The little convention that couldn't

But might be able to after all: see update

The Republican party in SD 49 was originally scheduled to hold its endorsing convention for state Senate and House races on March 24th. Didn't happen.

As the date approached, the Republicans had only one standard bearer [chortle], Keith Downey, who said he would run for reelection to the House on the A side of the district. The Deputy (former Deputy Majority Leader Geoff Michel, that is) had called it quits, for reasons related to the unmitigated disaster of his management of L'affaire Koch and Brokdorb. And Jerry Mazorol had quit on the B side, reportedly saying that he "just didn't get" the place. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which showered Mazorol's race with lavish support, has to be miffed.

The convention was rescheduled for tomorrow, April 21st. That ain't gonna happen either.

At least now they have two candidates more-or-less locked it. Downey decided to move to the Senate race and run against DFLer Melissa Franzen, leaving no one on the House side, either A or B. A got filled in this week when Polly Bowles announced she was run against the DFL endorsed candidate, nine term House member, Ron Erhardt. But nobody for the B side to run against Paul Rosenthal.

Polly's policy chops appear to consist of supplying the right answer ("world peace") to the question, "What do you want the most?" at the 1981 Miss Minnesota pageant.

Sadly, since the delegates would be left chanting "We want who?" during the convention hoopla and 49B election, the organizers decided that discretion is the better part of valor, and postponed the endorsements again, this time until May 10th.

This has to feel for the Republicans like having to use two people that you picked eighth and ninth for your sandlot baseball game as your one and two hitters.

Hardly confidence inspiring.

Errata: The Iron Maiden (something like that; boy, she'd be a tough date) called me on spelling 21st as 21th. Thanks for pointing that out, but I do have a lisp when I'm tired. And Polly Bowles is now, well, Polly Bowles, not Polly Peterson.

And now, an Update:

This morning (Saturday the 21st) I got these three tweets from Tom Scheck:

The Son of Brodkorb who was once fancied -- at least by himself -- as a candidate for the senate seat, is apparently now firmly installed as the 49GOP mouthpiece, or maybe twitpiece.

But they have candidates! Hurray!

The convention is still on for the 10th, as far as I know, unless they decide that they can just get together for coffee at Perkins this morning.

Further Update: The photo was a free photograph of a political convention; it had kind of a Republican look to it, so I used it. You can go to the site if you click on the photo.