The most immediate impact of the change is that Dr. Maureen Reed, who was seeking the endorsement of both the DFL and IP in her race for Congress in the 6th District, will completely focus on the DFL process, according to her campaign manager, although he said that she was already focused on the DFL before the IP policy change.
Perhaps of more interest to Bachmann-race watchers, in my conversation with Reed's campaign manager about the change, it became increasingly clear that Reed will run in a DFL primary if, as seems likely, state Sen. Tarryl Clark is the DFL endorsee.
First the IP rule change: In 2008, the IP experimented with cross-endorsement, giving itself the option of endorsing DFLers or Republicans in races where the party did not have a strong candidate of its own and where one of the other candidates took positions friendly to IP principles. The party ended up endorsing two DFL congressional candidates -- Elwyn Tinklenberg in the 6th District and Steve Sarvi in the Second. It was not a good experience. Both cross-endorsed candidates lost (Tinklenberg to incumbent Repub Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sarvi to incumbent Repub Rep. John Kline).
The cross-endorsements "didn't provide any tangible benefit" to the IP nor the non-IPers they endorsed, Uldrich said. Neither candidate touted their IP endorsement much and neither gave particular emphasis to the IP platform issues that attracted the IP to them, Uldrich said.
Specifically, Uldrich said, the IP is looking for candidates who will talk about the hard but necessary choices (tax hikes and/or benefit cuts) necessary to get entitlement spending under control. At the IP convention, Tinklenberg told the IP that he would make an issue of it in his race, but IP'ers felt that he never did.
The cross-endorsement in the 6th District turned into a particular muddle because of Minnesota election law. Minnesota forbids any candidate from appearing on the ballot with two party designations or on two ballot lines. (Some other states, like New York, that have durable smaller parties, allow this.) In 2008, Bob Anderson of Woodbury, who makes dental crowns, sought the IP endorsement but lost to Tinklenberg. Anderson then ran in the primary for the IP nomination. State election law prevented Tinklenberg from running for two nominations in the primary. Anderson, who was unopposed, got on the ballot as the IP nominee and ended up getting 10 percent of the vote, quite impressive for a political unknown with no campaign budget.
(Debate still rages over whether Anderson's 10 percent cost Tinklenberg the election. Anderson has a right-leaning libertarian streak and might have received votes that otherwise would have gone for Bachmann. But Anderson got little media attention and was excluded from several prominent debates, so it's questionable how many voters knew anything about him. Some voters may have used him as a protest against the other two choices. And everyone knows someone named Bob Anderson.)
Uldrich said the fact that Anderson got 10 percent as the IP nominee, despite the fact that the party had endorsed Tinklenberg, was another sign that the cross-endorsement strategy wasn't working.
I just spoke to Anderson, who is clearly thinking about running again. He said that if he decides to run, he will seek the IP endorsement. But if he fails to get it, he will not run in the primary. Instead, he would consider seeking the nomination of another minor party or trying to get enough petition signatures to get on the ballot as an independent. Uldrich gave Anderson a minute to address the convention Saturday. He said the party did not seem that excited about backing Anderson and reserves the right to make no endorsement in the 6th District race, but that will be up to the 6th District convention.
There's much more at Minn Post. Well worth a read.
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