Nelson-Pallmeyer speculated that “when [members of the Nobel Committee] made their decision they recognized how the stars had alligned in one of those rare moments in history in which crises converge with opportunities.”

In October when the announcement came that the prize would go to Obama, Nelson-Pallmeyer told the Minnesota Independent the choice was “deeply problematic. … One can only hope that receiving the prize will encourage Obama to fundamentally change the direction of U.S. foreign policies under his watch.”

But after Obama’s speech in Oslo this week, Nelson-Pallmeyer told MnIndy by email he agrees with David Cortright of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, who told The Nation Obama’s address was “disappointing. … To use the Nobel dais to justify the use of military force is unseemly.”

Nelson-Pallmeyer elaborated:

A new president was elected on a rhetorical platform of hope and change at a time when the world deperately needed, and a majority of the U.S. citizens and the world’s people longed for, authentic hope and real change. Those hopes were further shredded in Geneva.

With this speech the Nobel Committee’s gamble became an embarrassment. Last year the United States, the most militarized country in world history, accounted for nearly half of all global military spending and 67% of global weapon’s sales.

The Committee, it turns out, awarded the Peace Prize to a President who in his first months in office: increased military spending to record levels; acclerated wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan while continuing the bloody occupation of Iraq; and, maintained many Bush era foreign policy planners, rendition practices, and war-on-terror ideological foundations.

His arrogant claims of U.S. exceptionalism (we don’t occupy countries for their resources but for noble purposes) trample truth and ring hollow to much of the world. His references to and dismissal of King and Gandhi were condescending.

His lack of knowledge and his abuse of just war theory were stunning. Most troubling was his continued faith in the utility of violence and war as the means to peace despite all the contrary evidence.

Nelson-Pallmeyer, who conceded the DFL endorsement for U.S. Senate to Al Franken at the party’s 2008 state convention, also contrasted the United States’ fiscal commitment to environmental threats with its military budget, in light of the Copenhagen climate-change conference.

“It is revealing to note that the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize has submitted a proposed budget to congress for next year which allocates 83 times more money for war than to address climate change,” he observed. “This is pathetic.”

Nelson-Pallmeyer, assistant professor of justice and peace studies at the University of St. Thomas, sees Obama’s prize as a symbol and symptom of the “great relief” felt by people in America and around the world that what he terms “the period of the Great Revulsion” — the Bush administration — is over.

But the president so far hasn’t measured up to the broad hopes he stirred, Nelson-Pallmeyer told the Minnesota Independent via email:

Obama’s message of hope and change resonate with many, but the desire for authentic hope and real change are deeper than Obama’s words and far deeper than his actions to date. The Nobel Committee may be attempting to encourage the President to act more boldly.

As a politician, Nelson-Pallmeyer twice pressed peace and other progressive issues all the way to DFL Party endorsing conventions — for Congress in 2006 and U.S. Senate in 2008, before finally giving way to Keith Ellison and Al Franken, respectively.

By the time Obama took office, Nelson-Pallmeyer was already worried that progressive efforts to influence his position on war in Afghanistan were too late. The announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize for Obama finds Nelson-Pallmeyer still holding out a little hope:

Escalating wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan based on inflating the almost non-existent threat of al Qaida will continue to bankrupt the country morally and financially. … One can only hope that receiving the prize will encourage Obama to fundamentally change the direction of U.S. foreign policies under his watch. Without such a change in course, the period of hope following the Great Revulsion will likely give way to the period of the Great Disappointment.

Rep. Ellison on Apr. 27 before his arrest for civil disobedience (SaveDarfur.org)

Getting arrested for civil disobedience is “unbecoming” the office of U.S. Representative, said outgoing Minnesota GOP chair Ron Carey of Rep. Keith Ellison, who along with four other House Democrats was hauled off during a protest at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., on Monday. But is it?

Ellison and seven others were arrested for crossing a police line Monday in protest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s decision to expel 16 international aid agencies from the country. In Sudan’s Darfur region, some 450,000 people have been killed since civil war began there six years ago. Ellison was arrested along with civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.); Donna Edwards (D-Md.); and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), as well as local activists.

