Amalinta and Amy represent the excitement and hope of the CD7 convention. They came a long ways on sunny day to be at this convention. Amalinta was running to be one of the Hillary National Convention Delegates. Both were brimming with ideas and stories. We talked about the future of wind energy in this area. Indeed, that excitement showed in every conversation I had. Even in the toughest districts, the Democrats were ready to work a very tough fight, with a sparkling hope for this year's election.

To understand the rugged independence and spirit of this convention, you should know that this is Minnesota's largest and most rural district, including the entire northwestern area of the state. CD7 also includes the cities of Moorhead, Fergus Falls, Bemidji, Willmar, Alexandria and part of St. Cloud.

In the back of the room, all of the alternate seating is taken up, so when the alternates were upgraded basically the whole convention was filled. Even alternates not seated stayed and participated, even though conditions were tough, for the air conditioning had failed.

In order to allow more delegates from sparse areas, there are half delegates. This complicates voting in that basically there is no simple voice vote for issues, instead there is a minimum show of hands voting, where first half-delegates vote pro and con and then full-delegates vote pro and con.

Strangely, the convention decided not to have a question and answer period for the senate candidates, even with support from both campaigns. Indeed the enthusiasm for both senate candidates was strangely muted. The Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer campaign had two huge vans of volunteers, both experienced and new. The Franken campaign had a Detroit Lakes school load of volunteers. Yet when Al Franken gave thanks to U.S. Representative Collin Peterson, the standing ovation and long applause threatened to take over Franken's entire three minutes of speaking time.

To better understand the relationships of the CD7, I took this picture of yes, the back of Collin Peterson. I wanted to highlight the expressions of people talking to Collin, to show how he is well liked and respected. In many ways, this convention seemed to be a celebration of US Representative Collin Peterson and the passage of the farm bill. Indeed when Collin spoke for the security of long term farming and supporting development of labor union jobs, he did seem to clearly represent the concerns of this district. I was also astonished that Collin was in a white shirt and jeans, clearly representing a different standard of dressing here, although many people were also in suits.

I was talking to a person who works for a local Minnesota house representative. She said that successful political leaders go to every possible public event here even in off campaign years, to build the personal relationships to have a successful political career. So I asked her, if that meant that people who would seriously expect to run, would even start two years early. She said that would help. Wow!

And here is Soren, one of our future great politicians coming out of CD7, who is truly taking the advice of an early start and starting at the age of 10. He had the best campaign speech of the entire day. He was campaigning for his mom to become a national delegate!

And should anyone break the rules here, here is the sergent-at-arms, who nobody messed with. I had to take her picture because she represents that kind of calm strength and wisdom that women here seemed to have. If she had not been busy, I would tried to get more of her story. In many ways, she looks like all of the leadership here, the same calm, the same confidence, and same wonderful courtesy. The local CD7 chair, Paul Wright has always been a political person that I have greatly admired and respected.

As in every convention, the Democrats gave honor to the flag, the country, the constitution and every person who has ever served for our country. One woman was there to change this country, wearing a proud button displaying the picture of her son who died in 2006. I did not post her picture, for I did not want another single second of grief to come to her (like the protesters at soldier's funerals). For her and her son, everyone of us should be dedicated to fixing the politics of this country!

And since the Republicans are trying to put up a fake story of Democratic conventions not being press accessible, here is proof of press accessibility. It was a small crowded convention, yet no one had trouble getting pictures. Everyone was expected to stay in the back or edges, which I thought was totally reasonable.

I would will update with more results like who became national delegates when I get that information. I had to leave early with my ride home.

Update: Terry Gydesen has pictures of some pictures up of Obama national delegates.

I forgot to mention that Fairvote was there explaining Instant Runoff Voting, one of the best informational campaigns that I have ever known!

Update 2: From Paul Wright:

Thanks to everyone that helped make the CD 7 DFL convention a success! Special thanks to Alan & Karen Perish for helping to bring it all together smoothly. Congratulations to our newly elected people: Allison Myhre (associate chair), Pam McCrory (secretary), Lil Ortendahl (treasurer), Tom McRoberts (affirmative action outreach officer), Rita Albrecht, Claremont Anderson, Cyndi Anderson, John Ceterski, Ann Darby, LeAnn Dean, Pat Dodge, Lon Engberg, Jim Falk, Karen Falk, Almalita Joosten, Dave Lundeen, Ben Lundquist, Marie Mars, Manley Nichols, Alan Perish, Karen Perish, Ben Saylor, Stephen Slater, Jim Stone, Sandy Tracy and Terry Vanderpol (district directors). And, congratulations to our conventioneers: Jim Gremmels of Glenwood (Presidential Elector), MN Representative Kent Eken of Twin Valley for Clinton, Jody Torgelson of Thief River Falls for Clinton, Andrew Falk of Murdock for Obama, Douglas Williams of Morris for Obama, Jessica Rohloff of Willmar for Obama (national delegates) and Marcia Betker of Hutchinson for Obama (national delegate alternate). I would also like to thank and congratulate Congressman Collin Peterson, Sharon Josephson and the entire Peterson Congressional staff.
(From an email)