DFL SD 62 delegates

The chair of the SD 62 DFL, Loren Olson, emailed out the results of the elected delegates from last Saturday's convention. The delegates were elected for the 5th District Congressional Convention (where the party endorsement for the 5th CD will be considered and some delegates to the Democrat National Convention in Denver will be elected). The same individual delegates go to the state DFL convention this June in Rochester. That convention, among other things, will make an endorsement decision in the U.S. Senate race and select delegates for Denver as well.

The 28 delegates from SD 62 are broken down the following way:

• 13 of the delegates came from Al Franken subcaucuses
• 10 delegates came from Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer subcaucuses
• 4 delegates came from subcaucuses which were uncommitted for Senate
• 1 delegate came from a Mike Ciresi subcaucus

It's a strong showing for Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. Although, if Nelson-Pallmeyer is going to be competitive at the state convention in a two-way race, he probably would need to do better in his own senate district. Nelson-Pallmeyer was at the SD 62 convention during part of the subcaucusing, even trying to persuade some members of uncommitted subcaucuses that he was their man.

One thing is for certain, those five delegates from the uncommitted and Ciresi subcaucuses will have some busy phone lines pretty soon. Of course, the committed delegates will not be ignored either.

And then there were two

• Ciresi says he's dropping out of the U.S. Senate race

I guess his campaign really never took off. He says he's dropping out to avoid "an unnecessary floor fight" at the June DFL convention. As things were going, it is arguable whether he was going to be able to even last past the first ballot with so few committed delegates. It will be interesting to see if this helps Al Franken or allow further attention/support to coalesce around Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.

My musings on the Senate race from last week are here.

Thinking about the Senate race in Minnesota

UPDATE: Doug Grow at the Minn Post writes about the DFL Senate contest. Ciresi isn't doing well initially, it appears, with state convention delegates. Nelson-Pallmeyer is doing well, but Franken remains on top. Maybe it's time for me to support Nelson-Pallmeyer as the electable candidate to retake Paul Wellstone's seat...

I'm a delegate to my DFL state senate district convention this Saturday. For you non-Minnesotans, the DFL is the Democrat Farmer-Labor party. (Find out why here.) Delegates to the local state senate district convention will elect delegates to the party's state convention in June. State delegates will determine who the DFL-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate will be. That lucky guy challenges Sen. Norm Coleman this fall.

For about five years, I've been in the Al Franken camp. Al Franken moved back to Minnesota a couple years ago to run against Coleman. I've long admired Al Franken for his humor, his political writing, and passion for progressive politics. To me, he appeared as the best chance to defeat Coleman. He's a good guy, has good positions, would run a vigorous campaign, and be able to raise important campaign funds.

So far, he's done a decent job. He's traveled around the state, racked up the endorsements, and is running a professional campaign. But a few things have given me pause. His Clinton-style caution when it comes to taking specific positions has made me nervous, even as I understand the rationale behind the strategy. He has done okay in debates with the other two DFL candidates, Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, but no slam dunks.

Two recent developments make me question Franken's electability. First, has been the now overplayed incident at Carleton College, where Franken allegedly mocked and intimidated a college Republican who was being civil to him. Franken even refused to shake the Republican's hand. I know, I know, most of us would probably like to mock and shame a college Republican here or there--but it's not something you do as a candidate for Senate in Minnesota.

This week, news emerged that Franken's family business, Al Franken, Inc, has been fined $25,000 by the state of New York for failure to pay workers comp premiums for nearly 4 years. The fine was levied in 2006 but only this week was a commitment made to pay it.

I don't think things like this should disqualify candidates, but it doesn't encourage me. That's a serious thing, to not pay workers comp for several years and to ignore the fine. It is a few times worse than unpaid parking tickets or late campaign finance filings. The question for DFLers is whether these are isolated items, or if we can expect more from Al Franken. Minnesotans want their politicians to be nice and personally responsible people.

So, the convention is just two days away and I'm undecided. Issue-wise, I'm equally split between the candidates. Even the MPR candidate selector gave me candidate scores pretty close together: Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (22.0), Mike Ciresi (21.0), Al Franken (20.0), Norm Coleman (0.0).

I'm not enthusiastic about Ciresi. Haven't we elected enough lawyers to Congress? In all seriousness, I've been unimpressed with his debate performances and what I would call significant pandering. He's also lost statewide office once and I don't know why he would win this time.

When Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer ran for Congress in 2006 in the 5th district, I was very dismissive of him. I thought of it at the time as an exercise in vanity. Still, he did very well in the party endorsement contest that Keith Ellison ultimately won. I like the fact that he doesn't shy away from issues like reproductive rights and GLBT issues.

Still, I think his approach on free trade is antiquated (as are both Obama's and Clinton's pandering in recent weeks). I'm a person who has risked arrest to try to stop an IMF-World Bank meeting. Trade agreements matter to real people around the globe. But we need to look forward, not backward. NAFTA is a done deal. Free trade is where we are today. What we need to work on now is global standards and agreements to environmental, consumer protection, social safety net, and labor practices, and find ways for the more free movement of people across sovereign borders. Borders should be just as open to people and ideas as they are to products.

So what should I do? I'll be thinking and researching over the next day. It's possible I might go into that convention Saturday still undecided.