“While we respect his advocacy for the cause of stopping genocide, members of Congress are offered no shortage of platforms to advocate for their passions that don’t involve crossing police lines and getting arrested,” said Carey in a statement. “This is a publicity stunt that is unbecoming of the office he holds and the responsibility he bears as a representative of Minnesota.”

But Jack Nelson Pallmeyer, an assistant professor of justice and peace studies at the University of St. Thomas, disagrees: he thinks it’s well within Ellison’s role as legislator and that it fits the wishes of many in Ellison’s 5th Congressional District. Further, he thinks Ellison’s a patriot.

“That the Republican party would challenge one’s patriotism based on a creative act of civil disobedience shows a great ignorance of history,” he said. “The history of civil disobedience goes back to before the founding of the country. That’s what the Boston Tea Party was.”

“For me this is an extension of why we elected him,” he added. “I’m thrilled he would represent us in that way,”

Plus, many others have taken the same route — some at the same location, for the same cause. On Apr. 28, 2006, five Democratic legislators were arrested in front of the Sudan embassy in Washington, the same one where Ellison was arrested. The late Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the first Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, was arrested along with Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), Jim Moran (D-Virg.), John Olver (D-Mass.), and Jim McGovern, who was arrested in Monday’s protest with Ellison.

“We have been calling on the civilized world to stand up and to say, ‘Enough,’ ” Lantos said at the time. “The slaughter of the people of Darfur must end.”

That was three years ago today — and five months before Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the United Nations excoriated world leaders for “shameful passivity” on Darfur.

The GOP’s Carey says the likes of Ellison have myriad “platforms to advocate for their passion.” Five years ago this summer, members of Ellison’s body had full access to one of them. In a “never again” moment, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling the killing in Darfur “by its rightful name: ‘genocide.’”

Given this history, it’s no surprise Ellison and his fellow congressional protesters are tired of waiting for more “becoming” ways of bringing relief to Darfur.

Four years ago, the same candidate-training program did the trick for three other council hopefuls who went on to win election later that year. The best-known graduates of Camp Wellstone’s January 2005 session are U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, now in his second term representing Minnesota’s First District, and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who has gained a national profile during the recent U.S. Senate election recount.

But it’s the local victories by three members the Camp Wellstone Class of 2005 — Minneapolis City Council members Ralph Remington, Diane Hofstede and Elizabeth Glidden — that offer the most direct inspiration to council aspirants from this year’s camp: Charley Underwood, Doron Clark and Kenya McKnight.

All three find themselves in crowded fields: Underwood in Ward 12, the last to send a Republican to the council; Clark in Ward 1, where the retirement of DFL incumbent Paul Ostrow is creating one of three open council seats this year; and McKnight in Ward 5, where a number of others are also said to be mulling efforts to oust DFL incumbent Don Samuels.

Two others attended the recent candidate camp with the Minneapolis City Council in mind. Charles Carlson just announced that he has dropped out of contention for the DFL endorsement in Ward 2 for the seat now held by the council’s lone Green Party member, Cam Gordon. And Peter Eichten said last month he was still considering whether to enter the Ward 9 race as the second Green Party challenger (after Dave Bicking) to Gary Schiff, the DFL incumbent.

Carlson had been looking to get farther than Bill Svrluga, a 2005 Camp Wellstone grad who vied for but didn’t win the DFL endorsement in Ward 2 that year. Svrluga’s fellow camper Kevin McDonald took his race all the way to the November 2005 general election, when he drew nearly 40 percent of the votes in the city’s 12th ward, losing to DFL incumbent Sandy Colvin Roy.

This year Colvin Roy faces another newly minted Camp Wellstone grad in Underwood, who tells the Minnesota Independent he’s now been through all three tracks the camp has to offer. He completed the campaign-staffer track while working on Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer‘s 2006 bid for Congress, and later the track for citizen activists.

That’s the role Underwood says comes most naturally. This is his first time running as a candidate himself since he lost the race for Macalester College student body president in 1968 to Tim O’Brien, now a well-known author.

