The day after...

 

 

"All good men, however only one has the imprimatur of party recognition..."

None of us knows for sure what is going to happen next Tuesday. Some of the poll guessers are fairly confident on some of the races, but others are just to close to call. I have a mild and tepid interest in Tuesday. Like I have said, to me having a primary after the endorsing convention is like candidate double jeopardy. Even though we already know who the winning candidates are, we are going to re-vote anyhow. What a waste of time and money.

Coming out of Rochester, the party had a modicum of solidarity as to who the torch bearer was going to be for each race. Jeff Johnson was not my guy for governor going in to the convention, but he was coming out. Two of the candidates in the governor's primary race skipped the convention all together. Another, who was losing more votes each time the ballots were counted, said "See you later - like on August 12th." Only one of the four candidates played by the endorsing rules from the get-go. He won, fair and square. Like myself and others, he won people over. In my opinion, he is the best hope to unseat our current Governor.

Four years ago, the Democrats went through the endorsement process and came up with a good candidate. An experienced woman who was tough as nails. Then all of a sudden, out of the woodwork comes Mark Dayton. A man who many thought was done after he was voted (by TIme Magazine), as one of the five worst senators of all time. However, with money comes power. The primary was held and a flawed candidate beat out the endorsed candidate. It made a mockery of the Democratic endorsement process.

My biggest concern is what will happen on August 13th. Will the Republicans coalesce around the victor(s) of the contested races, or will feelings be hurt. When I say hurt, I have heard from some if "so and so" wins, they will sit out the general. Or they will vote third party. Or they will write someone in.

As for me, if the endorsed candidates do not win, I want my time and money back. Many of us went though this sometimes bruising and lengthy process to come up with viable candidates. Some have said the endorsing process is not fair. To them I say "crap". Everyone had the opportunity to go to the meetings on caucus night. From there, the BPOU convention. Some have said this process is flawed. If so, we should fix it, or scrap it. But to have both the endorsing process AND a primary is madness. And an expensive madness to boot.

So bring on next Tuesday. The pundits are saying very few will show up. We shall see. Then after Tuesday, let the healing begin on Wednesday. If we cannot heal, we might as well just hand over four more years to Dayton and six more years to Al.