying to decide who I’m gonna vote for when I cross over and vote in the DFL primary later this year.
On a side note, I have to tell many of you that I have problems with Tom Emmer. I feel he has been less than honest (and I speak from personal experience) about his DWI’s and his vote on the Twins stadium. I have found him to be somewhat of a grandstander and bloviator while he’s in committee and on the floor.
If he’s our nominee (and I pray he won’t be because the DFL looks at him as being the easist of our candidates to beat in November), I’ll vote for him – but with no enthusiasm.
April 26th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
I forgot is MN an open primary? If so we should do our own “operation chaos” and get a bunch of conservative activists to vote for Dayton.
April 26th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Steve, the issue was covered and trust me, Emmer workers are much more excited and loyal than the Seifert people.