5:38
Ok, we finished voting. I don't know if I made it to the state convention. We get to send 78 delegates so we all filled in the ballots and they will count them and let us know. I ran around trading votes with lots of people and most others just sat there so I think I have it.
For the CD-2 convention they got 6 people to drop out and then there was no need for a ballot as we had 78. So I'm definitely going there.
And that concludes the convention.
4:28
The vote is in and Barack kicked ass - big time. Barack Obama 878 (75.75%), Hillary Clinton 281 (24.24%).
3:44
Deb Gardner who's running the meeting is doing a kick-ass job. She has the perfect mix of room mom and drill Sargent to make this run amazingly efficiently considering the fact that we have 2,000 people and almost none of them know how this works. She is a great choice.
3:19
Ok, we have quorum. Alternates are seated where delegates did not show up and we have 100% of the slots seated - 1,200 people. How can the Republicans win when we have every seat filled for this all-day sit forever to then vote for 3 seconds? We are going to rock in November!
3:11
Ok, we got the Obama video and it was good and got cheering at times. As well as laughter when the 12 year old Obama precinct captain was in it. At the end of the video almost everyone here was on their feet, cheering and chanting "yes we can." This level of support is incredibly powerful.
David Skaggs is speaking for Obama. He's good, but he's no Wellington Webb. His speech is on the intangibles (like Obama), and it sells well. And on his close we again have a standing ovation with "yes we can."
This is an Obama crowd.
3:06
Wellington Webb is a superb speaker. He closed with the importance of us all working together to elect our candidate. He had half the audience on it's feet and everyone clapping loudly at the finish. Very good job.
2:57
In a move of breathtaking sanity there was a motion on the floor to skip the presidential speeches as we're all committed. The screams for it made it clear it would pass. However, apparently all the alternates are not seated yet and so they proposed the speeches go forward while the alternates are seated.
So we get a Hillary video and it's doing ok when she tries the 3 am line - and the place erupts in boos. Massive boos. People settled back down as it continued and there was scattered cheering at times and then she lists the states she won and when she said Florida, the booing was even louder. I don't think she did herself any favors with that video.
Now we have Wellington Webb speaking for Hillary. She started off saying we must come together behind whoever our candidate is and that got a gigantic round of applause. He's now talking about why Hillary is good, listing out why he supports Hillary and does not mention Barack even though he brings up the issues they differ on. He's done a good job of figure out how to best speak to this crowd.
2:23
I just met Wanda James for the first time - she's a very nice person. I've also talked to Matt Mosley a couple of times here, another really nice person. We've definitely got an embarrassment of riches with the 3 amigos, not just the candidates but their staff too. (And yet this state also sends Tom Tancredo, Marilyn Musgrave and Doug Lamborn to Washington. I guess that is the karmic balancing for our state...)
2:01
Official count JFG gets 238 delegates and JP gets 146. On the SD-18 primary it's Cindy 280 vs Rollie 245. I'd put that down to Cindy's speech being a lot more compelling. She had people fired up with her spewing out the standard progressive talking points.
I'm no fan of Hillary Hall (I think she's incompetent) but was directed to her to get vote totals. I'm assuming she has no idea who I was when I asked her for the results. What a bitch. So she's incompetent and not a nice person - what a winning combo.
1:34
Results - I got these 2nd hand here but I'm sure they are correct. CD-2 JFG 515 (61%), JP 328 (39%), WS 37 (0%). This is not good for Jared. Yes Joan owns the party activists but I'd say 90% of the people here are first time attendees. 60/40 is a gigantic challenge. On the flip side, Jared (my man!) has 5 months and a week is a lifetime in politics. So advantage Joan. And horrible news for Will.
JeffCo for CD-2, same source, JFG 65%, JP 35%.
12:51
Cindy Carlisle's 3 nominators (every other managed with 2) took forever to talk. And the first 2 put us all to sleep. We're now getting a listing of the progressive policies she supports. Getting a much better response from the audience as she is selling what everyone here wants to hear. More money for schools, single-payer, eliminate the death penalty, and legalize single sex marriage.
