The DFL City Convention was all politics as usual, but I was sort of surprised that the Trib missed the boat. The salient points of the convention were entirely left out of the story.
Agreed.
Each of the first five ballots showed McLaughlin with more votes. The first vote showed less than one percent difference. At each additional ballot McLaughlin gained votes. He reached 53% at the fifth ballot, with Rybak hovering in the mid-40s%.
Then there were, to paraphrase an 8th ward delegate, 'two hours of parliamentary challenges and the ballots for the boards, then a sixth ballot at which McLaughlin had 55%.
That's not quite accurate. There was no statistically significant movement between the 4th and 5th ballots. Peter was at about 52-53% on both. Rybak was at about 45% on both. There was no sixth ballot. Results are here: http://www.scc.net/~t-bonham/MPLS2005CV.HTM
Any exodus of delegates to prevent a quorum is on the same level as parliamentary maneuvers designed to favor a candidate while preventing the will of many delegates from being expressed. Complaints about a walk out by McLaughlin supporters don't hold much water, when the convention was made several hours longer by McLaughlin's campaign manager Tony Scallon's numerous parliamentary maneuvers. No one spoke at the delegate microphones more often than he (I lost count after about a dozen). Both techniques -- walk outs and clever motions -- are morally equivalent. They go with the territory.
-- Chris Johnson Fulton
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