Zack Goes to the DNC

DNCC 2008 is in the books

2008-08-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

Convention is done! What a crazy experience! Events, parties, great people great fun. I strongly encourage people to get involved and run for a delegate spot in 2012. As dorky as it sounds, it was one of my dreams and it's great to have lived it. Hopefully I'll do it again.

Now I'm in Rangely, CO, visiting my old roommate Jim. Back to Raleigh (boo!) Monday. I'll find a way to post a ton of pictures and I'll put the link on here.

Wednesday pics

2008-08-28T10:00:00.001-07:00

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius at breakfast Wed. Delegate Service Day.
Texas del. Barbara Rosenberg, Hillary, Philly Mayor Mike Nutter
Hilldawg
Hillary's nomination speech.

Sen. Salazar seconded Obama's nomination.

Roll call of the states - Hawaii.

Rebecca Gwatney, wife of Arkansas Democratic Chair Bill Gwatney, who was recently killed at their state headquarters.

Hillary at the New York delegation's moment in the roll call where she made her motion to nominate Obama by acclamation.

After the motion to accept Obama by acclamation.

Sorry it's blurry, but my camera was dying and I was trying to get this in fast. This is one of Biden's sons, Beau, introducing him.

Again, fast and blurry picture. Not sure what he was doing here!

App State grads, minus Rep. Ty Harrell. L-R, Betsy of Cleveland County, me, Tasse of Mecklenburg Co., Drew of Asheville, Judy of Lincoln Co.

Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri at breakfast Thursday morning, talking up Kay Hagan. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana was supposed to also come, but with Gustav on the way, she returned home to New Orleans.

Wednesday

2008-08-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

I’ve almost forgotten what day it is – this is a non-stop marathon of events. This is the first time I’ve spent in my room outside of sleeping at night. Wednesday was a lot of fun, except MY CAMERA DIED! Fortunately, I still got some good pictures, just not when Obama came out at the end along with Joe’s family.

Breakfast began with Gov. Easley and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, both of which did a great job. Immediately after that we headed to Delegate Service Day and then immediately after that we headed downtown to hear Hillary speak to her delegates. Then immediately after that, they wanted us in our seats at the Pepsi Center by 3:15 for the nominations and roll call. Then after all of the convention proceedings end, the parties begin.

At Hillary’s event, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Texas Delegate Barbara Rosenberg spoke before Hillary. It was awesome – so much so that I chose to cast my vote for Hillary. However, at the roll call of states, it never even got to us – we lost our doggone moment! I wish New York had passed until the end. Alphabetically, we are right after New York who is right after New Mexico. New Mexico deferred to Illinois who had passed earlier. This is most likely because New Mexico’s votes could have put Obama over the top. Illinois deferred to New York where Senator Clinton made her motion to nominate Obama by acclamation. That was great – a lot of fun and celebrating after it passed. It just stinks because we were standing up ready for our two minutes of fame!

It was right about then that my phone started to die, so I saved it up for one shot of Bill and a few of Joe Biden, which I got, barely. Bill did awesome, as usual. The Clintons are some of the best speakers in the country and I heard he did it with no teleprompter and few notes.

If I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again; take a look at Joe Biden. You’ll come away impressed. He is the most real, normal candidate I’ve seen in my lifetime and also one of the most accomplished public servants. Definitely the best choice Obama could have made for VP.

After it was done, we hit up the combined NC/Oklahoma party and then went to the “Voto Latino” party. Leave it up to Kansas Chris to try to get us into the VIP line. Then we went to a club called “the Church.” William and Chris loved it – me, not so much. It was complete with freaky house music and nasty girls with glo-sticks in their mouths. All for just $25!!! Absurd.

We just did our delegation photo, an App State group photo, and a 5th/12th District group photo. Soon it will be time to head to Invesco!

Tuesday Pictures (just a few, have to run!)

2008-08-27T11:08:00.001-07:00

Tuesday/Wednesday

2008-08-27T10:59:00.001-07:00

I'm finally got just a few minutes to update. We just got back from Delegate Service Day where we worked with Alaska and Minnesota to pack emergency food boxes for Meals on Wheels. I met a Korean War Veteran, Mr. Anderson, from Albert Lea, Minnesota.

