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Eric Black Ink

DFL moves up convention dates

By Eric Black | 09/26/09

The DFL Central Committee Saturday morning voted to move the 2010 nominating convention from its traditional June date to April 23-25. The DFLers will convene in Duluth. (The Minnesota GOP has already taken a similar action and is scheduled to convene the following weekend, April 29-May 1, in Minneapolis.)

The schedule changes could and probably will influence the races for governor. In his official announcement of the schedule change, DFL Chair Brian Melendez suggested that the new schedule "makes our endorsed candidate even more competitive and lets DFLers rally behind their choice earlier, so that we can build greater momentum for the general election." But there's a little fudging in that quote. Since it is widely assumed that the DFL endorsee will face a primary campaign involving three or more serious candidates. the full DFL cannot really unite behind a nominee until after the primary, which traditionally has been held in September. Next year, as I previously reported, the primary will probably be forced by a change in federal law to be moved to August.

It is less clear that the Republican endorsee will face a primary challenge. It's an obvious advantage for the GOP if they can unite behind a nominee on May 1 while the DFL is tied up in a primary.

But if the primary is in August, a DFL convention date move from June to April probably will increase the endorsee's chance of  surviving the primary. The endorsement is going to be hard-fought and will occupy the eventual endorsee until the convention. The likely primary challengers, former Sen. Mark Dayton and former state Rep. Matt Entenza, will be rested and have plenty of funds. (Although I should note that Entenza is seeking the endorsement but preparing to run in a primary whether or not he gets it.)

If the endorsement wasn't decided until June, the endorsee would have just two months to retool and fund-raise for a primary and to take advantage of the other advantages that come with the endorsement (phone banks, party lists, DFL resources, etc.) Moving the convention, and therefore moving the endorsement, back to April, probably helps the endorsee in that regard.

One more thought on the April date. Mayors R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis and Chris Coleman of St. Paul are preparing to run for governor, but won't make it official until at least November because both of them will be on the ballot for reelection to their current jobs. And earlier convention gives them less time to formally and officially court delegates. On the other hand, there will be a legislative session in early 2010, which will occupy the time of the several guv candidates who are seeking the endorsement (Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Sens. Tom Bakk and John Marty, Reps. Tom Rukavina and Paul Thissen) will be distracted by their legislative duties and will be barred from accepting contributions from lobbyists until the session ends.

So the only DFL candidates who would have neither the late-start problem of the two mayors nor the distraction and fund-raising limitations of the legislators would appear to be Dayton (who is not mounting a serious bid for the endosrement anyway) and Entenza plus Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner and former state Sen. Steve Kelley.

Comments (3)

Submitted by Mark Gisleson on September 27, 2009 - 2:12pm.

No news here. The party activists are staking their claim on this race.

Eric, I hope you break the firewall on Minnesota news media NEVER reporting or analyzing the microscopically small number of individuals who vote in the DFL endorsement process.

Using the caucus system for endorsement purposes is first and foremost an astonishing abuse of the caucus process. Caucuses are ideal for strengthening political parties, but DFLers perversely use theirs to create even deeper fissures within their party.

Take less than ten percent of the Democrats in any given precinct, and then haphazardly select a handful of them to go on to the first round of conventions where they will be winnowed down even further. Create a secondary option with CD conventions and then let your delegates bask in the attention of endorsement-seeking candidates who ignore the electorate to pander to the select few who actually get to cast a vote at the state convention.

How can democracy possibly be served by letting a fraction of a fraction of one percent of Minnesota Democrats choose the fairest candidates of them all?

This is a Democratic state by nature, but you wouldn't know it by our election results. No other caucus state has so perverted this process and so emphatically crippled itself as the DFL has.

Submitted by Bernice Vetsch on September 28, 2009 - 4:08pm.

It might help if more people attended their precinct caucuses (better promotion?). And perhaps if the caucus locations were open all day and evening, instead of just a couple of hours in the evening, so people who didn't want to offer resolutions could drop in and cast their votes for endorsement whenever it was convenient.

Submitted by Tom Horner on September 29, 2009 - 8:59am.

Two other side effects of switching the convention dates that are worth noting:

What additional pressure does it put on the Speaker to resign her leadership position now that the endorsing convention comes at a critical juncture in the session?

In a session not expected to accomplish much, do the earlier conventions raise the stakes that more harm will be done? Gubernatorial candidates and other legislators will be spending many weekends during session attending local and district conventions where a premium will be on loyalty to the core issues of both parties, not on fixing the budget problems.