What a GOP slugfest looks like

Could the Saturday convention fight between Reps. Marty Seifert and Tom Emmer rival the best Republican conventions fights?

We won't know until tomorrow but their coming ballot feud caused us to take a gander at GOP slugfests past.

Folks who have been around Minnesota politics during the last decade well remember the 2002 Republican convention slugfest between then-Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty and businessman Brian Sullivan. The 2002 the fight was long, nasty and, for a long time, stuck.

Here's what the balloting in that 2002 fight looked like before Sullivan conceded at 3 am:

BALLOT

PAWLENTY Pawlenty % SULLIVAN Sullivan %total votes First 1,089 49.70% 1,102 50.30% 2,191 Second 1,105 50.20% 1,096 49.80% 2,201 Third 1,116 50.98% 1,073 49.02% 2,189 Fourth 1,137 52.06% 1,047 47.94% 2,184 Fifth 1,168 53.36% 1,021 46.64% 2,189 Sixth 1,139 52.20% 1,043 47.80% 2,182 Seventh 1,106 50.76% 1,073 49.24% 2,179 Eighth 1,095 50.37% 1,079 49.63% 2,174 Ninth 1,094 50.23% 1,084 49.77% 2,178 10th 1,097 50.65% 1,069 49.35% 2,166 11th 1,159 53.41% 1,011 46.59% 2,170 12th 1,253 58.39% 893 41.61% 2,146

While that was the longest convention in the last decade, convention veterans can well remember hotter fights.

There was the Republican convention in 1996, "when delegates deadlocked over U.S. Senate candidates Bert McKasy and Rudy Boschwitz. The convention did not endorse, and the party remained badly split," according to Star Tribune archives.

And the 1966 Republican fight that ended with complicated but workable scheme to end convention deadlock. That fight went 16 ballots over two days. Read pages 141-143 for the Republican portion of the 1966 fight in The Twenty-First Ballot, the historic accounting of that year's DFL fight here.

Have tales of convention lore? Please let us know in the comments.