But three days of role-playing over the last weekend in January primed Underwood for tasks like phoning for campaign donations. That chore got easier for Underwood with this Camp Wellstone advice: “Ask for a certain amount of money, then pick up your coffee cup. Let the silence be there. Don’t bargain them down.”

McKnight concurs: “I enjoyed the hands-on learning, which helped me become much more comfortable with my approach talking with people, my 90-second speech. … It was a great start for me.”

For weeks leading up to the March 3 precinct caucuses, candidates spend evening after evening dialing not only for dollars but also for the support of prospective delegates. Once elected on Caucus Night, DFL Party delegates will choose candidates at ward conventions held later this month, with contenders for citywide offices (including mayor and at-large park commissioners) selected at the city convention in the spring.

The Green and Republican parties conduct parallel processes, though they’re conducted in a much more compact manner than those of the DFL.

Camp Wellstone is part of the St. Paul-based organization Wellstone Action (named for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and his wife, Sheila), which offers eight training programs in all. Communications Director Elana Wolowitz says the camps are held throughout the year and across the country, often at the request of local groups. Since 2006, more than 300 Camp Wellstone alums have won elective office.

Wolowitz says most participants are progressive-minded, and the organization describes itself as progressive — but also nonpartisan and non-ideological, with at least one Independence Party candidate on its graduation rolls.

Might wound-licking Republicans now flock to Camp Wellstone for tips? Wolowitz is dubious, since conservatives have their own institutes — on which Camp Wellstone is modeled in part.

Graduates are more likely to run into each other in places like Minneapolis where the two-party system means DFLers and Greens. Underwood, a DFLer who counts many Greens among his circle of friends and fellow activists, says it’s only by chance that no city council race this year pits two Camp Wellstone grads against each other.

American troops have remained in Afghanistan since Oct. 7, 2001. (Photo: army.mil)

As Afghanistan’s profile rises in America’s foreign-war portfolio, political progressives — both nationally and closer to home — are putting increasing emphasis on questions of troop escalation and United States policy there. In Minnesota, progressive activity on Afghanistan is taking the form of discussion, demonstrations and the formation of a new coalition focused on pressuring the state’s congressional delegation.

One leading national effort is a new Web site called Get Afghanistan Right, which went online only a week or so ago. But the site’s got star power behind it, including Alex Thurston and Jason Rosenbaum of the liberal blog The Seminal; filmmaker Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine.

As Spencer Ackerman writes in the Minnesota Independent’s sister site the Washington Independent, “The effort so far focuses on fostering a debate within progressive circles before talking to a broader and more ideologically diverse audience.”

That’s akin to Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer’s approach at the moment. He’s the University of St. Thomas professor of justice and peace studies who last year ran to Al Franken’s left in the race to carry the DFL Party banner against then-U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

“The conversation’s really just beginning,” Nelson-Pallmeyer tells MnIndy. He wrote an op-ed in the Jan. 18 Duluth News-Tribune linking America’s militarism to the “crumbling economic mess” the country finds itself in. ”We’re not talking about street protests [over Afghanistan] yet,” he says, “but people are really ready for this conversation, about the U.S. taking a different role in the world.”

 

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer says new presidents are pressured to be "appropriately militaristic."

“We’re always at the street protest phase,” Beaudoin says. “We do whatever we can.” That includes holding educational events, sending action alerts to a large e-mail list and helping coalitions form quickly as particular issues, such as Gaza, arise.

Meanwhile, a new coalition is now forming under the working title Minnesota Peace Lobby, readying what co-organizer Roxanne Abbas promises will be a concerted effort to persuade Minnesota’s representatives in Congress to focus on peace issues. The organization includes members in each congressional district to combine the resources of 74 peace groups so they can speak with one voice to elected officials in Washington, Abbas says.

The idea arose from a suggestion by former U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad’s staff, who found it frustrating to deal with the plethora of peace advocates separately.

“We’re focused only on lobbying,” Abbas says. “No protest, education, trying to convince mass media to pay attention.”

One of the group’s main issues will be Afghanistan, though Iraq, Guantanamo, and nuclear non-proliferation are also on the agenda.

