If the GOP aligns behind Siefert, the front runner but with Emmer people emotionally involved, and with Bachmann as incumbent, there might be interesting cross-over play in a DFL primary. Perhaps not.
That's about it for BIG NEWS.
Not to rain on Tarryl Clark's parade, but it was only a mystery whether she would get the endorsement on a single or a multiple ballot situation. I still favor Reed and believe she'd be the better challenger to Bachmann and, more importantly, she'd be a better rep. in DC, if elected.
That's not saying a thing against Clark, who would also do an excellent job, if the primary victor and then defeating Bachmann.
The AP was there. Dump Bachmann was there; and has posts up about the Clark endorsement, and about an available audio of an MPR debate between Reed and Clark; respectively at, here and here. MnPublius, here, reports the first ballot Clark endorsement, ending by saying, "I think it’s time for us to put aside our differences and focus on our shared goal of outing Michele Bachmann. Let’s get to work!" I think "ousting" was the intended verb.
Google news, this link.
Nobody else I am aware of has pictures up yet from the session, these are blurry and imprecise but current.
Starting with a wall collage:
When all those Clark people got up on stage, I thought they were going to sing, "The East is Red."
The place was packed. The Tyler Durden in me wanted to call the Fire Marshall to make the event livelier and to add spontaneity. The personality dissociation was not strong or I'd have done it.
________UPDATE________
I was not in the meeting hall all the time. I don't know how many of the candidates for governor were there. I recognized John Marty, Paul Thissen, and R.T. Rybak. It was good to see the Marty people there, and to chat at their hallway table. There was some disappointment among a few of his supporters that a feeble step at changing healthcare delivery was being touted so victoriously in DC. It distracted from the fact that single payer was off the table at the start, that health insurer stocks are booming, that the lukewarm narrowly reaching public option ghost was chased away in deal making, and that the whole thing was, as Business Week reported a half year ago, written by and cozy-okay with the health-industrial complex from the get-go; the remainder being deluding long-winded theatrics. It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but aside from that, Joe Biden overstated things over what is,
but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Or signifying nothing special, or sound and fury signifying a big-time hoodwinking of the general public.
There was strutting and fretting, plenty to spare, enough for Hollywood to have produced it.
_________FURTHER UPDATE________
Back to the District DFL Convention, (away from extreme disappointment over what DC people want to shovel out as "reform" of medical matters), as of Monday, March 29, the Clark campaign website in its news section reports on the convention endorsement, this link.
_________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Politico finds this to say succinctly [links in original]:
Minnesota Democrats endorsed state Sen. Tarryl Clark in a district convention to be their candidate to run against Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann this fall. Maureen Reed, Clark's defeated opponent, has previously said that she planned to compete in the DFL's August primary, regardless of the party's endorsement.