Today was the DFL Senate District 59 convention at Edison High School. Julia and I were elected as delegates at our precinct caucus a few weeks ago, so we got up early on a Saturday morning to attend. We were out of there by 2:30, which isn’t bad for a district convention. Sadly, we were not elected to the state convention, though both of us ran for delegate positions.
The convention got off to a fast start. Since there were no opponents for our current slate of elected officials (Rep. Diane Loeffler, Rep. Phyllis Kahn, and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller), endorsing them took next to no time at all. Interspersed with the official convention business were speeches by people running for office, including several school board candidates, State Auditor Rebecca Otto, and a spokesperson from Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s campaign. Candidates for the most contested race, for governor, either appeared (Rep. Tom Rukavina, former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, Mayor R.T. Rybak, Rep. Paul Thissen) or had surrogates speak for them (Rep. Kahn and Rep. Loeffler spoke on behalf of Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, and people spoke on behalf of John Marty and Tom Bakk as well).
There was a minor hangup when it was found that a person running for the Central Committee was, in fact, the Republican opponent to Rep. Loeffler two years ago and former president of the Log Cabin Republicans. Felix Montez was not at the convention to defend himself or explain his party switch, and there was much argument over how best to ensure he was not elected. In the end, another person stepped forward to run and the convention gladly elected him instead of Mr. Montez. Too bad he wasn’t there to speak; that would have been an interesting conversation.
Finally, we got down to the main business of the day: electing delegates to the state convention. We subcaucused and subcaucused again, joining an uncommitted subcaucus (“Uncomitted” eventually narrowly won the delegate count later), and both Julia and I tried to get elected as delegate. Julia narrowly lost a runoff to be a delegate/alternative, while I didn’t really come close. In the end, the delegate totals were: seven for Uncommitted, six for Kelliher, five for Rybak, two for Thissen, one for Marty, and one for Rukavina. If this convention is any indication, the race for governor will not be decided for a while.
One of these times I’d really like to get elected as a delegate to the state convention, but given my zero batting average so far, it may require moving to a part of the state with fewer activists!
I took a bunch of pictures at the convention, so they will be put up as soon as I am done processing them.