Small ball

"Forget the word smithing on platforms, stop the fratricide, and focus on what the only important thing is - winning. Playing 'small ball' has only allowed us to do one thing well - lose elections."

Two years ago in Rochester for the state MNGOP convention, we spent a whole lot of time working on the platform. Then we had the endorsement process for the state offices which were up for election that year. Not much time spent of figuring out a way to win those elections - but we did have some awesome language in our party platform.

We all know the result. We got skunked on every office we ran for. We put up some very good candidates. Smart, experienced candidates. There is no way we should have lost all of them. But we did.

Six years ago we had a somewhat contentious race for the nomination of Governor as well as the state offices. Again, we put up some very good people as candidates. However, due to the contentious nature of the campaign, one candidate decided to commit fratricide and run third party. So instead of what should have been a "lay up" election, we lost the Governor's chair to the worst candidate in the world. Oh, we also lost all the other state office elections.  

Don't get me wrong. When I worked, parsing language in negotiations was part of my job description. It was quite often a pain to decide what the meaning of "is, is". But having the proper language in an agreement often led to less risk and higher profits.

Parsing the language in the party platform starts at the caucus level. Then the BPOU convention. Then the district convention. Then the state convention. Finally the national convention. By that time, all the hundreds of hours spent on this platform starts to look very pretty. Of course, we lost the last two Presidential elections, but our platform looked wonderful.

What is my point in all of this? Here we were up in Duluth this weekend, working on party platform language as well as electing national delegates, and the real action was down in St. Paul. And no matter how much time we spent in playing "small ball" working on the party platform, our side was slowing caving in to the insatiable appetite of the Governor and the DFL. 

Where are we? We are going to spend money on Pre-K. It has NEVER been proven this does one thing to help kids learn and graduate on time. We are going to spend money on broadband. So not only can I pay for my cable bill now, I can also pay for someone living in Black Duck. The tax relief bill is only half a loaf. We need tax relief for a broad spectrum in Minnesota. This includes businesses, people with estates, retired folks, and retired veterans. 

Bottom line - we need to quit playing "small ball". Forget the word smithing on platforms, stop the fratricide, and focus on what the only important thing is - winning. Playing "small ball" has only allowed us to do one thing well - lose elections. Time to step up to the majors. The other side sure has.