Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Chaudhary With a Chance of Meatballs

The die is cast:

Culminating a month of harsh criticism of his political tactics, Sen. Satveer Chaudhary was stripped Monday of his DFL endorsement for reelection, jeopardizing the career of one of Minnesota's leading politicians on outdoors issues.

But Chaudhary, standing alongside his attorney after the DFL action, said he would contest the 32-to-12 vote, saying it fell two votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to take away his party's endorsement. Promising he wanted to unite the party, but also make sure "the processes are fair," Chaudhary predicted he would win the DFL primary in August.

Some comedy at the outset: either the Star Tribune got the vote totals wrong (they didn't) or Sen. Chaudhary needs some help with his math skills, as 32-12 is well above a two thirds majority. Now, if the vote was 22-12, he'd be correct. Of course, his lawyer has an explanation, offered in this report from Minnesota Public Radio:

And while Chaudhary is working hard to convince likely primary voters that he should keep his job, his attorney, Brian Rice, said he intends to appeal the decision to the DFL Party's State Central Committee on technical grounds.

"The rules say that it had to be two-thirds of those eligible to vote. At the beginning, they established the record that there were 51 people eligible to vote and they just based it on those people who showed up," Rice said. "I think legally it's an issue we'll raise with the party that it took 34 votes. They didn't reach that number tonight so we'll contest it."

You have to love that logic -- apparently the votes of people who don't vote matter as much as the votes of people that do. Whether Chaudhary has lost the endorsement or not, he's clearly thinking like a DFLer. If this Senate thing doesn't work out for him, he might try running for Secretary of State in the next cycle. But I digress.

The upshot of the not-so-friendly activities in Fridley is this: the new DFL endorsed candidate is Barb Goodwin, who left the legislature four years ago. She will have the support of at least 32 people as she tries to win the primary.

One other thing that had been an open secret before has now become clear: this move was also about Chaudhary not supporting Margaret Anderson Kelliher. From the Star Tribune report:

Party leaders in the predominantly DFL district that arcs across the northern Twin Cities suburbs seemed to be angry with Chaudhary on several fronts, including his decision to support former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton for governor instead of the DFL's endorsed candidate, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher.

In an apparent last-minute attempt to make amends, Chaudhary sent Kelliher a letter and a $100 check dated Sunday, informing her that he now is officially supporting her and wishing her "the best of luck." He told Kelliher she could "publicly use my name as a supporter/host/sponsor in any and all publications." As the controversy surrounding Chaudhary has increased over the past month, Dayton has distanced himself from the senator.

This is comedy gold, too. So, how much do you want to bet that Kelliher is going to use Chaudhary's endorsement "in any and all publications?" The DFL endorsed candidate for governor would surely welcome the support of a guy who had his own endorsement stripped. Makes perfect sense.

So where are we? Goodwin has a month to convince the voters that she should win the primary. She'll have support on her side of the district (Columbia Heights and Fridley), but she's largely unknown in New Brighton and Arden Hills. Chaudhary has a fair amount of money to spend, which he'll now have to use to get past August 10. The most interesting thing to watch is this: what will the state DFL apparatus do? Will they sink resources into a district that they've been able to take for granted for over a generation? The fun is just starting.

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