All’s well that ends well. Ever the optimist, that is one of my favorite sayings. And it’s what I have to say about yesterday’s North Dakota Democratic-NPL State Convention.
But it was a weird one.
To start with, it was held in a big theater-style auditorium at Bismarck State College, with seats rising up and up from the main floor, about 40 rows up, I think. Unlike every one of the past state conventions I’ve attended (and there have probably been about 20) there was no “convention floor” with chairs lined up in long rows with tall standards topped with signs announcing the location of each of the 47 legislative district delegations. So delegates spent a lot of time going up and down stairs, and just scattered themselves around the theater, often sitting with friends from other districts they hadn’t seen since the last convention. I kind of missed the old style, but the cushioned theater seats were a lot more comfortable than the stiff chairs we’re used to sitting on at conventions. So there’s that.
If I had to choose one word to describe the convention proceedings, though, it would be a word that starts with “cluster . . . .” My friends will know what the last four letters are—they’ve heard me say it enough times. It was clearly a convention put on by amateurs. Not the local host committee–their arrangements were first class. But the state party staff . . .
Most importantly, they should have known there’s no way to conduct a convention in just one day. Not with all the business of many speeches, candidate endorsements and building a platform supported by a whole bunch of resolutions. So a lot of political junkies who love to debate the content of resolutions—there are many delegates who come just for that purpose–left the convention frustrated by no time to do so—the list prepared before the convention was just passed by voice vote as the last act of business at the end of a long day, well after 6 p.m.
I think every convention I’ve been to spilled over into Sunday, by plan, to finish up the last of the candidate endorsements and allow for healthy debate on issues as part of the platform and resolutions. That always left Saturday night for socializing, and finding candidates for offices which hadn’t been filled.
The speeches, though, were mostly pretty good, especially the last two, by former Senator Heidi Heitkamp and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Remember that last name. You’re going to be hearing a lot from him, and about him, on the national stage in the future.
The list of candidates endorsed was pretty good, although as I mentioned earlier, there were some “moat fillers.” I talked with grey-haired lawyer Tim Lamb from Grand Forks, who’s going to take another shot at Attorney General Drew Wrigley. I don’t know if he’s going to actually campaign against the incumbent, but he does like seeing his name on the ballot. He’s from a prominent Grand Forks family, and I knew his dad, Jim, from my own days in politics, and Jim would be happy to see his son carrying on the fighting spirit of the old-line Democrats he was part of.
Longtime Democratic activist Vern Thompson threw his hat into the ring for Congress, late in the game, although not very far, and gave a speech good enough that after he lost the endorsement to Trygve Hammer, a lot of folks around the convention were encouraging him to run for Commissioner of Agriculture, a slot left unfilled at the end of the business day.
The Democrats’ Executive Committee needs to encourage Vern and then find one more candidate, one to run for Tax Commissioner against Republican incumbent Brian Kroshus. After all these years of having dynamic leaders like Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad, and Heidi Heitkamp serve in that office and going on to become United States Senators, it’s really disappointing to see no one running for that job. Brian’s an old friend and golf partner of mine, but he’s pretty low-key and doesn’t have much name recognition, so I think a good Democratic-NPL candidate could beat him in a good year, which I think this promises to be, given the awful antics of our Republican President and the do-nothing Republican Congress lapping in his dish.
I sent an e-mail to Lucy Calautti, who worked for both Byron and Kent and actually ended up marrying Kent, asking her to check and see if either Byron or Kent wanted to come back, but they didn’t bite. Dang!
But Trygve has a shot at becoming a Congressman. He’s a good campaigner, and I heard at the convention that incumbent Julie Fedorchak’s poll numbers are down in the gutter, with fewer than 40 per cent saying they approve of her job performance in the latest poll. That’s dangerous territory, especially for someone who’s just in her first term.
I wonder if there’s ever been a Congressman named Trygve. Or Hammer, for that matter. I’m kind of looking forward to that.
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