Republicans in southern Minnesota continue to ponder when, or if, they should hold another 1st District convention to try to endorse a candidate to take on incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Walz.
Last weekend, a marathon convention ended in the wee hours after 23 ballots with no endorsement. Neither state Sen. Mike Parry nor Allen Quist could garner the necessary 60 percent.
While delegates indicated that night that they want to give it another try, Quist's campaign is noting in an email that it's hard to find a Saturday in the near future that will work, reports the Faribault Daily News.
There must be 10 days' notice, so May 12 is out; May 19 is the state convention and May 26 is Memorial Day weekend, so the earliest it appears possible to hold a Saturday convention is June 2.
That's probably too late, Rice County GOP Chair Bron Scher told the paper:
"If they truly schedule this for June 2, they might as well go to a primary,” Scher said. "If the complement of delegates is similar, there’s no way any of them are going to move. The outcome will be the same."
Dave Kruse, the 1st District GOP Chair, said a call for a Central Committee meeting to decide what to do is "in the works."