Caucus night: Darkhorse Thissen scuffles and scrambles

Paul Thissen is making one last ditch effort to reach DFL activists before they head off to precinct caucuses. It’s shortly after 5:30 p.m. and Thissen’s punching in phone numbers as a driver guides his vehicle towards Woodbury.

Thissen leaves a voicemail message for one potential supporter. On another call he has to spell out his name for the person who picks up the phone. A couple of folks who pick up inform him that they’re on their way out the door to the precinct caucuses.

“I’m the last person to talk to you,” Thissen says to one person headed to a party gathering. “That’s got to count for something, right?”

Thissen may not have picked up any votes with the last-minute delegate dialing. But it’s emblematic of how important this evening is to his gubernatorial hopes that he’s still trying. Thissen is one of seven credible DFL candidates who has vowed to abide by the party endorsement. This means that Thissen must win broad support among the party faithful who bother to show up for tedious party gatherings in the dead of winter. (Three other Democrats have signaled that they’ll challenge the endorsed candidate in a primary.)

The state House member started out his gubernatorial campaign 14 months ago with little name recognition outside of a home district that includes parts of South Minneapolis and Richfield. He’s since been endorsed by the Minnesota Nurses Association and is one of three DFL gubernatorial candidates supported by TakeAction Minnesota. Thissen’s also raised more than $370,000, one of the largest hauls in the crowded 10-candidate field. Most political observers peg House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak as the favorites heading into the endorsement process, but Thissen believes he‘s in a strong position.

“We have come an incredibly long way,” he says. “I think we‘re really well positioned to be the consensus candidate that people can rally around.”

Thissen is not the first gubernatorial candidate to arrive at Oak-Land Jr. High School in Lake Elmo. Former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza is already shaking hands with party activists in the school’s lobby.

It’s not a coincidence that the eastern suburbs of the Twin Cities have drawn more than one DFL gubernatorial candidate. The area has recently trended blue, with all three state legislative seats in Senate District 56, which includes part of Woodbury, now held by Democrats. Perhaps even more important: No DFL candidate in the field can credibly claim the area as home turf.

Thissen takes up position in front of the school, braving the cold to get a jump on Entenza with arriving DFLers. He shakes hands and holds open doors. He uses the word “momentum” often. He touts the recent backing from TakeAction Minnesota.

Shortly after 7 p.m. Thissen starts visiting classrooms where party activists are gathered according to precinct. He bumbles through a two-minute stump speech in the first room. Perhaps luckily, there are only four people present.

Thissen’s pitch becomes sharper as he hits more classrooms. He describes his background as the son of teachers and a parent of three kids enrolled in public schools. He touts his work expanding health-insurance access as chair of the House’s Health Care and Human Services Policy and Oversight Committee. He vows over and over and over again to fix Minnesota’s economy.

The most populous precinct has two dozen participants. The classroom reserved for DFLers from Landfall, by contrast, is completely empty. “It doesn’t look like Landfall is doing too well tonight,” Thissen observes.

At roughly 7:20, he departs for another precinct caucus location in Mahtomedi. Unfortunately, Thissen’s driver initially delivers him to the site of the GOP gathering. By the time he arrives at the correct location, Mahtomedi Middle School, the meetings are almost finished.

Entenza has once again beaten Thissen to the location. A member of Entenza’s staff kindly directs his rival to the most crowded precinct caucus rooms. Thissen tweaks his two-minute spiel slightly, throwing in a reference to the recent U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts as evidence that voters are fed up with gridlock and partisanship. The message: Thissen is a fresh face who won’t stand for politics as usual.

In one classroom, a party activist puts forward a resolution demanding that the media be censored because of rampant misogyny. In another, a woman holds forth on behalf of comprehensive sex education in schools. The last classroom Thissen hits holds nine people from Dellwood. Among them is a familiar face: one of Thissen’s fellow attorneys at the firm Briggs & Morgan.

“I’ve actually door-knocked Dellwood,” Thissen tells them, “so I know what it’s like.”

Shortly after 8:30, Thissen’s vehicle is headed back towards his campaign office in Bloomington. He’s checking email messages on his phone regarding the results of the evening’s gubernatorial straw poll of caucus attendees. The news is mostly positive, but Thissen suspects a rose-colored filter from supporters. He‘s informed that he won his home precinct in Minneapolis by a landslide.

But then he gets some slightly more surprising news. “I took the city of Moose Lake,” Thissen reports. “How about that?”

3 Responses to “Caucus night: Darkhorse Thissen scuffles and scrambles”

1. Meg Says:
   February 4th, 2010 at 10:06 am

   Briggs & Stratton makes lawnmower parts. Thissen’s employer is Briggs and Morgan.

2. Hiram Says:
   February 5th, 2010 at 8:55 am

   Paul is working very hard. He literally seems to be going through the DFL voter list name by name. That may not be a necessarily winning strategy but it’s an extremely effective strategy. For one thing, in campaigns, there is no better way to persuade voters than to talk to them personally. For another, Paul has amply demonstrated the energy a DFL candidate needs to have in order to win in November.

   Disclaimer: I voted for Paul at the caucus, and one reason I did that is that he personally asked me for my vote and I am easily flattered. Now I don’t necessarily view my commitment to Paul to vote for him at the caucus; I will support the candidate who I think has the best chance of winning. But it is also true for me, that Paul’s extraordinary campaign has gone a very long way in convincing me that he may very well be that guy.

3. Joel Wenzel Says:
   February 16th, 2010 at 11:10 pm

   Paul is precisely the candidate this state needs. Thissen’s biggest and only barrier to being our next governor isn’t the election in November but convincing the party faithful that he is the best candidate. He is the smartest, cleanest, most persuasive candidate in the race, which would make him the best governor. To all those who think he doesn’t have enough name recognition to win, I say the DFL endorsement will fix that problem and how far did name recognition take Mike Hatch, Roger Moe, and Skip Humphrey? People will know how Paul Thissen is and it’s our job to introduce him to the state if he is the endorsed DFL candidate. That’s what election politics is all about.