Ciresi was the best choice, but failed because he has common sense and an incredible record. The two criticisms I remember most from my SD convention were a) he’s a weathly lawyer and b) he’s too conservative. While he is wealthy (based on his personal finance disclosure), it is because of his commitment to fighting for the common good that put him there. He made history with his case against the tobacco industry and our state benefits every year from his courage and capabilities. It down right infuriating when I’d hear someone talk about how great Obama was and then turn around and disparage Ciresi for being a lawyer (Obama is a lawyer, too).

He certainly isn’t conservative, either. I saw Mr. Ciresi speak at a GLBT rally, one of the candidate debates, and at the state fair in 2007 and I can’t believe people didn’t see what I saw. A smart, pragmatic leader who would not just be a Democrat in the Senate, but a truly amazing law maker. He had excellent positions on health-care, education, taxes, the economy, GLBT rights, etc. but people chose to disregard it. At my SD convention, for example, one of the largest sub-caucuses was Franken-Universal Health Care, which was a joke to anyone paying attention.

I doubt Ciresi will run for the Senate again, but if he does, I’ll be his strongest supporter. Let’s hope that DFL activists learn something from this disaster and don’t pick a candidate based on their celebrity or irrational policy positions ever again. Better yet: EARLY PRIMARY!

Franken is a good public speaker, a very smart guy, and has clearly been able to pull together the money for a serious run. If he is elected he will work with the new adminstration. His policy papers and statements show that he is also a dyed in the wool liberal. The positioin differences between Franken and JNP seem trivial compared to where Coleman’s record puts Coleman. The DFL convention was an exercise in prgmatism vs. philosophical purity. It usually is. What was unusual is that this year pragmatism won.

You can debate forever why Mike Ciresi did so poorly early on, whether it was the wrong year, his past with the party, or a bias against anyone who actually knew a corporate CEO. What is obvious is that Ciresi would have been a far stronger candidate in a statewide race than JNP ever could have. Ciresi was the second DFL candidate for endorsement who had a chance of bringing together the money it was going to take to run against Coleman. He was already a good public speaker, not a novice learning his way around the podium. He had a solid record he could point to on events which the public would recognize and remember. He had coherent and complete statements on policy issues. And lastly, he was known to all of the DFL party faithful who needed to actively support the endorsed candidate. A major part of what hurt Franken’s candidacy was the opposition he received from too many within the DFL itself, particularly pouting JNP supporters.

The bottom line is that the DFL would have preferred any one of the three to Coleman. JNP could not have won, and we may find out that Franken did not win, but Mike Ciresi definitely could have been a strong candidate, and likely stronger than Franken in the end. Should Franken end up losing, I hope that Ciresi still has one more run in him. Whether Ciresi can muster enough faith in the DFL to try again, and the DFL can get pragmatic enough to endorse him would be a long shot, but one can always hope.

So now we are stuck with Frankenstein, but hey, just get the spoiled 4% (criminal spoilage by the way) of the absentee ballots counted and Franky will take it by the skin of his fore.

Not counting 4% of the absentee ballots is a huge hole in the elections and must be corrected
by rules and legislation for future elections. Do they toss 4% in WA and the mail in ballot?
The absentee ballot procedures have serious problems, it creates a large pool of ballots
that can be manipulated by capricious decisions, (ooo, I don’t like the look of that signature…),
and the increase of absentee ballots to 10% of ballots cast is too large a problem to be
ignored. I know the Sec of State office reads this stuff, so get this problem fixed.

Well said.

Do you people seriously think JNP would have gotten the support of a single person in CDs 1, 2, 6, 7, or 8? You should throw him up in a CD5 primary where he belongs, not in a statewide race. Have you ever even been to rural Minnesota?

Agreed that the endorsement process is a failure. Disagree about everything else you say.

Thank you good night and good luck.