But with President Obama moving quickly on promises he made during a campaign in which he spoke frequently about increasing troop levels in Afghanistan, and his defense secretary talking up the war there, are Minnesota’s progressives already too late?

“I’m very, very concerned about that,” says Nelson-Pallmeyer. “There are enormous pressures on a new president to demonstrate that he is willing to use [the military], that he’s appropriately militaristic.”

Many on the left have gotten used to framing Iraq as “a bad war that took our eyes off a good one [in Afghanistan],” he said.

And people relieved to see the new president in office may be loathe to pressure him so soon in his administration.

“Maybe there’s more of a reluctance among progressives who embraced Obama to want to give him time.”

Ciresi, who dropped out of the endorsement race well before the party’s convention, told the Strib:

We would have beat [Coleman] by 10, 12 points. … I think I would have beat [Franken] in the primary. … I would have had to be nasty on him. … With the issues that the country is facing, I think Minnesotans deserve a better choice.

Nelson-Pallmeyer, who lost the endorsement on the first ballot to Franken at the DFL convention, told MnIndy by e-mail that he isn’t sure what would have happened if he’d been the party’s candidate:

Nobody knows. I sought DFL Party endorsement because I believed people were ready for a fundamental shift in priorities. I hoped to inspire people to believe that we could end the war in Iraq, address climate change in ways that revitalized the economy, and redirect resources to meet pressing health and other social needs. I felt I could hold Norm accountable for his record of consistently backing failed policies of a bad Bush administration. I also believed my message of hope and change was consistent with Obama’s message and campaign that did well in Minnesota. Would I have won? I don’t know. I think you would find it more fruitful to ask your question of other Minnesotans.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, who received support from 35 percent of voters, immediately conceded and the party faithful endorsed Franken by acclamation. The strong show of support from delegates comes as Franken’s campaign has battled weeks of bad press over his tax problems and questions about his past writings. Attorney Mike Ciresi, who dropped out of the race in March, has repeatedly stated that he is considering re-entering the contest.

Franken wasted no time taking on Coleman. “On issue after issue he hasn’t brought people together to get things done,” Franken said of the incumbent in his victory speech. “He’s sold people out to get ahead.”

Franken vowed to work tirelessly to win back the senate seat that was previously held by Paul Wellstone. “I’m not a perfect person and I’m not going to attempt to have all the answers,” Franken told the convention. “But I’ll tell the truth. I will keep my spine. And I will work for you.”

Nelson-Pallmeyer gave a fiery speech that emphasized hope and idealism, repeatedly invoking Paul Wellstone. “We never change the world by saying what can’t be done,” he told the delegates. “We change the world by saying what needs to be done.”

Franken’s speech was slightly more somber. He addressed the controversies that have swirled around his campaign regarding his past writings. “I’ve had some tough conversations in the last week,” he acknowledged, noting that he was  a comedy writer for 35 years. “I wrote a lot of jokes. Some of them weren’t funny. Some of them were inappropriate. Some of them were downright offensive.”

Franken then pivoted to more comfortable turf: knocking off the Republican incumbent. “I’m going to stand up to Norm Coleman in a way that he’s never been stood up to before because that’s what I’ve done and that’s what I’m good at,” Franken promised.

We’ll now find out if he’ll get the chance.

Among the primary gripes about Al Franken’s candidacy in the long lead up to the DFL convention has been that he’s not particularly impressive on the stump. For someone who’s spent his life in the entertainmbent business he can be surprisingly stiff and rambling.

“When it comes to debates he is very, very poor,” says delegate Barb Olsen, for example, who started out a Franken supporter, but was won over by Nelson-Pallmeyer at an early debate. “That’s going to be needed in the general election agiainst Norm Coleman.”

Franken had a final opportunity to change that perception in an hour-long Q & A session before balloting begins for the DFL endorsement. Given that his support is undoubtedly a bit soft following weeks of negative media coverage, it was also a potentially treacherous event.

Unfortunately for Franken, Nelson-Pallmeyer is no stodgy academic. He’s a dynamic speaker who throws out plenty of red meat for the DFL faithful.