This morning we had to vote - at least initially. I'll be completely honest - it was a very tough decision. I won't reveal it yet because we have the opportunity to change our minds before this afternoon's session. I'm leaving shortly for a meeting of the Hillary delegates with Hillary, so hopefully that will cement my thoughts one way or another.

Rest assured, I'm all about party unity. My vote for Hillary, should that be the case, would be to uphold an obligation. No matter what she says, I was elected by folks who truly wanted to vote for her for president. I feel more obligated to them than to her. At the same time, I feel she has not been given her due by the press. She has done everything she can to demonstrate unity, yet the message being delivered is that she's not whole-hearted or trying to undermine Obama. So a vote for him would hopefully show that she and her delegates are trying to present a united front.

Anyway, back to yesterday. I met up with Fran Santagata of the Denver Urban Area Security Initiative. I met her through my new boss and with that connection I got to go visit the Emergency Operations Center, where folks in emergency management are staked out 24/7 to make sure this convention is safe. After that, we had lunch, but on the way I got interviewed by Fox 9 TV, and interestingly enough, it was about the safety and security of the event.

Once I got to the Pepsi Center, we were told to go sit in New York's section, as their new governor was about to speak and none of them were there! So I figured with so many of them coming to be North Carolinians, we can go pretend to be New Yorkers. The convention starts at 3pm, but the real meat of the session isn't until prime time.

Last night Mark Warner and Hillary spoke. Mark Warner was a great governor of Virginia and will be a great senator, but he sure is a flat speaker. Hillary on the other hand was awesome. She demonstrated why I decided to back her in the first place - she's collected, she's smart, she conveys her message well. If you think negatively of her, I ask you to study up some more and reconsider. You'll come away impressed.

William, my roommate, showed up last night and we went to the NC after-party at Coors Field. It was cool - sitting out on the deck of this nice bar overlooking the field.

Ok, time to try to get some pics up before I head downtown.

whoa tired

2008-08-27T00:34:00.000-07:00

It's 1:30 here, 3:30 there and we just got in. Today was once again alot of fun, especially Hillary's speech. I also got to visit the Emergency Operations Center. All are stories for tomorrow when I'm hopefully a little more rested and have a little more time!

Thanks again for reading and I'll update tomorrow.

one more pic

2008-08-26T00:28:00.000-07:00

Just another cool picture that I had in the post just below but accidentally deleted and didn't want to try and re-format to fit into it. I think it's just a really cool shot of the crowd reacting to Michelle Obama with one of our many, many convention signs.

Day One

2008-08-25T23:15:00.000-07:00

The first day is complete! It was long, but a ton of fun. We started out the day waiting in a long line to get our credentials and then had our delegation breakfast, sponsored by AT&T. Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter spoke to us and an AT&T representative led us in a cheer – cheesy, but fun.

I decided to get downtown as quick as possible as I wanted to be around the action. Our hotel is a good distance south of town but we have a light-rail stop right by our hotel. I met Drew Reisinger, an Obama delegate from Asheville. He and I did some tourist things before the convention session. We went to the free admission Art Museum (tried to go to the History Museum, but it cost money and we're cheap) and the State Capitol – a really awesome building with a great 360 degree view from the dome. Then we realized we were on the wrong side of downtown from the Pepsi Center and we took a cab over there. The Convention gaveled down at 3:00pm and lasted until Michelle Obama was done speaking at 9:00. In between that time we heard everybody and their cousin speak.

In the few minutes before the Convention started, we wandered around outside and on the floor. We met Bill Schnieder and Gloria Borger from CNN, both of whom I got pictures with. I also got a picture with actor Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar). We saw the Daily Show crew filming a segment and tried to get in the background on that shot, along with John King on CNN and his magic board. I took a picture of Katie Couric too until the lady fussed at my flash (what’s the doggone bother, she’s on TV anyway!).

Our delegation is sitting at “7:30” if the podium is 12. They are higher than the floor seats but still good – we have a great view. Some states are really stuck out in the boonies (poor Utah – maybe they should be more Democratic!). We’re sitting right beside New Jersey and a good number of my pictures have the New Jersey sign in them – but we all know I don’t live there.

It was a real surprise to see Ted Kennedy. At first the just said there would be a video tribute, but when it was done, he wandered out. We also heard from Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s brother and the coach of the Oregon State Men’s Basketball Team. Then of course, Michelle spoke, and I think she did a great job. Part of me was/is concerned that folks have a very negative opinion of her and I thought she did a good job of coming across as normal, low-key and re-assuring; at least, that’s how I hope it came across.

