Mike Ciresi -- Wrong Approach

Category: Mike Ciresi

by Dave Mindeman

Mike Ciresi never quite got it. In two different Senate runs, he made the same mistake. He assumed that running with general election campaign themes, from the beginning, can also get you the endorsement or support of the party base. It just doesn't mix.

Party activists are a different animal. They demand a certain passion and adherence to principle that makes candidates walk a fine line through an election process.

Al Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer figured that system out.

Franken began his efforts long ago at the party bean feeds and legislative candidate fundraisers. He raised the early money and took his case directly to the people that knocked on the doors and made all the calls. And they responded.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer knew that his issues were the party base's issues. He doesn't have the money but he has the heart....and party activists reward heart, even when they are unsure if the candidate can make a case for a November win. In the Democratic Party, they are always looking for the next Paul Wellstone. And for a lot of people, that resemblance registers in Pallmeyer.

But Mike Ciresi's very nature is a pragmatic one. It has made him successful and is at the heart of his persuasion ability. But if pragmatism was the Ciresi plan, then he should have opted to go directly to a primary campaign. Pragmatism and Activisim don't mix very well in an endorsement process.

I suspect Ciresi believed that he could convince people that this approach was the best way to win this year. Make it a slow and methodical campaign....grind it out, keeping the focus on Norm Coleman. But the endorsement process is anything but a normal analyitcal mechanism. It is more like herding cats.

Ciresi kept expecting that methodical argument to work. But that didn't happen with a party base that is tired of cautious, resistant to compromise, and looking for down right angry passion.

Mike Ciresi is a good man and a good candidate.....but just not the right type of candidate to capture a Democratic endorsement. Not in a year like this.