Hennepin County Republicans had their endorsing convention today at the Medina Ballroom. This event is not to be confused with the Republicans' Third Congressional District Convention, April 19 at the Thunderbird, where Erik Paulsen will formally be endorsed as the Republican candidate for US Congress. Paulsen addressed the crowd today, briefly.
At the lectern, Erik Paulsen averred, 'I will not be out-hustled in this race;' he now utters this sentence in every public appearance. The sentence recalls the psychic environment of a junior high basketball game or a type-A father's halftime pep talk, circa 1980. The phrase also seems to predict an issues-free political contest in which Erik's zip and bounce-pass will be pitted against the DFL candidate's. I didn't get a chance to chat with Paulsen today.
Have you noticed that Paulsen's website doesn't include any reference to the fact that he is a Republican? It's fascinating, imho, that in his party Paulsen isn't catching flack for this. At today's convention, MN GOP Chair (and Mike Huckabee-fan) Ron Carey bragged that he'd earlier today punished a sitting MN GOP legislator for failure to stick with the GOP caucus on the transportation bill. And Limmer and Johnson were clearly locked in a competition over who'd be perceived as the pro-life conservative purist. It's weird then that Paulsen isn't required to throw serious red meat to the GOP activist base. Carey went on to rant against the evil liberals' goal of secularism--and raised not a peep of objection.
Today's convention had one showdown: Delegates had to choose between Jeff Johnson and Sen. Warren Limmer for the Republican nomination for Hennepin County Commissioner. Johnson had much more money and flair; many people at the event sported his t-shirts and stickers.
Sen. Limmer looked like the more rock-ribbed conservative. Johnson had the flair battle won by a mile. When the candidates spoke, one noted Johnson's sunny disposition while Limmer emitted somewhat Nixonion vibrations. At the lectern Limmer was quite nervous and didn't get the response Johnson did. Then a video was played of Michele Bachmann, bête noire of the Minnesota liberal, strongly endorsing Limmer. Around the time of the second ballot, Johnson mentioned to me he didn't think the video format had much impact, and I completely agree with him. If Bachmann was in the room, she'd be putting much more on the line, but the video endorsement certainly only had a fraction of the impact a live appearance might.
After Limmer spoke, he happened to come down and speak to a guy standing right next to me--and he was still shaking; he even said to the political ally 'I shake more after the speech than during it.' No diss to Limmer, in fact I have the same problem in speech-giving; he was the candidate today, however. Limmer's candidacy was also doomed by a certain backward-looking quality; he also had a sheet of paper put in front of every delegate that suggested an alternative in which Johnson would be made candidate for state senate. It showed a misunderstanding of the contest; 1,000+ people had devoted their Saturday to making a political choice. They didn't want to examine technocratic proposals for candidacy-juggling; they wanted to be excited and energized by their candidate. Johnson accepted the delegates' conventional understanding of today's process and succeeded. Limmer tried to re-frame the process but failed to persuade enough delegates that such a reconceptualization benefitted their interests.
I spoke to many delegates today and identified myself as a DFLer and a blogger. Almost all were extremely nice and enjoyed discussing the issues of the day. There was an old guy who kept referring to Obama as Yomama--which he found extremely witty--but in fact it is humanizing to observe the political meetings of one's less-favored political party. And for that I thank the Republicans for being nice to me today and not even complaining when I snapped a few shots on the convention floor (technically a no-no).
Click on the photo above to see a bunch more photos from today.
1 comments:
Gavin, I met you there I must say for DEM your one of the fairest one I've met. I can dialogue with you and talk intelligently that I think is a rarity. We didn't agree on too much but were civil which is good. the GOP is really open to all. It has short comings as do the dem's you can read my blog at the http://nortstatesman.com I'm more of a news aggregator then a blogging site.
Post a Comment