It Depends On What Your Defination of "Unity" Is

Gary Gross has a post up on this Doug Grow MinnPost column.Gary does a great job tearing the base premise of the column apart but I do have to add to one comment. Gary remarks:

...Here’s how Grow finishes his post:

As November approaches, Republicans are trying to understand who they are. Meantime, DFLers are bouncing around the state more robust, and unifed, than they’ve been in a quarter century.


There isn’t any doubt that DFL legislators are unified....

If you watched the floor debates from the last month of the session you would know that the claim of unity is patently false! Whether the subject was Education funding or property tax relief, there were countless speeches on the House floor from outstate DFL'ers about how the leadership (who are all from metro cities) were overlooking the needs of outstate townships and giving everything to the metro. If there was any unity in that caucus, it was the unity of fear of the leadership. The DFL leadership made it clear, through out the session that there would be consequences to voting against them. When Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba voted initially against the Transportation bill, rumor has it she was told that she would lose her committee chairmanship if she voted against the over-ride.

Here's a little more from Grow on the "dis-unity" that he says is afflicting the GOP.

Like Tingelstad, Rep. Neil Peterson, a Republican from Bloomington, has felt the wrath of his party for joining the Override Six. He was not endorsed at his district convention, meaning he’ll have to run against a more pure, endorsed candidate in a September primary.

“The leadership in the party has become very conservative,” said Peterson. “It’s caused quite a rift. Next week, they have a (district party) monthly meeting that we’ve always been invited to to discuss how the session went. This year, I’m not invited. Neither is Ron Erhardt. They don’t even want to hear from us.”

Erhardt, from Edina, is another of the Override Six. He’s been representing his moderate district for 18 years but now is pondering whether to try to continue his job by running in the Republican primary or as an independent.

“I’m not sure if this is Ron Paul people or what,” said Peterson. “I just know I don’t pass their test.”

Mr. Grow...shall we talk about Reps. Joe Muellery and Willie Dominguez? It seems that your unity meme does not apply to them. You see, like Reps. Peterson and Erhardt, Reps. Muellery and Dominguez were not endorsed by their respective BPOU's this year. Do you suppose the Ron Paul people infiltrated those BPOU's as well? Or do you suppose that maybe, JUST MAYBE is it because, like Reps. Peterson, Erhardt et al, these representatives are no longer "representing" their district?

This idea of strict party unity is one of those memes (media themes) that just does not wash when put through the scrutiny of reality. The reality is that the local party unit decides if their representatives are really representing them and if they are not, it is the local unit's choice whether or not to endorse! In the case of Representatives Muellery, Tinglestad, Dominguez, Peterson and Erhardt the reality was that the BPOU did not endorse because the member in question was no longer "representing" the district. It has nothing to do with "party unity" and everything to do with "local representation".

Then again, I realize that local representation is a foreign concept to reporters and elitists like Doug Grow.