Day Shows His True ‘Primary’ Colors
Posted by Andy on February 20th, 2008
I’d received an email awhile back that Sen. Dick Day who was running for the 1st CD Republican endorsement was probably going to stay in the battle even after he lost the endorsement. Obviously a sign he was not the likely nominee, by any stretch of my ’suppositioning’. I didn’t have time to dig into it, so I dropped it. Well, I didn’t drop it, but it got buried about 400 emails down in my INBOX, so I forgot with all the Transit Tax stuff.
I have one thing I admire Dick Day for, and his party politics are not it.
OWATONNA – State Senator Dick Day (R-Owatonna), Republican candidate for Congress from the first district, announced today that he will bypass the formal Party endorsement process and go directly to the voters in a primary election.
“I have always believed that primary elections, in which all the voters of a district get a chance to pick their candidates for political office, are far more democratic than the current system in which Party insiders hand pick the candidates,” said Day. “The chaotic caucuses a couple weeks ago prove that the system is broken. Thousands of voters went out on a cold February night because they thought their votes meant something. They are frustrated and angry that their votes for president didn’t even count.”
Um, Senator, they were voting for President. I believe that someone could have called for or organized a Straw Poll for the congressional race too. I have to completely disagree with his notion that the Delegate and convention endorsement process is “Party insiders hand pick[ing] the candidates”. Frankly Day doesn’t have a leg to stand on their.
The current Republican endorsement process is the only check we have on party insiders and powerbrokers not handpicking or kingmaking our candidates. In the Primary, big money supporters and groups, not to mention the party officials, can come in and back ‘their’ choice or torpedo a great conservative candidate the base wants. Dick Day should know a thing or two about kingmaking and usurping not only the general voters, but also local leaders and endorsing Delegates from his time as the Senate Republican caucus leader.
Day added, “There are 375,850 voters in the First District, and the important decision about who their candidate is should not be left to 250 people meeting on a Saturday morning. Anybody who wants to pay their $100 to run for office ought to have an equal chance to make their case to voters. That’s what I plan to do, the old-fashioned way: work hard to earn your vote.”
I find it incredibly poor taste for a sitting Minnesota Republican Senator to even speak like that. He’s undermining the entire system we operate under. If Senator Day doesn’t even want to try and win those 250 RepublicanDelegates over on that one Saturday morning, then he shouldn’t be running as a Republican.
The email sourced an MPR story from a year ago.
Day says he’s getting into the race this early so he can raise the money needed to win.
“I think I have to spend a year having people get to know me around the district,” says Day. “A year from now, we’ll probably get into the heavy issues that are out there. They’ll either be some of the same issues, or some of the issues will be brand new. I think I need to get myself out and around.”
Day says he isn’t sure whether he’ll quit the race if he fails to win the party endorsement.
Since he did endeavor in the actual endorsement race to begin with, I feel this may in fact be far more a kin to he now knows the Republicans were not interested in his candidacy even after a year of getting to know him. Just how in the world is he going to win over 375,850?
Maybe he should just run as an independent and get it over with.
Oh, that one thing I agree with Day on is that ramp meters suck! Them jerks at MNDOT have decided the ones by me are the ones that need to run longer during the rush hour and have the intervals between lights last longer. They must read RF. :)
Sphere: Related Content
February 20th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
After the display by the party (and folks like yourself) during the governors endorsement process, He has plenty of ammunition to prove his point that the endorsement process is broken.
You are now reaping what you yourself sowed.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
You have me mistaken with the former Communications Director and Campaign Manager for Chairman Carey. I did not even seat myself at the State endorsing convention in 06. I was actually only on the floor one time and that was to make sure we had someone there to take care of the business needed, we did, so I let as many alternates as possible get seated.
I did not speak against her at the convention. I did not make any motions against Jeffers participating in that one. Go piss on that guy, yes the one guy who actually did stop her, with the help of party leadership, from ‘embarrassing Pawlenty” but having it go to a second vote.
You may want to go and look at the people who actually did stop her from participating and bitch to them. I’m a little tired of you always blaming me for their actions. Go bitch to MDE, Sutton, and crew about their behavior at the state and CD conventions. All I did was post Libertarian Party stuff and emails in the run up. It just happened to have her name on it… whoops. She did blow that one. Gave them a stupid technicality. Now I suppose I could have gone out there and fought toe to toe with MDE on that one, but I don’t think it was my duty to do so. There were others there.
Care to revise your remarks, or blame me personally for Pawlenty being reelected? (Folks he’ll likely bring up the truck again, brace your self.)
