PRENOTE: Coincident with the convention described below came news that the U.S. had begun to bomb Iran.  A few days ago, I started a post about Iran which you may wish to look at and comment on.  It is here.  I will be adding my own comment in the near future.

My Saturday was spent in the auditorium of a local high school, as a delegate to the Minnesota Senate District 47 DFL (Democrat) Political Convention.

Each state has its own system, and each party its own structure.  In Minnesota, Precinct caucuses some weeks ago were the first essentially neighborhood gatherings to pick representatives to the formal political process.  Saturday, the elected Democrat delegates gathered to consider resolutions, listen to candidates, and select delegates to the next formal step in the process: the Congressional District Convention which in our case is May 3 (CD 4 in Maplewood); thence the state convention May 29-31 in Rochester.

I have attended a lot of these biennial conventions over the years.  They reflect the diversity of constituencies and complexity of the issues facing a society such as ours.  One speaker asked for a show of hands of those who were attending their first such convention.  I wasn’t in a position to see most of the auditorium, but apparently a large percentage were rookies, which is very positive.

I can call Saturday “an inspiring day” because it was well organized and the process worked.  While it was exhausting, it was worth the investment of time.  I did not seek delegate status to the next level.  But I was involved, as were al the others, in selecting delegates to the next level.

So, what happens in the five or so hours we 200 people spent in the auditorium at East Ridge High School?

Much of our time this particular day was off the printed agenda: an opportunity to hear from assorted elected officials and candidates for our office.

In all, I noted 20 such speakers, including Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan; U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar; Congresspersons Betty McCollum and Angie Craig; our three state legislators; Secretary of State Steve Simon and a broad assortment of others, either in or seeking some elected office or other.  We like to criticize ‘politicians’, but these folks are charged with the representation of all of us – not a simple task.  Showing up at events like ours is important for candidates.  (There are 67 Senate and 134 House districts in Minnesota.  Our district represents three of the 201.  Statewide candidates in particular have a lot of geography to cover while running for office.  The three minutes or so in front of a local audience is important.)

What comprises the platform – the philosophy – of my party is built from the base of resolutions generated at the local level.

In our case, at the precinct caucus level citizens properly submitted 76 resolutions in 14 different categories.  This year more than usual related to the general category I would call ICE – Immigration issues.  We each were given a ballot, and we could support no more than 38 of them.  I voted for 23.  Our convention was “allowed 38 resolutions to move on for state convention consideration”.   Volunteer delegate committee do the work of sifting and sorting the final choices.

The final event of the day was to elect 17 delegates and 17 alternate delegate (CD4) and 2 delegates and 2 alternates (CD2).  (Part of our Senate District is CD2).  The task seems impossible, given we are a group who mostly don’t know each other, and have differing points of view.)

The DFL over the years has refined the process of selecting delegates through what is called the “walking sub-caucus”.  In its most simple iteration, any delegate can propose an affinity group around a candidate or issue.  I didn’t write any of this down, but it appeared that there were as many as 15-20 of these small groups; these were winnowed down to those which were ‘viable’ – those who had sufficient persons to qualify for one delegate.  A time certain is allowed to reach viability and there is likely a certain amount of ‘horse-trading’ to  secure more delegates, or share excess delegates with others.

The process works very well, and is very orderly.  The group I was in qualified for two delegates and two alternates, and according to the rules half need to be male, half female.

I was exhausted when I got home, and I was glad I came.

I’m confident that the next levels will be similarly orderly.