What actually happened at the convention
June 11

That's a bit of a provocative heading (at least I hope so --- you're still reading, right), but basically, I have my own take on why Al Franken won the DFL (Minnesota Democrats) endorsement on the first ballot.

First, for those of you not familiar with how the DFL endorses (it's different in each state), a candidate has to get a supermajority of 60% of voting delegates to become the officially endorsed candidate. That means those candidates get some party help in the primary, like being able to use the party logo and appear at party-organized events. Anybody can run in the primary, but the party endorsement has been a strong predictor of the primary result so far this decade.

I was at the state convention last weekend as a non-voting delegate, so I observed Franken's first ballot win, which was generally considered a surprise, not that he won but that it took only one ballot. My impression, based on conversations, press reports, and of course my own thought process and understanding of Minnesota politics, was that Franken's support going in was broad and shaky. His rival for the endorsement, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, is largely unknown outside DFL activists and maybe even outside the Twin Cities, but he showed himself to be a strong candidate. He's a stronger public speaker than Franken, has staunchly liberal positions including unwavering support for single-payer, and has been able to recruit many loyal and active volunteers. He also hasn't had any bad press, which of course is why Franken's support was shaky. Nelson-Pallmeyer's one weakness was that he hasn't been the target of opposition research (so far as I know --- conceivably as Franken got in trouble, the GOP started investigating him).

My take was that unless Nelson-Pallmeyer thoroughly bombed in the speech and Q&A, his performance didn't really matter. It mattered whether Franken was the seemingly demoralized and worn out candidate who appeared at the congressional district conventions, or the one who picked up such a large following through the first year of the campaign. The last couple months before the convention had been full of bad news for Franken for reason I'm sure I don't need to go into for anyone who has followed the race at all, and there was concern that he had done a poor job of responding. He had responded well to the attacks by the GOP for the first year after he declared, but now he was a GOP punching bag, and confidence had ebbed right at a crucial time. So the endorsement quite possibly hinged on which version of Franken showed up.

The short of it is Franken appeared to have his mojo back. Maybe deciding how to address the Playboy controversy, and giving the full apology rather than spinning or giving one of those "if someone was offended" half-apologies, got the monkey off his back. Whatever, he held his own at the podium. Nelson-Pallmeyer didn't go after him on the Playboy story or other controversial statements, but did point up that he had made the race competitive on a fraction of the funding. Franken handled that well, pointing out that he hadn't spent all the money he raised, but had relied on appearing at every DFL event and meeting voters all over the state in his own grassroots campaign. He has 100,000 individual contributors and doesn't rely on lobbyists for corporate special interests, unlike Coleman. Many of his lines sounded familiar to those who have heard him during the campaign or his radio show, like his statement that the only special interest money he can be accused of taking is "big comedy", and Harold Ramis or Tom Hanks won't be asking for special regulations and earmarks, unlike big coal, big tobacco, etc.

The main question of course was whether he would handle the Playboy controversy, and I thought he did, as apparently did the majority of delegates. Nonetheless many delegates were torn, as I would have been had I had a vote, because Nelson-Pallmeyer showed himself a reasonable claimant to the mantle of Paul Wellstone, being a professor at a small college with a history of activism, and running a grassroots campaign on little money. He earned another shot as a candidate. In fact, He was very similar to Wellstone except for the bad luck of running in a year when another strong candidate wanted the nomination and could run a grassroots campaign, whereas Wellstone ran when better known potential candidates opted against taking on a seemingly unbeatable GOP incumbent. He also gained respect for the graceful way he conceded, taking the podium to move that Franken be elected by acclimation before the results of the first ballot were known. In fact, the results weren't announced, and I knew only because I was sitting next to a delegate who was told by a teller she knew.

In a story that can be my personal brush with celebrity, I saw Franken at the unity party that evening, which was actually the first I've had to speak to him. I told him it was a shame either of them had to lose, which he agreed with having come to respect his opponent, and he mentioned he didn't know why Nelson-Pallmeyer suddenly conceded. I told him I heard he got 62%. Only later did it occur to me that it was slightly absurd that he found this out not through an official channel, but from me, some guy who happened to overhear someone else getting an inside scoop. I didn't really think about it until I mentioned this to another delegate in another conversation, and he found it hilarious. In some ways, it's still Will Rogers' party.

Anyway, though this was the first state convention I attended not counting listening on radio, my impression is that the party got past the divisiveness of both the senate and presidential races. Not 100%, judging by the Nelson-Pallmeyer supporter who called in to Franken on Midday on Monday, but more-so than normal.

Forgive the lack of links to video of the convention speeches, but I'm surprised at not finding any anywhere. If someone knows where video is to be found, please tell me. I mentioned both senate candidates being impressive, but Sen Amy Klobuchar gave a particularly well-received speech too. We also heard from Howard Dean, Mark Ritchie, Tim Walz, James Oberstar, and Steve Sarvi.