To me this is Cindy, it's what everyone wants to hear regardless of the likelihood of it passing. So really good speech, but I don't know if she would be able to effect much (any?) of it.
12:43
We're starting the SD-18 discussion. Rollie Heath is giving a clear listing of his experience and the issues he will work on. It's more selling his competence than an effort to inspire. But he's got the votes so that does work.
12:14
Well I voted for Udall & Polis - long, long, long lines to vote. And ballot security is pretty loose. All paper ballots that will be hand counted - nice to know we use reliable technology for the primaries. On the bad news side, they said Hillary Hall is helping with the counting so we may not have results for a couple of days.
11:22
Joan Fitz-Gerald - Joan had music playing as she entered which helped boost it. Probably about twice as many signs waving for her over Jared. She's up there by herself after a short intro from her campaign manager.
Cut funding to Iraq and pull the troops out. Wants to end NCLB and feed more money to the schools - which should get her the school employee vote big time. It's interesting, she talks to the bills she would overturn or bring forward. Her framework is what specifically she needs to go do to accomplish her goals.
Speaks eloquently to the civil liberties issues (lots of applause), to universal health care, and closes with a thank you. Lots of people standing and cheering on her close.
11:15
Jared Polis - Jared walks in with about 40 people in t-shirts following him in with lots in the audience waving Polis signs. Very impressive entrance. He's got 40 supporters, all holding signs up on the stage as others go up to speak for him.
Good discussion of his background and why that makes him a good candidate. Then into the issues - environment, single-payer health care, improve the schools, etc. Closes it with how he will be in there every day working his ass off to effect the major changes needed.
Got a strong response to his speech throughout.
11:11
Will Shafroth - Will is good. He does a great job of speaking to the issues, touching on the hot points, and why he would be a good advocate for us in Congress. And he clearly would focus on the environment as that is his passion. He also brought up what I think his campaign focus will be - that he is not beholden to anyone.
He got the hook! First one where he went so far over the time limit they took the mike away.
11:01
The plan was that all three CD-2 candidates got to speak before the vote. We now have a proposal to not let Will speak until after the vote as he is not running here at the convention. This looks like it might be a close vote.
Nope - maybe 30 in favor, 1,000+ against. So Will gets to speak now.
10:57
Bill Winter spoke for Betsy Markey and gave a great speech with a strong response. But it was all Democrats good, Republicans and Marilyn Musgrave bad. Not a single word about what Betsy would do. It sold well and MM is so bad it's a good argument. But I think it's a lot more powerful if they would actually say one thing she would concentrate on...
10:40
We have Ken Salazar speaking now. This is interesting, we don't have the Ken Salazar who votes a moderate line and follows the Republicans on FISA, Iraq, etc. Instead we get a litany of exactly what everyone here wants to hear - out of Iraq, health care for all, no obscene profits for oil companies, etc. He has everyone her cheering (and booing Bush and Allard). This is a very different Ken Salazar.
Shouting out why we need Udall, he is getting 10 times the cheers for Udall that Mark's wife did. All of it for the fact that it flips one vote in the Senate. And it sells - big time.
I've never heard Ken speak before - he is good. And he gives credit to everyone in the local party here, elected by name and leaders by group. I can see why he wins. His strength is how he interacts in person.
Closed with saying we need to strongly support Clinton or Obama, regardless of which wins the primary. And that got a standing ovation. I think the party will pull together once one of them wins.
10:21
Now we are into the regent race for CD-2. We have an actual race here with 3 candidates. Time to wake back up. Howard Wachtel - this guy is a horrible public speaker. He says he will be a voice from the center reaching across the aisle to reach compromise. I don't think that is going to sell well in this group.
Kurt Williams - this guy is good. He talks eloquently to major issue after major issue. And what brought out the most time and emotion from him is making education affordable. He comes across as a superb candidate. This guy is good.
Joe Neguse - lots of signs for him being waved. Intro by Alice Madden. And then he comes out and is a rock star. He worked them up to major cheers - for him. Not much in the way of specifics although he did brush on affordability.
