CDA Convention, Day 2

Whenever I go to these conventions, I always seem to wake up at least 30 minutes before my alarm goes off. I'm in the central time zone and I'm easily waking up at 6-6:30Am (alarm set for 7) when I can barely get myself stirred up by 8am my time. Oh well.

Senator Evan Bayh sponsored a breakfast...when I say "sponsored", I more mean, 'hired a caterer'. Lite stuff, met up with some people I saw get smashed the night before (all in good fun).

Friday was the day of workshops. I attended "The Democratic Message" and "Fundraising" I should have gone to the other two...and maybe I did go to one of them...I just can't remember without looking at an agenda.

I sat in on the Faith and GLBT caucuses (jumping in and out of both rooms...no, I'm not gay x_x) and observed a number of people who just really want to be active. I see so many people who are going to be future advisors/politicians/lawyers, etc and that pumps me up. (As if the Dean Machine didn't do enough of that already)

I attended the Wesley Clark speech and then snuck into the secret meet and greet with him. I had to fight tooth and nail to get to him and have a picture taken (it's up on Gen. Clark's Facebook account...when I get a copy, I'll be posting it here). I'm sure he didn't know think of me when we met up (..."Oh, here's a guy in sunglasses indoors"). It was worth the picture though.

Elections for CDA are on Day 3, which I'll post a little later.

And a thing for all the locals back home...I bring hope. I'm going to help out the local campaigns...Ann Helton will be my first stop.

CDA Convention, Day 1

I arrived at the College Democrats of America convention in St.Louis, MO yesterday. The first day is really boring; there are only four members of the Maryland delegation here, myself included. The entire MD Exec. Board is nowhere to be seen.

The first day was filled primarily with training workshops for state exec board members (see above). I snuck in on the private Q&A with Howard Dean. The man, IMO, is transparent. I can see right through him. Not in the "I think he's bad for the Democratic Party" way. I see through Dean in the "I know how you think" kind of way. Let's put it this way; I'm quite confident in who I think he's privately supporting in the Connecticut Senatorial primary race (DNC will almost never endorse a candidate, with two exceptions...not to be mentioned here).

Then came Opening Ceremonies, where Gov. Dean made a commencement speech to every member. That man is incredibly inspirational. He passed by me on his way to the podium (I honestly thought he was like 6'2"...more like 5'7"). That man would probably have made a decent US President, but I'm glad he's DNC Chair.

There was/is still many people running for national exec board positions, and they're all whoring themselves out to whomever will listen. I keep trying to refuse campaign stickers. I don't like that level of endorsement when I barely know a candidate. When everyone was out on the bar scene (MO legislature passed a law stating one must be 21 to enter a place that serves alcohol...or something very close to that), there was still plenty of campaigning.

My roommate, who has the key never bothered letting me know when I could swing by and unload my stuff. I wanted to goto sleep by 10:30 (11:30 EST), I didn't get to do that for another three hours. Did I mention about half the town is without power from a tornado?

That was yesterday. Rest assured the other days of the convention will be chronincled.

Primary Election

Cross-Posted on Free State Politics blog:

So the filing deadline passed. At least that headache is over...or is it?

According to the Aegis, the Democratic Central Committee can nominate someone to run against her even though no one filed...

This is three shades of a bad idea if they do it.

1. The person they choose will first have to explain why they did not originally file in the first place (I'm no polling expert, but I see that affecting at least 10% of the voting populous.
2. This person will be running against an incumbant that's on a slate. (by the way, these three people haunt my dreams at night, giving tax breaks with money that isn't there)
3. Doesn't it just seem a little undemocratic/unethical to give somebody a shot at a elected office when they didn't file? I'm bothered by this, but at present, I'm not able to change the system.

Why should they do it?

1. Heard of the Fifty-State Strategy? Read up on it! All we have to do is RUN Art Helton to make James spend her money (For the love of God, don't run A. Helton v Jacobs. This didn't work the last time, either)
2. because it shuts GOPerative up...or gives him something new to complain about...I can never tell with him [let the flame war begin]
   
3. You never know when you can get a win.
   

Do all of the uncontested races in Harford NEED a democrat running. I don't neccesarily think so. With many races being pretty much decided in the primary, it would be pretty funny to see whatever campaign monies these people have get spent on party in-fighting.

Wait, that's all the more reason to nominate people in these races!

Anyway, following the College Democrats of America convention, I will be endorsing primary candidates for Harford County races. Until then, I'll be paying attention

P.S. To those who have been paying attention, I filed to run for Dem. Central Committee. I refuse to use my blog as a campaigning tool. The furthest I will go will be saying that I write on this blog so that people can have a better idea on who I am; but I refuse to campaign from my blog. Doing so is not ethical (unless the purpose of this blog was a campaign center, which it isn't) and distracts the people who want to read this from the real issues. I'm here to better the county through awareness and advocacy.