Lori Sturdevant: Where parties fear to tread

State Sen. Patricia Torres Ray wore neither an Ashwin Madia button nor a Terri Bonoff button when I bumped into her at the Third Congressional District DFL convention Saturday, 'long about the sixth ballot. But she was wearing a worried look.

"I'm so afraid this will go to a primary," the "just-watching" DFL senator from south Minneapolis explained.

Her fear proved groundless. After trailing through eight straight ballots, Bonoff, a Minnetonka state senator, stepped aside. DFL endorsement for the seat long held by GOP U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad went to Madia, a 30-year-old attorney, Iraq War veteran and hard-charging newcomer.

Bonoff's exit was demanded with an urgency that increased with each ballot by blue-shirted Madia supporters chanting "unite, unite" and "endorse, endorse." The possibility that the convention would end with no endorsement and that the two candidates would meet in a primary apparently alarmed them.

Perhaps, thought I, unnecessarily so.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not one who would junk the entire caucus-convention scheme for selecting candidates. I have too much respect for people willing to give up nights and weekends, year after year, for little reward other than the satisfaction of electing representatives they believe will build a better state and nation. Citizens so motivated, and willing to be accountable to their like-minded neighbors, deserve an extra measure of influence.

But when 156 such influentials are almost evenly divided between two able but not-so-well-known candidates, as happened Saturday, would it really be so wrong to punt the decision to their party's primary voters?

Consider: Neither Madia nor Bonoff are exactly blessed with a household name. Neither seems inclined to wage the kind of campaign that would permanently wound the other. We in the media seats Saturday were struck by the civility of their convention fight.

The money these two would have raised and spent on a summer campaign would not have been wasted on the Sept. 9 primary, as some DFLers suggested. It would have bought name recognition and media attention that's going to be hard to come by in the fall when the presidential and U.S. Senate campaigns are in high gear.

And it would have enlarged the base of support for the primary winner -- a base that, in Madia's case, does not yet extend too far beyond those who assembled at Wayzata Central Middle School on Saturday.

The Madia-Bonoff contest is exactly the sort that would have gone to a primary under the changes recommended 10 years ago by a reform commission that took the good name of its convener, then-Secretary of State Joan Growe. Though few of the ideas were implemented, the Growe Commission's work remains relevant.

Its proposed changes included "multiple endorsement," the idea that any candidate able to muster convention support past a reasonable threshold (perhaps 33 percent in a two-way race) would have earned the party's blessing for a spot on the primary ballot. Candidates who couldn't, or wouldn't, win over that many delegates would need to collect a daunting number of petition signatures to file for a primary election.

One more thing: The Growe Commission wanted an earlier primary. Intraparty contests were to be compressed, leaving more time for the interparty showdown in the fall.

Critics of these ideas have argued that, among other things, they would work against candidates who lack money or the ability to raise it. That's probably true -- but a candidate who lacks fundraising ability isn't going to go far in a race for the U.S. House, let alone a statewide office. Party endorsement alone nets only so much campaign cash, as several sadder-but-wiser DFL statewide endorsees in years past could attest.

At its nub, though, the resistance the Growe Commission faced is the same rub that's slowing down presidential primary bills at the Legislature. The power to make change resides with people who have been well-served by the status quo. They're loath to change.

But Saturday, DFL state chair Brian Melendez left me thinking that, at least in his party, some folks are open to thinking anew about sharing the power to select candidates with primary voters.

"I'm certainly not encouraging them," Melendez said of primary contests. "But I'll agree they don't always hurt your chances. The problem is, you never know in advance what primary fight is going to hurt and what will help."

That's right. That's democracy.

Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist. She is at lsturdevant@startribune.com.