Kowabunga

Minnesota CD 2 Convention

I’ve ever attended a Congressional District Convention as a delegate before this year. It’s an intersting eent if you have never attended one before.

The big issues of the day are endorsing a candidate for the Second District, which was easy to do as John Kline is running for re-election. And then spending the afternoon reviewing the party platform, whit recommended changes/additions being forwarded up to the State level for consideration in June.

Congressman Kline is, of course, running for re-election. His campaign staff put together an introductory slide show that got lots of cheers from the delegates. It was set to the theme and style of Star Wars, complete with soundtrack and reasons to support Kline, including the depiction of various liberals, like San Fran Nan, and what thing could be like if they gain control of the House of Representatives.

Congressman Kline put on a great stump speech, which I won’t go into here as I don’t have my notes handy. Suffice it to say, John Kline is a fine Congressman, and I m glad he is my representative to the U.S. House.

We also heard a number of speeches from candidates running for a variety of State-wide races, including Mark Kennedy’s brother (Kennedy was attending his son’s college graduation) and Harold Shudlick. Both Kennedy and Shudlick are running for Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate seat. Both are fine men, and well qualified, so the State convention in June should be interesting.

Sue Jeffers, who is challenging Tim Pawlenty for the GOP endorsement, also spoke, hitting issues that she believes are important. This was met with a mixed reaction as she originally filed as a Libertarian. However, convention rules and such, allow anyone seeking the GOP endorsement to speak to the delegates.

A few special interest groups also made short presentations, which I’ll cover in another post once I have a had a chance to review what they are promoting.

The afternoon portion, adopting recommendations for the party platform to send up to the State actually went fairly smoothly, with several issues receiving discussion. Much to everyone’s surprise, we were out of there by about 4 P.M. What a shock.

If you have never attended one of these conventions, consider doing so, either as a delegate or as a visitor. It’s fun and gives you a front row seat on how things are done.