Williams vs Neguse is going to be an interesting race. They're both very good campaigners.
10:16
And now the Assessor - the incumbent assessor. Gee, I wonder what is going to happen...
10:04
Having all these positions (D.A., Country Commissioner, etc) where there is zero competition grates on me. This is not Democracy any more than the USSR with their elections with a single candidate are a democracy. The root problem is that the Republicans here have given up, not that we Democrats take advantage of it. But it is a problem.
Will Toor under-impressed. Ben Pearlman did pretty good although I hope he knows his comment that food grown locally is easier on the climate is bogus.
9:58
And now the boring speeches to nominate the incumbent county commissioners. Once again a slam dunk from here through the general election. Will Toor did have one funny comment though - "it's so nice to look out and see so many Democrats." Will, that's true anywhere you go in Boulder.
9:46
We're in the process of nominating Stan Garnett for D.A. He's a slam-dunk with no primary opponent and probably no general opponent. And truth to tell, he'll probably do a good job. But everyone is just waiting for the speeches to end so we can approve him. It's boring when it's a done deal.
I'd like to see Stan run in a competitive race sometime - I think he would be a good campaigner. They asked for a voice vote and only asked for those in favor, no chance to vote no.
9:38
Ok, Boulder does not fail to disappoint. We are now getting more proposals from the floor. First off people, we have several thousand people here and it is not possible to discuss what should be in the platform in this setting. Go join the platform committee.
Second, to the person who's proposal included restoring Iraq to how it was - how exactly do you bring Saddam back from the dead to put him back in charge? Lets apply some logic people.
9:29
Shock, surprise, oh my. Instead of just accepting the party platform, there is a motion to suspend the rules to add an item to the platform. Everything is getting very confused with various people screaming questions, motions, etc.
We just had a vote on if we can suspend. The voice vote sounded even to me and they are now saying they have to hand count. Nope, they had all in favor stand. Called it for yes without asking the no votes to stand.
Now we must vote on do we suspend the rules and pass the amendment. Asked for a voice vote and the no's sounded louder but I think it was more adamant voters. Now we go to standing. Motion clearly was defeated.
9:25
I've never seen or heard Pat Waak before. She's good. Strong emotional responses to all of her main points. Standard red meat for the delegates but she does it well.
9:18
We're over with the Udall presentation. Ow. The second half was 4 people with pretty generic items about Mark. The response to each was pretty perfunctory except for one presenter when he stated he was one of the lost boys of Sudan, and is now a US citizen. He got a strong emotional response - for him.
If this is the response Mark is getting from the Dems in Boulder who are delegates - he may be in a lot of trouble. We'll all vote for him, but I don't know if he is going to get much passion or effort. There were only 2 people waving Udall signs during the speech - out of several thousand here.
9:00
Does Mark Udall exist? He sent his wife to speak for him - at the county that is his biggest base of support. Mark is apparently over at the JeffCo assembly. The speech is all about how we need a Dem as Senator. And how "we all need" to support Mark regardless of what is said. Interesting not a word about what Mark himself would do...
8:45
We "start" at 8:30 and they are now making noises about actually starting. Lots of Joan Fitz-Gerald signs, t-shirts, etc everywhere. I think it's expected that she will win here but based on people (not signs on the wall) with JFG items, she might pull over 70%. The CD-2 vote will be interesting...
8:30
I'm in! There are an immense number of people here. On the signs going in it is 90% Hillary Clinton and Brandon Shaffer (running for State Senate) with almost identical signs. Entering the lobby it's lots of Joan Fitz-Gerald supporters, and some for Jared Polis, Rollie Heath, and a couple of others.
Surprisingly few people out for Obama. And most of those are handmade signs. Very weird, there may be virtually no official Obama presence here.
Parking is a mess, I parked a block away and it's worse now. But the registration process is very fast and smooth. So far the party is doing a great job.
7:30
On my way over to Skyline High (with a stop at Denny's for breakfast).
