ROCHESTER, Minn. — After 10 ballots stretching over two days and eating up more than 15 hours at their party convention, Republicans on Saturday backed a businessman and first-time candidate to run for U.S. Senate.
“This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. This is only the end of the beginning,” Mike McFadden told delegates around 1:30 p.m. Saturday. “I look forward to taking the fight to Al Franken.”
Delegates went for McFadden despite his making it clear he would not be guided by their preference and would run in the August primary even if they picked someone else. That was in stark contrast to St. Louis County Commissioner Chris Dahlberg, a dark-horse candidate who led the balloting the first day before slipping Saturday and conceding to McFadden. Dahlberg had made it clear he would quit the race if not selected by his party.
With the party’s nod, the field is all but cleared for McFadden to face Franken in November. State Rep. Jim Abeler, who dropped out of the endorsement race Friday after pulling low vote totals, has said he’s leaning toward running in the primary but has not decided.
“Minnesota has spoken. They want a different kind of leader. Someone that’s come from the private sector that has a track record of getting things done. I’m a problem-solver,” McFadden said after his victory, all but hoarse after a night of making speeches and lobbying delegates.
It was clear his private-sector record will be a prime target for Democrats.
As soon as he was endorsed, the state Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party issued a statement saying “investment banker Mike McFadden has a record of making millions on business deals that in many cases cost American workers their jobs.”
“They have a war on jobs,” McFadden said of the DFL. “I look forward to talking about their record on jobs. I’ve created jobs. That’s what I do. I have a record of 20 years of doing that, and I look forward to that conversation.”
McFadden has been taking pains to differentiate the work he’s done as co-CEO of Lazard Middle Market, from which he is now on leave, from the kind of private-equity deals that were used as ammunition against presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He has brought in a researcher who advised Romney’s campaign to help him address the issue of his business background.
McFadden’s firm is an investment bank that played an advisory role and did not get a stake in the small- to medium-sized companies it worked with nor did it make operational decisions, according to his campaign.
As for his personal wealth, McFadden has said that Franken also is wealthy and that high net worth shouldn’t disqualify someone from public office.
In August, McFadden reported he was worth at least $15 million and as much as $57 million. He earned $2.4 million in salary and bonuses from Lazard Middle Market between January 2012 and July 2013, according to a public financial disclosure report. He has given $5,200 to his campaign.
According to a financial disclosure report filed in May 2013, Franken has between $4 million and $12 million in assets. He gets a Senate salary of $174,000 and continues to earn money from books and from his work as a writer and performer in movies and TV.
Elise Hiljus of Franconia is a member of the executive committee for the Chisago County Republican Party. She supported Dahlberg all the way up to the last ballot, she said, when she switched to McFadden.
“We needed an endorsement to prevent a primary in the fall and to keep unity in the party,” Hiljus said.
She said she’s afraid that it damages the party to endorse a candidate who didn’t promise to abide by the endorsement and that it will make it easier for the next candidate to do the same thing.
State GOP Party Deputy Chair Chris Fields said, “I don’t see any damage to the party. What I see is a party united behind Mike McFadden.”
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann endorsed McFadden in a flier distributed to delegates Saturday, calling him “the candidate that can best bring the fight to Senator Franken.”
McFadden, 49, of Sunfish Lake, grew up in Omaha, Neb., as the eldest of five children. He and his wife have six children.
He has consistently led the GOP field in fundraising, pulling in nearly $3 million as of the end of March, with about $2 million cash on hand.
Franken has raised about $13 million and is carrying about $6 million in cash on hand.
Balloting for the Senate endorsement went till about 2 a.m. Saturday when the convention recessed. Delegates returned at 9 a.m.
Dahlberg made a strong showing on the first ballot Friday, garnering one of four votes, and continued to build his lead. State Rep. Jim Abeler and bison farmer Monti Moreno dropped out after the second ballot, naval officer Phillip Parrish after the third and state Sen. Julianne Ortman after the fifth.
After the seventh ballot early Saturday morning, Dahlberg was about 100 votes short of endorsement. He had 54 percent of the vote to 44 percent for McFadden.
Jerry Kortesmaki and some of his fellow delegates from Dahlberg’s hometown of Duluth said they stayed with their guy to the end. They said if people had stayed at the convention center instead of going home to bed when the balloting started heading toward 2 a.m. Saturday, Dahlberg might have taken it.
Delegates voted in three more ballots when they returned later Saturday. Dahlberg lost his lead in the first one, which showed a dead heat at 50 percent for both. He started slipping in the next one, with McFadden outpolling him 53 percent to 45 percent. Sixty percent was required for endorsement.
Party officials did not release the percentage totals garnered by McFadden and Dahlberg on the 10th and final ballot.
This report includes information from the Associated Press.
