2:02
a.m.: I said I was done, but then news happened. WCCO called the race for Tim Pawlenty.
When that happened, there was virtually no one left in the DFL headquarters. It
was a sad scene here, trash everywhere, an empty room. When Mike Hatch decided
to call it a night at 1:30 a.m., I suspect he knew the numbers were not going
to go his way. He'll have the morning to consider whether to ask for a recount
(if there isn't an automatic recount), and he'll have some time to think
through what he wants to say. We'll be on it, in the morning.
----------
1:28
a.m.: Mike Hatch called it a night. We just talked to him, and he reiterated
that he wanted all the votes to come in. The lights all came on in the
ballroom, and the crowd wasn't exactly pumped. Kind of a downer of an ending
for the DFL faithful, but there's no question the race is too close to call.
And although there will likely be an automatic recount, it'll be tough for
Hatch to make up the 25,000 vote deficit with the precincts that are still out
there.
So
we are just about done. The station is asking me to stand by and possibly do one
more update. I know that someone other than Lindsay, the self-described
"only Democrat in Orono" is still awake. We'll do one more, and then
bring our morning show stuff back to the station. When I asked about recount
possibilities, the campaign spokesperson just said, "We don't even know if
we're going that way yet." The losing candidate has the option to request
a recount, at their own expense.
OK,
this concludes the live blog. I'll post about it tomorrow ... but let me know
what you thought of it!
Send me an e-mail!
I enjoyed it, and I hope you found it useful and/or fun.
----------
1:19am,
Mike Hatch has come to the podium.
"We think it would be a good thing to wait it out for the night,
just to make sure." He's not
conceding, not declaring victory, he seems to be calling it a night. But he's not jumping with optimism, that's
for sure.
----------
12:56
a.m.: The jubilance of the DFL headquarters is tempered right now, by a 21,000
vote deficit that Mike Hatch is dealing with. With about 2 million total votes
cast, anything less than a 100,000 vote margin will trigger an automatic
recount. Pat Kessler is reporting on TV that it will be tough for Mike Hatch to
catch up, with about 14 percent of the precincts still to report. There's still
a decent crowd here, although people are starting to look a little tired.
Maybe
that's just me being a little tired. We've got field producer Sonya Goins,
Photographers Joe Mears and Tom Murphy, along with photographer/truck operators
Arthur Phillips and Andy Smith. So I'm in good company here. And there's a team
of dozens back at the station: Assistant News Director John Daenzer and
Executive Producer Angela Benson have been busy helping get our stuff on the
air, and getting my blogs on the web. I know Eric Henderson is back there
getting this live blog on wcco.com, and getting my video up as well. I'm sure
there are many many more people working, as the clock strikes 1 a.m. We're all
tired and hungry. And looking forward to reporting to work bright and early
tomorrow! I'm looking forward to waking up with Seth in about 6 hours. Gotta
love having a 1-year-old!
----------
12:38
a.m.: The party rolls on here. The DFL is saying they had to sue Mary
Kiffmeyer today. Brian Melendez, DFL
party chair, alleges that some college students at the U of M weren't allowed
to vote because of questions over the I.D. they had. He says a judge ruled in favor of the DFL,
and the students were allowed to vote.
He's saying that the polls stayed open an extra hour at the U in order
to let the college students vote.
"We'll never have to sue Mary Kiffmeyer again," said Melendez,
as he introduced the Secretary of State elect, Mark Ritchie.
----------
12:14
a.m. Wednesday: Well, it's Wednesday morning, and there's still no winner in
the Governor's race. The crowd has
thinned here at the DFL Headquarters.
The hotel has run out of bottled water, so I've switched to straight
Scotch. Just kidding. I had a diet coke. Calorie-free refreshment.
The
two candidates for Governor are about 20,000 votes apart. If it stays this close, an automatic recount
will be triggered. My understanding is
if the separation is less than 0.5 percent, there's an automatic recount. So we may not know who the next Governor will
be by the end of tonight. The band is
playing again, "Wait Till The Midnight Hour." The midnight hour is here.
----------
11:41
p.m.: Former St. Paul Police Chief Bill Finney is on stage conceding the race
to Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
"It's a little tough for me," he says.
----------
11:01
p.m.: Just finished chatting with Al Franken.
We're attempting to feed that back to the station, and stream it on the
web as a "web extra." Maybe
it'll show up in our morning news. I
asked him if anything that happened tonight fits into his decision on running
for the Senate in 2008. He said,
"Tonight was a lot of fun." He
certainly was suggesting that the success of the DFL tonight makes his run for
U.S. Senate against Norm Coleman even more attractive.
On
TV, we've switched to David Letterman.
But we'll update when anything important happens. And I'm not sure if anyone's reading this,
but I'll keep writing.
Drop me an e-mail if you're reading, or if
you have any questions. I can try to
find answers for you!
----------
10:54
p.m.: St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman is on stage with the School Superintendent
(Meria Carstarphen) and the school board talking about the
St. Paul School referendum passing with
60 percent of the vote. Interesting for
a school superintendent to be at a political party, isn't it?
