A typical caucus involves hours of messing around with party business followed by the endorsement of a candidate, and if there is not enough time for that, or everyone is exhausted, that part is shortened. It should be the other way around. The caucus should involve ONLY the endorsement, and a separate meeting held later (or earlier) should address party business.

Had that been the procedure in 1968 it would have been considerably harder for us to take over the 5th Congressional District (Minneapolis) for Eugene McCarthy. We depended on outlasting the Humphrey troops. We were young and enthusiastic; they were neither, and hence left early, before the endorsements.

Dave, I don’t agree with that. It does in fact seem that way but look at something like the SW corridor. That is not a project that has run itself and has taken a lot of work and finesse on the part of the Mayor, and still seems to be .. ahem …. going off the rails, as it were. I assume that the people in the city (including but certainly not limited to the mayor) are making it look a bit easier than it is!

Merill, thanks for the link. You (and everyone else) should feel free to comment as well on Minnesota Progressive Project where I mirrored this post.

http://mnprogressiveproject.com/a-short-list-of-candidates-for-mayor-of-minneapolis/

Wow, your list only includes candidates from one party – what a surprise.