I Don’t Hate America!

By now you may have heard the news that former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has decided against running for governor in Minnesota.

While I am glad he has decided to finally get the hint from Minnesotans and stay away for a while, I’m quite disappointed as I would have been amused by the rioting that the hardcore conservatives surely would have started had he sought the endorsement at the GOP convention.

While pundits are predicting gloom and doom for Democrats this year, let’s not kid ourselves: the Republican Party of Minnesota is still fighting for its very soul. While I predict the Tom Emmer vs. Marty Seifert floor fight to be brutal, nothing other than perhaps a Jim Ramstad gubernatorial campaign speech would have launched the convention into armageddon quicker than a Coleman candidacy.  I’m sure sentiments from party activists like this one played into Norm’s decision to not take part in a probable blood bath.

This means we need to look to the past to find controversy from a Minnesota GOP convention. Purely for the heckuvit, let’s take a trip WAY back.

Dateline: June 20, 1986 at the old St. Paul Civic Center for the Independent-Republican Party convention.  Betty Wilson in the Strib reported:

The first fight at the Independent-Republican convention in St. Paul was over signs.

On Wednesday, the day before the convention opened, gubernatorial candidate Marion (Mike) Menning’s campaign staff put up what it contends is the largest sign ever hung in the St. Paul Civic Center. It is 84 feet long and 20 feet wide, bears Menning’s name in huge white letters against a blue background and is suspended from the ceiling and facing the delegate seats.

Another Menning sign, 30 feet by 20 feet, was also hanging from the ceiling to greet delegates as they came onto the convention floor. But the Menning people were told Thursday that they would have to take it down as a compromise to placate the other candidates.

After hearing about the Menning coup, representatives of the other candidates, David Jennings and Cal Ludeman, cried foul. The convention  rules prohibited putting up signs until 9 a.m. yesterday, according to the Jennings and Ludeman representatives. Party staff members told the Menning people that one sign would have to come down as the compromise.

Menning spokesmen explained that they had to have help from the Civic Center staff in putting up the signs, and staff members said they had to do it Wednesday. Tom Dahlberg, Menning’s campaign manager, said it took eight people more than two hours to mount the larger sign.

Menning also has about 8,000 balloons in nets above the convention floor, ready to be released today when he is nominated and his supporters stage a demonstration.

As we know, those balloons never needed to leave the nets as Ludeman, now Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s human services commissioner who infamously admitted T-Paw’s veto of General Assistance Medical Care would affect the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor, received IR endorsement.  Maybe it was because of his stellar outreach to underrepresented groups?

Not more than 10 of the 2,082 delegates to the Independent-Republican Party convention in St. Paul are minorities, according to IR chairman Leon Oistad.

He estimated that five or six Hispanics and three or four blacks are delegates.

“We have very active black and Hispanic (affiliates) with the party,” Oistad said. “For whatever reason, not a great many of them have been elected as delegates to this convention. We’re actively trying to recruit members of minorities into the party.”

Or maybe it was because of his choice to adopt a strategy of cutting-edge political fashion statements as opposed to cutting-edge political technology?

Menning will track delegate movement between ballots tonight with the help of two personal computers in his war room and one portable computer on the floor. A laser printer is standing by to generate personal letters, five per minute, to key delegates. The computer-generated information will be passed to Menning floor leaders via walkie-talkie.

Jennings plans to use one personal computer to help him make the same effort, said volunteer Vic Ellison. But Ellison downplayed the significance of the service the computer will provide. “A computer can’t help anybody now. We’re down to one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat now,” he said.

All three campaigns have distinctive identifications for their floor leaders. District floor leaders for Jennings are wearing orange cowboy hats, and about 100 unit leaders have orange caps with visors.

Menning workers have painter’s caps with Menning’s name and are wearing pins and carrying walkie-talkies.

Ludeman’s floor leaders have straw hats with Ludeman’s name and large buttons with his picture.

After surviving all of the sign shenanigans to get the party endorsement at the convention as well as the surviving IR primary, Ludeman went on to lose to Gov. Rudy Perpich.  This year I’m confident our DFL endorsed candidate will be able to hold off whichever candidate emerges from the GOP side.  Of course, I have my own idea of who that endorsed candidate should be, but that’s a discussion for another evening: specifically precinct caucus evening, which is approaching soon on February 2nd!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 1:27 am and is filed under Tom Emmer, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Norm Coleman, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Marty Seifert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.