----------
10:25
p.m.: I have a minute to take a breath before I go live in our 10:35 p.m.
update. Mike Hatch came out from his
suite just before 10 for a well-timed chat with the crowd. He managed to get live on our air, and
everywhere else. Basically he said,
"I'm very hopeful, it's still early, we have high expectations." And "if we do this, it's because all of
your hard work."
The
band is now playing again, and I have a feeling we're going to hear a lot from
them. Yesterday in my video blog, I
talked about wondering what kind of food there would be. No freebies here. There's some food for sale by the hotel. That could be a problem if the night drags
on. I remember when these kind of
parties would have an open bar. Not
here. That's a good thing, I
suppose. We don't want too many loopy
DFLers around.
OK,
back to the TV.
----------
9:31
p.m.: Amy Klobuchar is introduced as the "Senator-Elect" from Minnesota. Comes in to "Right Now" playing and
a drum line. Ends her speech, "I'm
a wife, I'm a mother, I'm a prosecutor, I'm a Minnesotan." Said, "I won't follow the Lone Star, I
will follow the North Star." Crowd
loved that one. 9:45 p.m. now, I have to
get ready for the 10 p.m. news. I'm
covering the Hatch campaign, they're all hunkered down. Hard to reach them. With DFLers showing big leads in most races,
Hatch is showing a smaller lead. We'll
see how it develops.
----------
9:06
p.m.: Klobuchar campaign workers are passing out the signs. They read "klobuchar for change"
and "Amy Klobuchar". They want
all the signs to be seen in the TV shots of Amy Klobuchar's speech, which
should come in minutes. Live coverage at
wcco.com.
----------
8:50
p.m.: No Amy Klobuchar speech yet.
Perhaps she's waiting for the election coverage to get rolling, so she
gets on TV. And perhaps she's waiting
for Mark Kennedy to concede. Here at the
DFL party, the band is rolling, the mood is good. Only about 3 percent of the state's vote is
in, but as people see Democrats picking up key seats around the East Coast,
they're growing more excited about the overall election.
There
are two rooms here. The main ballroom
you'll see on TV. And an outer room,
where many people are gathered watching local news. For some reason, CNN and MSNBC are on the big
screens here. And a blog with live
update election results. How web 2.0 of
the DFL.
I've
been waiting for Mike Hatch to arrive, and still no sign of him. Photographer Joe Mears is still on the
stakeout for me.
----------
8:01
p.m.: There's a small crowd here, but there was just a smattering of applause
as CNN and MSNBC are projecting Amy Klobuchar the winner. CBS is also projecting Klobuchar and Keith
Ellison are the winners. We're hearing
the Amy Klobuchar will come down from her room to talk to the crowd here in 15
minutes.
It's
funny, because there isn't a huge crowd!
I just finished talking to former V.P. Walter Mondale, and he told me
that not only did Minnesota
just elect a woman to the Senate (for the first time), "It was easy for
us! It's just fine! We can look for talent." A Muslim elected to the house (Keith Ellison)
and a woman to the Senate (Amy Klobuchar).
A bit anti-climactic here, as it's such a small gathering! The band hasn't even started playing.
----------
7:26
p.m.: Amy Klobouchar just arrived at the hotel. Photographer Joe Mears and I
were staking out the entrance to the Crowne
Plaza, and we saw her
pull up in a SUV with "Powered by E-85" on the side. Clever.
Klobouchar was with her husband and daughter. She said if she becomes the first
woman Senator elected by Minnesota,
everyone should look at her campaign. She said, "We ran a positive
campaign from start to finish."
Her
daughter supposedly has a list of 20+ things for mom to do. Klobouchar has been
saying, "After the election." She said the list starts tomorrow
(although she did buy her daughter a new dress for tonight).
----------
6:22
p.m.: Now the waiting begins. Mike Hatch
is not at the hotel yet, at least according to his spokeswoman, he's not at the
hotel. Some of the reporters are eating
their dinners. Others are engaging in
the age-old election night tradition: fighting to get the FIRST interview with
the candidate.
Here's
how it works, candidates accept or concede on stage. Most stations carry that live (or Web
sites). Then they come and do one-on-one
interviews. Reporters try to lay the
groundwork ahead of time to get the first interview. But when election night comes, most of that
goes out the window. Sometimes it's a
shovefest to get to the candidate first.
Sometimes candidates come to the station they like best, or the station
they feel has given them favorable coverage, or the station with the most
viewers. Who knows? But right now several reporters are spending
their time freaking out. I am not one of
them. If Hatch wins, he'd be crazy to
talk to anyone other than me first.
----------
5:40
p.m.: St. Paul Police and a bomb-sniffing dog just swept through the room. The dog checked out the stage, and walked
through all of the media areas.
Supporters are starting to trickle in, as are some campaign
workers. Mainly, though, there are
reporters here. There is a stage for a band,
so I'm looking forward to that.
Our
WCCO Crew is made up of Sonya Goins, field producer and a legion of others. I'll introduce you to them as we move on!