Once it was all over, we had trouble finding the shuttles so a handful of us went back to the light-rail and came back to the “party” sponsored by McGuire Woods. It was slow, but had free food, so I was excited. I’m not sure how many pictures this will let me post, but I’ll try to do a decent number.

Thanks for reading. Tomorrow night is Hillary’s night!

After breakfast with folks from the 11th District, Pat Crawford, Bruce Peterson, Congressman Heath Shuler and Carol Peterson, a Buncombe County Commissioner.

Drew and I outside the Denver City/County Government Building.

Colorado State Capitol

View looking west/southwest from the dome of the capitol.

With Bill Schneider of CNN outside the Pepsi Center.

The view from our seats; you can see our state sign on the right. The podium setup is quite elaborate.

CNN's John King and his magic "I know what you ate for breakfast and how that made your county vote" board.

CNN's Gloria Borger, who, according to one of my favorite blogs, Campaign Diaries, correctly predicted back in January that Joe Biden would be the VP selection.

With actor Kal Penn, who looks like he'd rather be doing anything else in the world than taking this picture with me.

Jon Oliver of the Daily Show skewering some poor person for a segment.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean gaveling the Convention to order.

Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter made a brief walk-through (not even a speech).

Just a cool scene of folks waving their signs and flags with our state sign in the background.

"Big Mike" and Mary showed up and we talked for a good bit since I hadn't seen them in a while. Yes, I know you're still stuck on the first sentence... they showed up!

Ted Kennedy made a surprise appearance!

Michelle speaking.

At the end, Barack came on from a live feed in Missouri and the exchange with his daughters was really cute.

FINALLY HERE!

2008-08-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

Hello from Denver! Wow – I’ve only been here a short while and I can already tell it’s a great place. I can also tell that one word will be able to describe my experience: overwhelming.

I thought today would be simple – travel, go to the welcome reception, go to bed. Oh no.

I am staying at the Doubletree Denver Tech which is pretty far south of downtown. North Carolina is staying here along with Kansas. The Raleigh law firm Parker, Poe, Adams and Bernstein sponsored a welcome reception for both states that included an open bar, ice cream bar and other small food. I got to the hotel after it started, so I quickly changed and headed down to it.

While there I talked with Dr. Beth Jones, Chair of Caldwell County and Jim Morgan, Chair of New Hanover County (who I knew from my time at UNCW). I saw a number of other folks and mingled around with them for a good while. Then, I was walking while texting and bumped into a volunteer from Kansas, Chris. He’s in town to help with security, etc. downtown at the convention site. He’s also much more social than me and somehow convinced me to go with him downtown to where he thought were some parties and bars.

After getting a nice but unexpected tour of downtown, we found a few places, one of which, I think, was sponsored by the Young Democrats of America. Congressman Kendrick Meek of Florida and the YDA President both spoke while we were there, but mostly we just met folks. I fully expect that if I hang around Chris for the week, I’ll have a lot more on my plate than originally planned.

But, tomorrow starts early – we have to get our credentials every day at our delegation breakfast to get into the Pepsi Center for the sessions. There’s all kinds of receptions, forums, and parties to go to before and after each session. So, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading!

Below are some of the few pictures I’ve taken so far. I fully expect a lot more tomorrow showing a lot more convention activity.

Welcome reception for the North Carolina Delegation.

Dr. Beth Jones, Chairwoman of the Caldwell County Democratic Party

Jim Morgan, Chairman of the New Hanover County Democratic Party

Young Democrats event downtown

Just coming into Denver. We had to go west to come around some pretty rough storms that were to the south.

Polls, etc.

2008-07-31T18:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I got contacted by both the Charlotte Observer and CBS/New York Times. They wanted to poll convention delegates, which is cool for me since I've never done a poll before (how much of a political nerd do you have to be to want to do a poll?)

The Charlotte Observer was pretty simple - a few short questions mostly about whether this was my first convention, who I was, where I was from, etc.

The CBS/NYT was conducted by phone and took about a half hour to complete. They must have asked me about everything - the primary process, issues, Obama, and so on. Yes and No questions, scaled answers, open-ended. I've been meaning to post about this for a few weeks, but things have been pretty hectic and I forgot, so I don't really remember enough of questions or answers.

