On Saturday, political newcomer Brian Davis, a Mayo Clinic physician, won the Republican Party's endorsement for the 1st District congressional seat. Davis defeated Rep. Randy Demmer in the endorsement fight. But the celebration surely was muted, because before Davis can take on incumbent DFLer Tim Walz in November, he must first go up against state Sen. Dick Day of Owatonna in a September primary.

Day ruffled all sorts of party feathers by announcing months ago that he was going to bypass the endorsement process and go straight to the primary.

"There are 394,000 voters in the 1st District,'' Day said this morning. "Why should 250 of them spend a few hours at a meeting on a Saturday and have the power to say, 'Your career is over, pal,' or 'We like you so we want you to keep going'? It's a process that's never made sense to me.''

Day always has been a feather-ruffler. When he won his state Senate seat in 1990, he bypassed endorsement and then knocked out an incumbent, Mel Fredrick, by a percentage point, in the primary. He rose to become Senate minority leader, stepping down from that post in 2006.