An eagle-eyed activist in the Third congressional district clued me into this section of the CD3 DFL Constitution:
In the event of vacancy, and in the absence of any direction to the contrary by the Third CD Convention, the Central Committee may endorse a candidate for Congress between the Third CD Convention and the next General Election. Such endorsement must otherwise conform to the rules governing endorsement by the convention, and can only be granted by affirmative vote of 60% of the Central Committee members present and voting. Such endorsement may only be made at a Central Committee meeting properly called with notice as required by Article VI, Section 3, including official notice of intent to endorse.
For the parliamentary laymen, among whom I count myself, this looks like it means the following:
If the CD3 convention does not provide an endorsement or an explicit no-endorsement vote, the Central Committee, a much smaller group of activists, may endorse in its place, providing a roundabout route to endorsement without actually winning one.
This scenario applies to Terri Bonoff, who is unlikely to be able to flip enough committed Madia delegates to win the endorsement at the April 12th convention. And it should be said that I have not heard any reports, official or otherwise, indicating that such a strategy is in play for the Bonoff campaign. If it were, however, here's how it would work:
1. Bonoff delegates show up to the CD3 convention, are credentialed, and seated. A quorum number is established.
2. Without voting, the Bonoff delegates get up and leave en masse.
3. When voting commences, Team Bonoff hopes and prays that the number of remaining delegates does not meet quorum. Without quorum, the vote does not hold sway, and the convention is broken, leaving no guidance on the endorsement and activating the scenario detailed above.
This would be the worst possible scenario for this campaign, and would likely drive the race right into Erik Paulsen's hands.
Again, let me emphasize that I have received exactly zero reports of this strategy being targeted for use in this endorsement race. But there's a strong parallel here to the presidential race -- there's a route to the endorsement/nomination for the candidate in question, but that route would provide a pyrrhic victory, stealing defeat from the jaws of victory.
It's interesting, but consider this post a warning for DFLers looking toward April 12th.
There are enough delegates on both sides of the DFL endorsement fight that know a speedy, clean endorsement is the first step on the path to victory in this race. Without it, the DFL remains divided for months, allowing Erik Paulsen to build a moderate theme instead of getting pegged as the extreme conservative he is.
April 12th or bust, Democrats. |