I forgot to post the link to an article in The Appalachian, the student newspaper at ASU, about me going to Denver, so here it is: http://theapp.appstate.edu/content/view/3701/42/.

A while back I posted about the potential lack of fun, i.e., parties, at the convention. Well from what I've read there are going to be plenty.

There was an article in CQ Politics not too long ago listing some of the parties, hosted by Denver lawyers, national lobbyists, the Democratic Governors Association, etc. I even got an invite from Sheriff Hagaman to go to the NaCO party for local elected officials since he won't be there. So, despite my previous whining, there should be plenty going on.

We're less than a month away and I'm very excited! One thing I am interested in that I haven't seen anything about is the delegation seating chart for the Pepsi Center... hopefully it's better than our hotel location (10 miles Southeast of Downtown!).

Convention Extras - Service and Going Green

2008-07-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

We recently got an email from the Secretary of the DNC telling us about some of the "extras" at the convention. From what all I have gathered about past conventions, most of the activity is in the afternoon and at night, so there is plenty of time to be a tourist, party, and do community service.

This year, the Delegate Service Day is on Wednesday, August 27. For a few hours in the morning, delegates can sign up to participate in a number of projects. Apparently they assigned each state delegate at least one project based on proximity to your host hotel. We're at the Doubletree along with Kansas, and thus we are also working with them (and Mississippi) on our project, which is helping Project CURE (www.projectcure.org) sort medical supplies that are sent overseas to developing countries. I randomly clicked on another state to see they at they are hosting a neighborhood cleanup and block party, so it seems like a well-rounded list.

There are also two events on the Sunday before the convention - an Interfaith Service at 2pm and an event in recognition of groups helping with Katrina aftermath (the three-year anniversary is that week). I'm not sure if I can make it to those because of my flight schedule, but I definitely plan on doing as much as I can while there - who knows when I'll get to go back!

Another interesting this year is the "Green Delegate Challenge." There is a competition among the states to see which can be the "greenest" by purchasing carbon offsets at a discounted price. This is a new concept to me, but it seems that they take our purchases and make investments in projects that produce sustainable energy. The "DNCC Special Blend" goes to four projects that involve wind power and methane extraction; they are located in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Minnesota. I'm not sure how many you're supposed to get, so I went ahead and purchased two. Maybe I'll buy enough and they'll start calling it Wynned Power instead. Heh heh heh.

As always, information about all of this can be found at www.demconvention.com (including official lists and other information about the actual delegates). Information about the energy projects can be found at www.nativeenergy.com/dncc.

We're Being Mocked!

2008-07-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

And I like it!

http://blogs.westword.com/demver/2008/03/delegating_denver_37_of_56_nor.php

Except I've never heard that our official nickname is "Land of the Sky."

PS - Looks like we will have a special section for the massive Obama speech.

Links for the post below

2008-07-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

Delays and Rising Costs for Convention Raise Worries for Democrats (NYT)

Convention Watch: Moving Obama's Speech and McCain's Bush Dilemma

I didn't do them properly in the last post, but here they are.

What Happened to All of the Fun?

2008-07-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

When I first got elected, I spoke to David Parker, one of the DNC members from North Carolina and a fellow Fifth District resident. He said this would be an incredible event, full of fun with tons of events and parties to supplement the normal convention proceedings that you see on TV. Well, apparently some of that is not going to happen:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/politics/06convention.html?ex=1373083200&en=15c15e696e4eaee8&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

So, the first part of this post is to be greedy and whiny: I want to have fun! I'm sure I will, of course, but it sounds like there has been some major cost-cutting because of mismanagement of the convention.

That is disappointing not only because now I wonder what some our time will be filled with if most of these parties have been cancelled; I'm sure there will be plenty to do, including general tourist things in Denver, which I still would love to do.

This is also disappointing because it is feeding the perception that Democrats are not good at managing money. The article states briefly that the GOP convention is not disorganized at all and is on target and smoothly run. Not us. We are apparently requiring absurd things for the catering (NO FRIED FOOD!!! What will I eat?), getting ridiculous office space, and not making solid decisions. We need to be very concerned about this presentation to the general public as we ask them to allow our party to once again be the CEO of the nation.

