Update [4;28 p.m. Friday]: CQPolitics just came out with an article about congressional endorsing conventions in Minnesota (Minnesota Parties Painfully Inch Toward Picking Congressional Candidates)
, and we're immediately struck by the difference in coverage between the local papers on the ground in the district and a report from the Beltway, wherein a reporter talked to some Republicans.
Just a we did in 2006, we'll trust the local press over those spoonfed by Republican party insiders. We're not sure why readers should trust the judgment of party officers and staff who couldn't even talk Dick Day out of running in the primary, but there you go [end update].
After reading our post about district press coverage where we noted that the Mankato Free Press had chosen to leave its MN-01 GOP convention article out of the free publicly accessible online edition, a kind friend sent us the article.
We read the opening paragraphs with fascination:
Local Republicans are expecting a close battle and a long day of speeches and ballot- counting when they gather Saturday in Albert Lea to pick their candidate to take on freshman Democratic Congressman Tim Walz of Mankato.
That explains the excitement over a speech by Norm Coleman in Albert Lea's daily. The Free Press continues:
It takes 60 percent support to win the party's endorsement, and the race between Dr. Brian Davis of Rochester and state Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield could be so close that it will take most of the day and multiple ballots for one of them to crack 60 percent, said Blue Earth County Republican Party Chairman Jerry Groebner.
"I was talking to one of them the other day and he said 'Are you going to stick with me through 10 or 12 ballots?'," Groebner said. "I said, ' It may take that long.'" Evidence of the closeness of the contest came with the candidate's in-person appeals to individual delegates as recently as last week, said Nicollet County GOP Chairman Richard Tostenson.
So what's causing the delegates to have such difficulties in distinguishing between the candidates? The MFP reports that Demmer has a slight lead among the Blue Earth County delegation, but continues:
People are struggling to choose partly because the two candidates are very similar on the major issues, according to Tostenson, who said taxes and other economic concerns are trumping social issues for many delegates.
Even the delegates struggle with the "peas in a pod" quality of the candidates. The closeness of the race resembles earlier long endorsement battles in the GOP. The article closes with a memory drawn from one of the county Republican chairs:
The close race and the prospects for a drawn- out contest had each [county chair] thinking about previous gubernatorial endorsing conventions that spilled over into a second day. For Groebner, it was the 1990 battle in Duluth ultimately won by Jon Grunseth. The balloting went until 2 a.m. before delegates took a break and resumed at 8 a.m.....
Being the good progressives that we are, we probably shouldn't give out free helpful advice to our pachyderms companions, but our blogger nature gets the better of us this sunny afternoon. Note to First District Republicans: if your endorsement battle goes long into the afternoon and evening, describe it in terms of this recent convention contest, not the 1990 Grunseth endorsement.
Just saying.
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