Endorsements do matter!

"That being said, all the folks who won (that I followed) had one thing in common - they were all endorsed."

Now that the dust is starting to settle from Tuesday's primary, the post mortem has started. That is fair. I guess it is also fair that I did my own. First off, some candidates knew they did not have a strong challenger. So their campaigns were not as robust as others. However, some knew they were in a pitched battle. And those were fun to watch. Fun to be a part of. 

That being said, all the folks who won (that I followed) had one thing in common - they were all endorsed. I asked myself, why is that so important? First off, the turn out for this primary was dismal. Especially for Minnesota. Many estimates are putting the number about 8% of all registered voters made it to the polls. My feeling is a good chunk of the 8% were folks from the BPOU who endorsed the candidate. Many of those BPOU folks are also the ones doing fundraising, putting out signs, door knocking, and so on.

Something else. Once the endorsing convention is over, it is time to pack it up. Time to support and work for the winner. However, to ignore the process, to force a needless primary, is nothing more than a fool's errand.

For example, Cal Bahr was forced into a primary by a disgruntled Tom Hackbarth. Waste of everyone's time and money. On in our Congressman was awarded the endorsement for a second term. Again, a disgruntled competitor decided to take this contest to a primary. Once again, a waste of time and money. Both Bahr and Emmer won their primary contests by a sizable margins.

The race in Congressional District 2 is another example of a folly. Jason Lewis won the endorsement at his endorsing convention. That should have been it. Case closed, lets get ready to face a very strong Democratic challenger. Nope. The food fight needed to continue. And it did, all the way to the August 9th primary. 

Jason Lewis had to defend his endorsement against three other Republican challengers. Three people who should have known better than to stress the district out of valuable time and money. Lewis went on to win by getting almost 50% of the vote. Angie Craig (the DFL endorsed candidate), was also on the ballot. She also won by getting 100% of the vote. Why? The other DFL candidates who lost to Craig in the endorsement process, knew when to pack it in. They stood down, endorsed and worked for the endorsed candidate. That saved the DFL a heck of a lot of time and money.

Maybe someday we will learn. Or not. Since I usually always vote on the Republican side of the ticket, I am often amazed on how self destructive this party can be. The Republicans have become subject matter experts on how to participate in circular firing squads. 

Rush talks about this quite a bit. If the Republicans would go after Hillary Clinton with the same fervor they go after each other, Hillary would be road kill. But they don't and they won't. Fratricide seems to be the name of the game. And the number one play in the fratricide playbook is forcing a needless primary. That in my opinion, is a fact.