How we won: the view from the Kelliher campaign

Organization, training, momentum and a coalition-building candidate delivered House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher her Saturday DFL convention win, very tired -- but very key -- Kelliher staffers said Sunday night.

In tale that was part inside story and part victory lap of a winning convention campaign, she and other staffers explained how they did it.

"We just wanted to let folks know sort of what was going on behind the scenes and how we were working at the convention," said Jaime Tincher, Kelliher campaign manager.

The campaign started building its key players last summer.

"Our goal was to be the best organized and best trained operation," she said.

That meant finding key volunteers, some of whom had no convention experience, building the infrastructure through the February caucus and each of the congressional district conventions, which they used as a "training grounds," and assigning key people into key roles early so that when it came this weekend's crucial gathering of almost 1,400 DFL activists, they were ready.

"We know that to win a party endorsement you have to be the person who comes in with the strongest broadest coalition of supporters," Tincher said.

The campaign also had supporters organized into a series of mini-teams to deal with specific tasks. There was the persuasion team, of lawmakers and other key backers who would talk to specific delegates about their specific concerns. There was the credential and balloting team; the team focused on making sure alternates moved into delegate spots if the delegate was unavailable to vote and the "visibility and excitement team," which rallied folks on the floor and off it with cheers and signs. The campaign even had an organized "off floor persuasion." That team had its eye out for delegates who escaped the rather cramped confines of the convention floor but still might be willing to hear why they should vote for Kelliher.

Kelliher also had allies and their backers pulling for her -- she had more union endorsements than any other candidate as well as a group of DFL constituency caucuses (like the DFL African American caucus.) Many of those groups lent their organizational experience to Kelliher's campaign as well.

All told, said Duininck, the campaign had about 150 different people with specific roles in Duluth to pull things together.

How prepared were they?

Their sense of how delegates would vote was "right on," said Tincher. They hit their projected mark on every one of the ballots and estimated that Kelliher would clinch the nod at some point between the 6th and 9th ballot. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, her closest rival, conceded before the 6th ballot results were read. (That ballot would have shown Kelliher with 56 percent of the vote and Rybak with 43. Sixty percent is needed to win.)

When state Rep. Tom Rukavina, who tied for third in early balloting but slowly dropped, did just that, in a ringing speech that increased the momentum of her lead, the campaign gave delegates a sheet with an archived photo of Rukavina kissing Kelliher's cheek.

The speed and precision of the document caused some rumors to fly on the floor. Some suggested the kiss was photo-shopped. No, Tincher said, it was in the legislative archives. Others suggested the Kelliher-Rukavina deal was cooked up far in advance. No, the two just had a five minute conversation during the convention in which he decided to back her, Tincher said. Rukavina said Saturday night that his campaign didn't have the "wherewithal to scheme."

The campaign distributed a similar flier when state Sen. John Marty, who came in fifth on the first ballot and never picked up, said on the convention stage that he, too, would support Kelliher. Marty, an ardent backer of single payer universal health care, told delegates that Kelliher had committed to signing his Minnesota Health Plan as governor. She even wrote a letter to him, apparently affirming that commitment.

What problems did they have?

They had an equipment failure at a rally that caused the music to stop and the microphone to go out, offered Tincher. Duininck said they also had a computer problem that caused their ballot projection operation to run slow for a time.

Their campaign team is going to grow and integrate with the DFL Party.

"It's going to get a lot bigger," Tincher said.

That integration might not be hard. Tincher is a former DFL staffer and knows the party and its operations well. (Duininck will not be on staff.)

The campaign is also making plans to run television ads within the next month. That would be early for past gubernatorial campaigns but Kelliher is up against two well-funded rival -- former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton and former state Rep. Matt Entenza -- in a primary. Entenza plans to start running ads this week.

Kelliher will also "soon" make her pick for lieutenant governor.

Of the rumored Kelliher pairing with state Rukavina?

"She'll certainly continue to talk to him but that's not the plan at this point," Tincher said.