My question is based on my observation that at any precinct caucus virtually anyone who wants to be a delegate to the ward and city conventions gets to be a delegate. And few people are even relegated to the status of alternate. At every caucus I've ever attended, the presider is begging for volunteers just to fill the slots. My observation is based on my experience in the couple of precincts that I have lived in and whether or not it is a presidential or off-year caucus and convention. Is it, somehow, magic for the DFL to allow virtually anyone who wants to go to higher level conventions to go?
The result of virtually anyone who wants to go gets to go makes the resulting assembly very democratic (with a small "d") and less republican (with a small "r). I suspect that if the size of the convention were reduced, it would have several salutary affects. One would be that more likely that more of the number of people elected would be actually show up. (So, rather than having a theoretical convention of 3,333 and guessing that 900 will show up and being surprised by it when 2,000 show up, electing, say, 500 might mean that 490 would actually show up.) Second, I think that having representatives rather than a self-selecting democracy would yield better results. (But, then, I'm a strong believer of Madisonian representatives and not a democracy.) Third, a smaller convention would take away the element of having to be strong just on the factor of crowd control. And, fourth, a smaller convention would open up many more venues for where it can be held -- and that is important when getting the money to pay for the hall is a serious question.
A smaller convention may be heresy for the DFL. However, I think that the DFL might want to consider the virtues of republicanism (again, small "r") over democracy (again, small "d").
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