Then you can describe to me here exactly how a moderate Republican like Day being ignored (not outright cut out of the loop by leaders) but the Delegates actually telling him to go take his gas tax increases and hike himself on out of there, has the right to say the process isn’t fair. He has the opportunity to seek the endorsement. Has the CD1 leadership barred him from speaking at conventions? Have they barred him from addressing the convention and appearing on the ballot? NO? Then the process is fair for him, and in the case, extremely representative that Day is not a good fit for the Republican endorsement.
True to career politician form, if it doesn’t suit his own needs, it is not fair.
Day could run as an indy,greeny, reformer, whatever just like Jeffers could have. If they want to have that (R) after their names, they need to play by the rules. (Now I give you the fact that Jeffers was mistreated by leadership and especially their operatives at those conventions, and looking back, yeah I guess I should have spoke on her behalf to be heard. But I can’t change that now. I have learned principles do matter. I hope that others learn just as I did.)
I think this should hopefully send a big message to people like Tinglestad and Earhardt in that just because they have somehow convinced their own BPOU leaders and/or Delegates that they are in fact gOD-like, doesn’t mean that the Republican party as a whole is even willing to listen to their 30 second screen door speech, let alone endorse them above other great candidates simply because they want it.
Dick Day is reaping what he sowed. He bucked some in the party, the chickens are coming home to roost.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I did blame the others,
Noticed I separated the actions of the party, named above.
And you, standing on the sidelines with your pom-poms cheering them on.
Standing by, doing nothing and encouraging them does make you culpable for there actions if not directly responsible.
Is Day being behaving badly, yes.
But the actions in the past now give him the political cover he needs.
People forget that there actions today have consequences in the future.
Plus as I recall you complained when the people showed their displeasure with Ron E back in his RINO supporting days. You mentioned wow bad it was that the people were not showing respect to Pawlenty and Norm.
I know you now say you’ve changed.
Nice to see you realize what has been happening in MN for the past 4 years.
Sorry that you didn’t have the courage to do anything when it mattered.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
“Sorry that you didn’t have the courage to do anything when it mattered.”
So, I guess you should just quit now Andy, it doesn’t matter anymore. WTF?
February 20th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
You challenge my integrity and try to smear me for not doing anything, BUT….
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE IN THOSE VERY SAME SITUATIONS?
Who are you? You’re just some anonymous commenter on a blog? How do we know you lifted a finger to try to stop these things yourself? Nope, instead you throw blame at me and don’t even get the story straight?
You seem to lay all the blame on me for not being able to stop the MNGOP empire all by myself, BUT where were you? Seriously, where were you when the ran over people on their way around the process?
Why didn’t you stand up then and do something yourself?
I know answering that would out you from your anonymity or expose the fact that you are just a naysayer, but courage, as you mention, is something some people don’t have.
Come on Sam, who are you? Letting the readers here know will solidify your claims about me, since then people will know if you are telling the truth about me.
As Dan Rather used to say, Courage!”
(Oh and I wasn’t holding pom poms at the convention. I was in blogger row, or off at a bar. Or maybe on the radio. But cheering him on I was not. Again, facts, try them )
February 20th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I don’t believe I challenged your integrity or tried to smear you.
If anything I insulted your manhood (courage) and pointed to you lack of action before.
I don’t recall you doing anything at the convention, you had finished waving you virtual pom-poms by then.
Stick and stone Andy. Complaining on a blog (or in comments for that matter) accomplishes nothing.
But instead of words I would like to see some example of action from you. Again, glad to see you now understand what people you were insulting for the past 3 years were saying.
But as those who insult bloggers say “sitting around in your pajamas writing words for other folks sitting around in their pajamas does not accomplish anything”.
Let see a motion for censure of Day offered by you at State Convention.
Or a formal reprimand for those RINO at your CD convention.
Those words actually might accomplish something.
Or How about dedicating a weekend driving your truck (yes I went there) for whoever runs against Day.
I do not blame you for the faults of MNGOP.
I do however find fault with your actions in the past, your encouragement of the status quo during the downfall and your now self-righteous, martyr like belief that there is some great conspiracy against you.
(If only the MNGOP was organized enough to have great conspiracies?)
As for myself, Courage is not validating myself online.
I am who I am. I know what I have done.
I don’t need others to validate me.
Stick and stones, there just words.
And one final thing.
Ramp Meters started in Chicago and I can think of nothing good that ever came out of Chicago.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:13 am
If comments on a blog accomplish nothing, why are you so insistent at being a pain whining about something that is long passed that you have much more concrete grievances with other bloggers?
As for courage? Throwing out attacks. Belittling people. Claiming the moral authority and accusing people of not living up to your standards. Being judge jury and executioner all the while hiding behind anonymity is about as far from courage as one could come.
I’d liken it to throwing that snowball over the 8 foot wood fence and running like hell when you were a kid. I guess some kids just don’t grow up.
Have a good life.