I was a guest at SD42’s convention this weekend. This is my girlfriend’s convention. I tagged along with her to see how things went and get a chance to see the leadership candidates’ speeches. I also got to see some interesting things. 

One of the things that kinda got under my skin was how some elected officials dove in to the Chair’s race feet first. There is a legitimate belief that the grassroots of the party should select the leadership of the party and I agree with it. Coleman and Pawlenty played too big of roles in the last 2 elections and I believe Pawlenty is doing it again. 

Rep. Paul Kohls showed up wearing a Sutton for Chair sticker. He was introduced and said he was there on behalf of House Republicans, but took the time to mention how people should support Sutton for Chair. It wouldn’t have been a big deal, but after I left to take my girlfriend’s son to hockey, Minority Leader Seifert showed up to speak as well. So 2 House Republicans spoke on behalf of the Caucus? Taking advantage of your position to dictate to the grassroots? 

I also got to see Sutton and Ruud speak. Sutton did give a firey speach but it raised a question. If Sutton is to be trusted due to his decades of work in the party, why, when officially elected to State leadership, have things gone so badly? Now I know Carey has been dismal and has forced changes at the top that have had damaging trickle down effects that have led to the tidal waves of DFL wins. But where was Sutton, or better yet, why won’t Sutton distance himself, by name, from Carey and his policies of divide, conquer, and sue? Sutton is a skilled politician, but he is not making the case that he is willing to take on the establishment that is a plague on this party. Heck, the establishment is the wind in his sails. 

Congressman Eric Paulsen also told people they had to vote for Sutton. Oh and my opponent for the CD6 State Vice Chair was also parading around as Sutton’s handler. We were in Eden Prairie. My opponent and I both live in Blaine. I had a good excuse to be there, he was there with a stack of Sutton lit and seemed to be traveling with him. Yes, a current member of the Executive Committee is running around campaigning for a party chair candidate. I guess I didn’t realize that State Exec members were just staff for the chair.

I also got to see the Deputy Chair candidates speak. We had current Dep. Chair candidate Dorothy Fleming and Michael Bordkorb, who also had with him a staffer. Brodkorb didn’t seem to like that I was there. Usually we’ll at least do the fake cordial handshake, but this time he and his staffer kept their distance. And I did the same. His speech? Well, he did decide to attack Fleming for taking a small salary again. A salary, that he fails to tell you, has been reduced significantly from her predecessor, all the while the Executive salary budget item has remained the same. Did that go to Carey or the Executive Director? That is something, someone so concerned with Officer salaries should be harping on……

Brodkorb’s raising the notion of doing the Deputy Chair’s job as a volunteer raises some serious concerns. 

A) Has he made enough money as a blogger that he is rich enough to do the party Deputy Chair duties out of his own pocket? Must be rough.

B) But will he continue to work for the Senate Caucus? This is a full time job. He can’t do his Party job on Senate time. The Senate operates during the day and into the night quite often during session’s end. How is this going to work? He can’t, legally, do political work while on the dole from taxpayers. I see some serious conflicts of interest and legal barriers brought up by the whole who pays who angle of attack from Brodkorb. He needs to explain how he can perform both jobs, if elected as Dep. Chair. Hopefully, it won’t be an issue and he can just keep working with the Senate and Fleming will be reelected. 

Other then that, not much news except I am starting to confirm my idea that Pawlenty is going to run for reelection and he is getting his “friendly” people in place. The BPOU leader candidates included one Jake Grassel. He was MN College Republican chair and a player in the Pawlenty campaign. And if memory serves, a thorn in my side for the last Chair’s race. He is now a Paulsen staffer and might have even been involved in the booing incident at Ogara’s. (Unconfirmed!!!!!) [See comments below!] Reports are that a Paulsen staffer was involved in booing Fleming. Paulsen is from Eden Prairie and Grassel is now a BPOU chair there. 

It was a nice convention. I got to meet some friendly people and see the candidates. 

My biggest pet peeve and I am going to just say this in the hopes that this will make some people realize they are being inconsiderate jerks. When leaders of the party stand in the room at conventions and talk with people, it is incredibly rude to do so while standing in front of other people and talking loud enough to distract people from the current speaker. Ron Carey and a few people (Jerry Parre? & and various others) kept standing right in front of my girlfriend’s table so they couldn’t see. The people at the table not only couldn’t see but also had trouble hearing. Not very classy at all. 

This is just more evidence that the leadership in the party has a complete disconnect with the grassroots. You take those conversations outside the room. You are suppose to make sure the grassroots gets to see and hear everything, not be more concerned with your private conversation that you can’t even look behind you to see if you’re in the way.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 11:25 am and is filed under MN 3rd - Paulsen, MNGOP Reform, Minnesota, Politics. 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.