The freewheeling debate touched on Iraq, immigration, health care, and economic issues. Franken gave a particularly strong answer when asked why he’s a Democrat. He mentioned that his father was a staunch Republican until the civil rights movement. But after witnessing protesters being assaulted by firehoses in Alabama his perspective changed. “My dad said that is wrong,” Franken recalls. “No jew can be for that.”

Nelson-Pallmeyer used the question to criticize the Democratic party for its feeble conduct in the run-up to the Iraq war. “If Democrats had stood up to the politics of fear we would not be in Iraq today,” he stated.

The college professor also sought to differentiate himself from Franken on health-care issues, arguing that we need a national, single-payer health care plan. “It’s not enough to say you are for universal health care,” he said. “I love my mom and apple pie too, but how do we get there?”

Franken countered by saying he wants to get to universal health care as quickly as possible, no matter what the system. “You don’t have to be sick to know that our healthcare system is broken,” he stated.

Immediately after the debate, the Franken campaign announced a minor boon for his candidacy: the endorsement of the DFL Feminist Caucus. “Al very strongly demonstrated an understanding of our issues and we know he’ll represent us in Washington,” said caucus member Jackie Stevenson in a statement. Given recent criticism from female DFL legislators about some of Franken’s past writings, this could prove influential with some delegates.

“I listened to Al Franken for all the years that he was on Air America,” says Olsen, a veteran Democratic Party activist. “I was an incredible fan and think he’s done wonderful things for progressive politics.”

Before heading south to the Twin Cities, Olsen stopped off at Northern Waters Smokehaus to purchase some smoked whitefish for Franken, a delicacy that she knew he craved. She packed it on ice and made the 150-mile drive to Augsburg.

Olsen parked herself in the front row of the forum, which featured all four candidates who were then seeking the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) endorsement. With the pungent smell of smoked whitefish emanating from beneath her chair, she fully expected to be wowed by Franken.

But Olsen quickly found herself gravitating to another candidate on the “Progressive Promise” panel. “I was just completely taken aback by this gentleman,” she recalls. “I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I really didn’t know anything about him. Whenever Al stood up I really wanted to feel the same about his answers, but I didn’t.”

At the close of the forum, Olsen found herself with a dilemma. “I kept thinking ‘Oh now what am I going to do with this fish?’” she recalls.

Ultimately Olsen handed over the gift to Franken as originally intended, but her political allegiance went to the other candidate on the panel who had captivated her that day, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. The University of St. Thomas professor and liberal activist is now Franken’s last remaining contender for the DFL endorsement.

Continued: Click “Read more”Since attorney Mike Ciresi dropped out of the race in March, the conventional wisdom has been that Franken is the de facto DFL nominee to face off against incumbent Norm Coleman in one of the most anticipated 2008 Senate races in the country. With a staggering $10 million raised and nearly across-the-board support from organized labor and other party kingmakers, Franken’s campaign has generally been regarded as an unstoppable political force. National pundits like the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and the Atlantic Monthly’s Mark Ambinder typically don’t deem Nelson-Pallmeyer’s modestly funded, grassroots candidacy worth a mention. He has been dismissed as an afterthought, a liberal gadfly with zero hope of actually securing party backing.

But as Franken’s campaign has been repeatedly tripped up by controversies — his failure to properly pay $70,000 in income taxes and penalties in 17 states, a 2000 sex fantasy article he wrote for Playboy and a proposed 1995 Saturday Night Live skit that joked about rape — Nelson-Pallmeyer’s upstart campaign has won the allegiance of many DFL delegates. With the DFL state convention taking place in Rochester this weekend, it’s an open question which candidate will ultimately emerge with the party’s endorsement. The recent indications that Ciresi is seriously weighing a revival of his candidacy and may run against the DFL nominee in the primary election only further undermines the once-seeming inevitability of Franken’s campaign.

Nelson-Pallmeyer’s supporters, while studiously avoiding any mention of Franken’s troubles, are optimistic that they can pull off a stunning upset at Saturday’s endorsement vote. “We’re feeling very, very excited about walking into the convention this weekend in Rochester,” says Chris McNellis, Nelson-Pallmeyer’s campaign manager. “It’s getting more and more competitive every day. We continue to pick up new delegates.”

