As most of you know I wasn't able to attend the NDGOP state conference over the weekend do to a last-minute job-related issue, but I have spoken with several attendees and apparently there were some interesting developments:

While Matt Mechtel beat out Duane DeKrey for the nomination things were a bit tense between him and the state's legislators. One confrence attendee told me that Rep. Rae Anne Kelsch actually "yelled" at Mechtel in his hospitality suite, though another attendee told me that "yell" wasn't the proper term for what took place.

Mechtel has been outspoken in his criticism of the state's Republican legislators in the past and apparently those legislators felt the criticism was unfair. In the end, however, it seems as though party unity prevailed with DeKrey moving to set aside party rules and nominate Mechtel unanimously once it became clear that the nod wasn't coming his way. Another state legislator told me that whatever the difference between Mechtel and state congressional Republicans they still think he'd be a vast improvement over Earl Pomeroy.

Senate candidate Dwight Grotberg didn't get a whole lot of respect from the delegates as he gave his speech on Sunday to a half-full auditorium. Over half of the people had apparently gone home. This jives with something I was told last week about NDGOP insiders being less-than-enthused with Grotberg's candidacy. I've been told that the search for a challenger to Kent Conrad went on even after Grotberg announced his candidacy and I've heard elsewhere that many are concerned about Grotberg's apparent close relationship with Mike Liffrig, who ran a disastorous campaign against Senator Byron Dorgan in 2004.

As for my views on all this, I think Mechtel will end up being a great candidate and a strong challenger against Earl Pomeroy. I think, though, that he may have shot himself in the foot with his pledge to decline money from special interests and PAC groups, sources from which Pomeroy gets a ton of money. I am told that Pomeroy is already closing in on a cool million in the bank for this campaign. If Mechtel doesn't take special interest money he may not be competitive. I understand the principle he's standing for in making this pledge, but sometimes you have to leave yourself free to match your opponents tactics. As one observer told me, he would have been better off challenging Pomeroy to decline that money rather than a pledge for himself to do so. That would still put the issue up front for everyone to see while not handicapping his own campaign. But despite that I think it will still be a close race.

Grotberg I'm not so sure about. I haven't learned enough about the guy to make up my mind, but I wasn't very impressed by his responses to my questions in this interview. Maybe he just wasn't taking an interview from a blogger like me seriously, but I just haven't seen much yet to convince me that he'll be a strong challenger for Kent Conrad.

But who knows, maybe he'll surprise me.

Brett Narlcoh, who actually did attend the convention, has his reactions and observations up here.