Third District Democrats debate ahead of conventions

The three Democrats running for the DFL endorsement in the Third Congressional District met last night for their final debate before Senate District conventions start electing delegates to the CD3 DFL convention.

With an exciting and hotly contested race for an open seat, the candidates and crowd did not disappoint.

On the issues, Terri Bonoff, Ashwin Madia and Jim Hovland largely agreed.  The biggest disagreement appeared on the first question on economic policy, on which Madia distinguished himself from his opponents by saying he opposes the $150 billion tax rebate program currently being issued by Congress.  However, their disagreement was more cordial than on other issues in other debates; even when Madia later repeated a line that “candidates ought to tell you how they’re going to pay for” a program and advocated letting the Bush tax cuts expire, Bonoff did not jump on that position, as she has in previous debates.

All in all, the debate represented a great chance for the hundreds of attendees to hear three strong advocates for the DFL platform.  All three were on their games, got in a few memorable one-liners and displayed expertise, clarity and a little humor — especially when moderator Amy Rotenberg accidentally addressed Hovland as Gov.  Hovland, causing a few laughs and a great reaction from Hovland himself, who stood up with a smile and accepted the previously unknown election to the state’s highest office.  Despite a technical malfunction that left a certain Samaritan blogger looking silly when a projector couldn’t handle the video signal from his laptop, the event was largely on time and fast-moving and covered domestic issues and foreign affairs efficiently and effectively.

Last night’s winner?  Too close to call.  The candidates were evenly matched, having honed their rhetoric and favorite citations over weeks on the campaign trail.  Bonoff in particular has improved her debate style, having largely done away with factoid lines beginning with “by the way” and advanced the argument that her experience in the  Legislature will let her record match up well against that of Republican Erik Paulsen in November.  Hovland has improved as well, still advocating some of the most clearly progressive positions of the three on health care and education.  Madia has made up significant stylistic and factual ground on domestic issues, which were a soft spot for him in earlier debates relative to his strength on foreign policy issues.

The race goes from here to the first of several Senate District conventions, at which delegates to the CD3 DFL convention will be elected this weekend.  Madia said afterward he expects the first SD convention, to be held at Eden Prairie High School this Saturday, to set much of the momentum going forward to the CD convention April 12. Hovland noted in comments afterward that he was building support from across the political spectrum, and both Bonoff and Madia echoed that thought.  Such sentiments are not entirely unexpected, but do not provide any clarity on where the candidates’ support bases are.

The bottom line, sad for policy wonks but welcome news for field organizing types, is that the outcome of this race will likely come down to organizing on the floor of those upcoming conventions.  The race for 91 delegates April 12 is officially on.

*More video is coming as soon as it’s processed*