Bonoff, Madia claim wins in first convention

State Sen. Terri Bonoff and Iraq veteran Ashwin Madia both claimed wins in yesterday’s Senate District 42 DFL convention, which was the first to elect delegates to the CD3 convention in April.

With immense turnout, managing the walking subcaucus process was a task unto itself — 48 subcaucuses were called, and the room’s configuration dictated that subcaucuses with similar candidate and issue interests be grouped together.

When all was said and done, Bonoff picked up five delegates from named subcaucuses (those containing her name in their title, tabbing their delegates as solid supporters) while Madia picked up eight.

After the fact, it appeared that Bonoff managed to pick up two of the unnamed-subcaucus delegates, and Madia’s campaign claimed late last night to have picked up a face-to-face commitment from another, bringing the count to 9-7 in Madia’s favor. Bonoff’s campaign, however, claimed a win in the delegate count due to superdelegates, of which there are five from SD42, including CD3 chair Marge Hoffa and State Rep. Maria Ruud.

In the Senate race, Al Franken picked up 10 delegates from subcaucuses with his name on them, and about half of the Madia subcaucus was supporting Franken as well, giving him a likely total of at least 12.