Monday, June 28, 2010

Night of the Short, Dull Knives

Apparently the Democratic apparat here in Senate District 50 will meet tonight to decide the fate of Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, who has run afoul of Senate ethics panels and the apparatchiks.

Well, at least the SD 50 Democrats think they are deciding his fate. Chances are pretty good that they aren't. Here's why:

1) From what I understand, the purpose of the meeting is to decide whether to withdraw the DFL endorsement from Chaudhary and instead bestow it on Barb Goodwin, who served in the House on the 50A side of the district for a few terms but left nearly 4 years ago.

2) Goodwin is a loyal member of the DFL apparat but isn't all that well known on the 50B side of the district. She is also a singularly unimpressive figure. Watch as Cathy Wurzer and Eric Eskola struggle mightily to help her through an interview on a recent edition of Almanac.

3) The most interesting part of the Almanac interview is when Goodwin talks about other issues that trouble the DFLers in the SD 50 apparat. What that really means is this: Chaudhary didn't fall in line and support Margaret Anderson-Kelliher. Instead, he publicly threw his support to Mark Dayton, who is likely to win the DFL primary. Chaudhary Must Be Punished for that and the ethics issues are an excellent pretext.

4) Still, the burden is to get 2/3 of the votes at the meeting in order to strip Chaudhary of endorsement. And while Goodwin calls on Chaudhary to step aside if the endorsement is stripped, there's not a chance in hell that Chaudhary will do that. A fellow that looks in the mirror and sees an indispensable man won't do that. UPDATE (8:20 a.m.): I would consider the two huge campaign signs that Chaudhary has placed at the corner of 5th Street and Silver Lake Road in New Brighton over the weekend, as pretty much definitive evidence that he is going to stay in the primary regardless. (H/T to Mrs. D for spotting those).

The guess here: Chaudhary will find a way to get enough supporters to the meeting to foil the attempt to strip him of endorsement. And in either event, he wins the primary, once again proving the toothlessness of many DFL endorsements. This will further anger the DFL apparat, by the way. Meanwhile, the highly capable Republican nominee, Gina Bauman, watches and waits.

3 comments:

Night Writer said...

Interesting reference with the 76th anniversary of the original Night of the Long Knives coming up on Wednesday. Given the current circumstances and Chaudhary's recalcitrance it might be more akin to the "Night of the Pry-bar."

Right Hook said...

The DFL yanked the endorsement by the slimmest of margins, but Satveer doesn't accept the vote as valid and will get his attorney involved tomorrow morning. Clearly, endorsed or not, he intends on fighting to retain the office he obviously thinks he is entitled to.

Satty has never been a gracious winner and doesn't take kindly to the fitting "loser" tag he has now been labeled with.

This could get interesting as well as ugly before the primary.

Go Gina!

Leo Pusateri said...

Brodkorb is reporting that they had a court reporter present during the kangaroo court proceedings.