Kelliher makes history in DFL

DULUTH, Minn. - House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher earned the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's governor endorsement Saturday night, becoming the first female with major party backing for the state's highest position.

She still faces formidable opponents from within her own party in an Aug. 10 primary election, but at the state DFL convention late Saturday she edged Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.

The mayor conceded at 11:10 p.m. after nearly 1,400 delegates cast five ballots.

State Rep. Tom Rukavina of Virginia and state Sen. John Marty of Roseville dropped out of the race and suggested that the nearly 1,400 delegates at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center back Kelliher, who has a chance to become the state's first female governor.

A running mate will be approved on May 23 by the state party central committee.

She also thanked all of her opponents and said she looks forward to winning the Aug. 10 primary election.

"I'm going to vote for Margaret," Rukavina declared.

Kelliher pledged to sign a universal health bill into law within two years, winning Marty's backing.

State Rep. Paul Thissen of Minneapolis left the race at 10:03 p.m., thanking his family and supporters but not making a pick in the then two-person race.

Kelliher remained in a tight race with Rybak for four ballots and then began to pull away as she gained backing from those quitting the race.

Pre-convention favorites Kelliher and Rybak led early on as delegates struggled through a slow process of picking their favored candidate from what began as the most crowded governor field in memory.

Kelliher had 47 percent of the vote on the fifth ballot, with Rybak second with 32 percent.

Thissen's 20.1 percent was not enough for him to advance to a sixth ballot.

Sixty percent was needed to endorse a candidate.

In a touch of drama, when Rukavina announced he would leave the race, he put a Kelliher pin on his jacket.

Rukavina said he was like the "little engine that could."

"I just about got to the top," the state representative from Virginia said.

Speculation around the convention immediately put Rukavina as Kelliher's running mate, but there was no immediate comment from the speaker's campaign.

Earlier in the evening, Marty dropped out with just 10 percent of the vote.

Delegates packing the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center listened to speeches from six major and two minor candidates Saturday morning and then sat through an hour-long question-and-answer session with the candidates before starting the lengthy balloting process early in the afternoon.

Candidates needed a certain percentage of support, which went up on each ballot, to remain in contention. The five top candidates pledged to abide by the convention's endorsement and not challenge the winner in the Aug. 10 primary election, although Susan Gaertner, Matt Entenza and Mark Dayton already said they would be in the primary to face the endorsed Democrat.

Kelliher, from Minneapolis, and others sounded like they are running against GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who announced last summer he will not seek a third term.

"In the last eight years we have seen a governor whose right-wing ideology has been put ahead of people's lives ... ." Kelliher said. "We must and can do better."

The speaker said she told Pawlenty that she would pass a transportation funding package over his veto, and she did.

"I stare down the Republican right and come down with wins," she said.

Kelliher said she is ready to get to work after two terms as speaker. "There is no time to waste."

Rybak opened the candidates' speeches promoting his experience as having the only real executive background in the race.

The Minneapolis mayor reached out to rural Minnesotans.

"It was the farms and the prairies that made Minneapolis the milling capital of the world," Rybak said, and mining built Duluth.

"We are connected as Minnesotans," he added.

Joining most other candidates, Rybak brought up Pawlenty's years in office.

"These last eight years have shown us what can happen when we are divided," he said.

Thissen, introduced by Moorhead City Councilman Mark Altenburg, said Pawlenty "has closed the door on too many of us."

"Our leaders have decided for us that mediocrity is the best we can do," Thissen said.

Government is not the enemy, he said. "We have to break out of this trap that says the only job of government is to balance the budget."

Altenburg said that the Twin Cities' candidate remembers other parts of the state, too: "Paul in a lot of ways still holds the soil of his sod-busting pioneers."

The convention was abnormally quiet except when Rukavina fired up the nearly 1,400 delegates.

Rukavina delivered easily the most energetic speech of the day.

Davis reports for Forum Communications Co.