Caucus night: Seifert wins; Kelliher, Rybak too close to call

Editor’s note: The results snapshots here were taken from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s straw poll tracking page at 7:30 a.m., with nearly 80 percent of precincts reporting, and they’re followed by Charley Shaw’s real-time dispatches from last night. For more current SoS tracking numbers, go here.

12:50 a.m. DFL gubernatorial candidate Tom Bakk said he is pushing ahead with his campaign after Tuesday’s precinct caucuses. With 77 percent of precincts reporting, Bakk finished well behind the lead DFL candidates with 6.13 percent of the DFL straw poll vote. In a press release, Bakk said he has support from 18 super delegates and finished 2009 with the most cash on hand of any candidate.

“The straw poll results reinforced what we have known for months. There will be a number of strong candidates vying for the DFL endorsement at the convention in April,” Bakk said.

12:40 a.m. Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Tony Sutton has announced Marty Seifert won the party’s gubernatorial straw poll. With 95 percent of precincts reporting, Seifert has 50.3 percent of the vote. Tom Emmer has 39.2 percent.

12:25 a.m. The gubernatorial straw poll results from tonight’s caucuses beg more questions than they have answered.

One writer participating this evening in the Minnesota GOP’s online live chat wondered if the distance between GOP candidates Tom Emmer and Marty Seifert and the other GOP candidates will prompt David Hann and Bill Haas to exit the race. On air pundits on WCCO-AM picked at several question marks especially the meaning of Mark Dayton staying out of the straw poll.

Tuesday’s results didn’t coronate any single candidate from either side of the aisle. Seifert failed to garner 60 percent of the vote with 94 percent of precincts reporting, which is the percentage he’ll need to clinch the endorsement. That led some to opine that tonight was a strong showing for the GOP second-place finisher Emmer.

R.T. Rybak spent most of the night with a slight lead over Margaret Anderson Kelliher. But the tight finish prompted discussion on Twitter about which one of the Minneapolis DFLers is the stronger candidate in greater Minnesota and in the suburbs.

And some on Twitter wondered why Minnesota uses caucuses to start the candidate-selection process in the first place. That’s one question that won’t be solved with an election.

11:25 p.m. With nearly three quarters of DFL precincts reporting, Rybak is still edging out Kelliher. Rybak has 21.7 percent and Kelliher has 20 percent.

10: 20 p.m. GOP candidate Marty Seifert at this hour leads in his party’s gubernatorial straw poll results. With nearly half the precincts reporting, Seifert has 52 percent. Tom Emmer has 37 percent.

10 p.m. As the half-way point approaches in the unofficial DFL gubernatorial poll count, Rybak leads with 20.3 percent. Kelliher is second with 18.8 percent. The uncommitteds have 15 percent. Marty is hanging tough with 9.7 percent.

9:35 p.m. The DFL straw poll results so far indicate a tight battle between Margaret Anderson Kelliher and R.T. Rybak. They’re each hovering at about 20 percent with 33 percent of precincts reporting.

9:15 p.m. DFL caucus goers had the option tonight of remaining uncommitted in the gubernatorial straw poll. As the unofficial results trickle in, it appears that some caucus goers chose that option.

With 29 percent of precincts reporting, 15 percent have say they are uncommitted.

There are 11 DFL candidates on tonight’s preference poll. Still to report at this hour are massive parts of greater Minnesota and many urban precincts.

8:45 p.m. Officials at Minnesota’s political parties are waiting for a rush of precinct caucus results in the next hour. Results for the gubernatorial preference poll have arrived in small numbers since before caucuses ended at 8 p.m. Party leaders expect a heavy load of results after 9 p.m.

The results of the gubernatorial preference poll are available at the Secretary of State’s website.

The scene at the Minnesota DFL Party headquarters in St. Paul was quiet at 8:30 p.m., with no reporters arrived yet to cover the results on site.

As of 8:40 p.m., 540 DFL caucuses out of 4,129, or 13 percent, had reported. DFL candidates Margaret Anderson Kelliher, John Marty, Tom Rukavina and R.T. Rybak were showing double digit percentages early on in the straw poll. DFL candidate Mark Dayton isn’t participating in the straw poll.

Only 5 percent of GOP caucuses had reported as of 8:40 p.m. The GOP caucus results are already indicating a two-person contest between Tom Emmer and Marty Seifert.

2 Responses to “Caucus night: Seifert wins; Kelliher, Rybak too close to call”

1. Joel Clemmer Says:
   February 3rd, 2010 at 8:58 am

   The big news on the DFL side actually is the very strong showing of Senator John Marty. He was essentially written off by prognosticators but actually harbored real strength among the voters and is running ahead of Thissen, Entenza, Kelley and others. He is also the candidate with the most specific solutions to recognized problems, like health care. This could be the year of the no nonsense, get-it-done politician.

2. John Anderson Says:
   February 3rd, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   Great strategy on Team Emmer’s part: hide the terrible cash on hand numbers until too late so no one knows when they go into vote. Certainly, if people knew that their local state representative has more cash on hand than a state-wide candidate for Governor, they’d consider that gubernatorial candidacy a joke.