While such pie-in-the-sky optimism is a hallmark of longshot political contenders, there are indications that Nelson-Pallmeyer will be more than an afterthought at the convention. Earlier this week Franken picked up the endorsement of former Vice President Al Gore, but Nelson-Pallmeyer  countered with a much-lower profile vow of support that could ultimately prove more persuasive to the party’s 1,400 delegates.

Ben Goldfarb, a respected political strategist who served as campaign manager for Amy Klobuchar’s successful 2006 Senate run, sent out a letter to delegates laying out why he believes Nelson-Pallmeyer has a legitimate shot at unseating Coleman. Goldfarb argued that the challenger presents a stark contrast to the incumbent that will be easy to convey to voters, that Minnesotans have a long history of backing unorthodox candidates, and that as the DFL-endorsee, Nelson-Pallmeyer will ultimately be able to raise sufficient funds to run a viable campaign. “But as you make your decision on Saturday, I hope you think first about which candidate you believe in most, which candidate speaks to your hopes,” Goldfarb concluded. “And with confidence that he can indeed win this fall, I hope you cast your ballot for Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer for Senate.”

To spring such an upset, Nelson-Pallmeyer will need to win over more voters like Terry Gydesen. A veteran photographer, Gydesen cut her teeth covering the insurgent senate run of Paul Wellstone in 1990. She initially met Franken at a Weisman Art Museum party in 2003 to celebrate the release of her book, Twelve Years and Thirteen Days: Remembering Paul and Sheila Wellstone. The comedian was in town to hawk a book and agreed to make an appearance. “It threw the event into the stratosphere,” Gydesen recalls. “Every square inch of that museum was packed.”

This connection with Franken led the photographer to initially believe that she’d support his campaign when she decided to become a DFL delegate for the first time. Gydesen placed a Franken bumper sticker on her car. She caucused uncommitted at her local party convention, however, hoping to stay on good terms with both candidates and document the campaign.

Watching the two candidates over a course of months, she grew increasingly uneasy with the direction of the Franken campaign, particularly the lack of a campaign manager guiding the effort. “I was horrified by that,” she says.

The breaking point for Gydesen came at the 4th Congressional District convention in April. She was baffled by the Franken camp’s decision to fight a proposed question-and-answer session with the two candidates. In talking with Franken, Gydesen was also distressed by how unenthusiastic the candidate seemed. “Oh my god, he looks exhausted,” she recalls thinking. “I just looked at him and thought, ‘If you’re this tired now and we’re not even in the general election yet, what’s it going to be like when Norm Coleman’s hammering on him?’ “

In the meantime Gydesen was becoming a Nelson-Pallmeyer believer. His stark liberalism and chaotic campaign headquarters reminded her of Wellstone in 1990. “The media and really the party has told us that it’s going to be a race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman,” she says. “But I have to go with my heart. Who is the person that’s most aligned with my values and I think has the best chance of beating Norm because of those values?”

Gydesen acknowledges that she may have drank way too much Kool-Aid, but she fully believes that Nelson-Pallmeyer will walk away from the convention as the DFL endorsee. “I’m quite certain it’s going to be Jack,” she says. “I’ve talked to a lot of people. I think people are rightfully concerned about whether Al can win.”

Betty Tisel is another convert. She backed Keith Ellison over Nelson-Pallmeyer in his previous run for Congress two years ago. But she’s now devoting countless hours to his Senate run, charged with keeping tabs on the allegiances of the 1,400 DFL delegates.

“I have watched the positions shift from strong Franken to leaning Franken to undecided to Jack,” Tisel says. She’s confident that Nelson-Pallmeyer will at the very least force Franken to a second ballot before he can secure support from the 60 percent of delegates needed for endorsement. “I have a giant sombrero that I’m going to have to eat if there’s not two ballots,” she laughs.

At Nelson-Pallmeyer’s campaign headquarters in Minneapolis, there is, in Tisel’s words, a “little dorky brass bell” that campaign workers ring each time the candidate has secured the commitment of another delegate. “That bell has been ringing more and more,” she says. “It’s like slugging down a can of one of those power drinks. It just really makes us feel confident.”