Good losers help DFL to end on a good note

ROCHESTER - Minnesota DFLers left their state convention in Rochester on Sunday feeling generally upbeat, and a lot of the credit went to candidates that lost this weekend: Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Their gracious concessions Saturday paved the way for DFLers to unite behind Al Franken for Senate and Barack Obama for president, leaving party leaders and delegates in an unusually chipper mood as they head into an election year thought to be prime for Democratic gains.

"This was one of the most hopeful, unified, engaged and excited conventions I've seen," said House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis.

DFL chair Brian Melendez characterized delegates as "calm, happy and energized" -- mainly owing to, he said, Nelson-Pallmeyer's and Clinton's generous backing for their opponents.

While Franken's endorsement Saturday wasn't unexpected, the fact that it came on the first ballot surprised many delegates.

Plenty thought the battle might drag out after a week of negative publicity generated by Republicans over the comedian-author's more salacious sketches.

When it became clear that Franken had garnered slightly more than the 60 percent of delegate support he needed, Nelson-Pallmeyer, a college professor from Minneapolis, asked the convention to endorse him by acclamation.

'He did what he needed to do'

Kelliher said Franken impressed many delegates just before the balloting began with his answers to candidate questions and his speech, in which he apologized for his sexually explicit stories.

"Candidate Franken grew in people's eyes," she said. "He did what he needed to do -- he showed his warmth and got his focus back on Norm Coleman's record. ... He told us that he's ready to be Senator Al Franken and that he knows the difference."

State Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-St. Paul, who placed Franken's name in nomination Saturday, said that she didn't find his first-ballot victory all that surprising. By the time she walked into the convention hall, she said, Franken supporters were confident they would need only one ballot.

"There were some concerns that there might be some softening" of support because of the past week, she said.

But Moua said she had talked pointedly with Franken before the convention and, with others, told him he had to directly address the issue in his convention speech.

Franken, she said, told him that as a comedy writer "some things I wrote flew, some flopped."

"That works for me," said Moua. "By the time the convention started [Saturday], I think the numbers were pretty firm."

According to Tim Bonham, the convention's head teller, Franken's first-ballot victory turned on his strong showing among DFL delegates in the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth congressional districts. The three congressional districts include northern and western Minnesota, along with the northern and far eastern metro suburbs.

"He was up 57, 58 percent," Bonham said. "They came in, and they went heavy for Al Franken." Nelson-Pallmeyer won heavily in the First Congressional District of southern Minnesota and took Olmsted County, which includes Rochester, Bonham said.

Some still worry

Still, several delegates were left to wonder Sunday just how big a target Franken will remain for Republican operatives.

"I really think that is an issue that the Republicans are going to bring forward," said Kyle Bianconi, an alternate delegate from Chisholm who had initially backed Franken but had switched to Nelson-Pallmeyer by the time he arrived at the convention.

Bianconi said he had reconciled Franken's mistakes with his own beliefs. "I'm a little bit of a believer in redemption," said Bianconi, who operates an organic herbal products and aromatherapy business from his home.

Laurie Driessen, a delegate from Camby, had been uncommitted until Saturday. She liked Nelson-Pallmeyer, but after hearing Franken's apology she threw her support to him.

Franken, she said, was "able to admit, yes, he's done things in the past he probably wishes he didn't. I just felt everybody has made mistakes."

In the end, the key for DFLers, Driessen said, is to keep their eyes on the prize -- unseating Coleman.

"It was Paul Wellstone's [seat]," she said, referring to the late senator who remains an icon to DFLers. "We want it back."

kduchschere@startribune.com • 612-673-4455 mkaszuba@startribune.com • 612-673-4388