On another note, it appears that Senator Obama wants to move his acceptance speech to the nearby Invesco Field as opposed to the Pepsi Center. I haven't heard anything yet, but I'm sure they'll make sure that those of us who made such a long trip to Denver will not have to fight 75,000 others for a spot to watch. This is also somewhat questionable because of the added cost:

http://campaigndiaries.com/2008/07/07/convention-watch-moving-obamas-speech-and-mccains-bush-dilemma/
(that is an EXCELLENT blog regarding elections, etc.)

So, to sum up, I really hope that not only do I get to have a good time at this convention, but that we as a party learn to really pick our battles and show the public that we can manage money and large projects well... you never know how this could play out come November.

Cost

2008-06-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

One common misunderstanding about these conventions is that we as delegates have to cover the costs ourself. For someone working politics right now, that could easily be a steep figure - flying across the country and spending five nights. Fortunately the party does have the ability to help cover some of the cost - but I'm choosing not to go that route unless I have to.

I think I've been quite fortunate. They sent us information that the hotel would be at least $199 a night plus tax if staying alone... that would easily come out over $1,000! So I immediately hopped on the phone and tried to find some other young delegates.

It turns out that my good friend Tony McEwen, who I called to get names from, is a delegate also. He's just a few years older than me and is serving as the Chair of NC's 10th District Democratic Party. His district borders mine. He got elected as one of their two Obama delegates (they have the same breakdown as mine).

So, since his wife isn't going, we decided to room together. We also found out that a friend of a friend, William Styles from the 11th District also won, as a Hillary delegate. He also agreed to join us, as he is just finishing up his last year of college at Western Carolina.

So, we should have a much cheaper room plus plenty of fun. It's nice to know that not only is the cost going to be cut by 2/3, but I'll also have some folks to hang around while out there. Western North Carolina Young Democrats are well represented in our room!

As for the flight, I knew it would be best to go ahead and book it. My parents live in Raleigh, so I knew I could fly from there and leave my car with them. Being in Boone, I have to travel 2 hours at least to get to any decent-sized airport; Raleigh is 3 hours. They sent us an email saying that United was the official carrier and would give a small discount. Well, that still turned out to be ridiculously expensive!

I found my flight on one of those travel sites (I checked them all, but I think I went with Orbitz). I'm flying round-trip, with one stop and in economy class, from Raleigh to Denver on American Airlines for about $260 - about half of what United would have charged from there. And I don't have to pay for parking!

So you see - going to one of these things, especially 2008, is going to be a ton of fun. Fortunately, I've also found a way to make it (relatively) cheap.

Watauga Democrat Article

2008-06-16T13:24:00.001-07:00

http://www.wataugademocrat.com/2008/0609/0616Wataugadelegate.php

So I'm famous now, woo!

The Start

2008-06-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Hey folks - I'm back, a year later, to chronicle another big summer adventure. Last year, it was biking across Iowa in RAGBRAI (I will be back in 2009!). This time, it's about heading to Denver for the 2008 Democratic National Convention as a delegate from North Carolina's Fifth District.

I wish I could find the picture to show you, but I'm also glad I can't. You see, I have this picture of me as a kid in 1992 pretending to be at the 1992 Democratic Convention. I'm not kidding. I've tried to cover-up some of my nerdness since then, but its quite hard. I've wanted to go to a convention every election year since but never ran.

To go to a national convention, the most common way, in North Carolina, is to be elected at your Congressional District Convention, usually held in mid-May. You have to sign up to run and pledge to a candidate. At the District Convention, those delegates decide which candidate they are for and then vote for delegates to represent them nationally, based on the popular vote in the primary for that district.

In our case, I was running as delegate pledged (to vote for) Hillary Clinton. She won the 5th on May 6. Of the five delegates allotted to NC-05, Hillary received three and Obama received two. Of those three Hillary delegates, two had to be men and one had to be a woman (based on the population also, I guess).

So, I signed up to run and knew there would be some campaigning involved. I was unsure whether I could even make it to the convention, since I was (am) still job searching. But, what the heck, this was shaping up to be the biggest year in my lifetime for Democrats and this could easily be the biggest convention. But, I still debated on how much campaigning to do. I pretty much decided that since I didn't have the money to send mailers, I'd do an email to convention delegates. Aside from the nearly 30 bounce-backs, I think that went well, haha. My other big campaign strategy: show up. Thats right. I had no idea, but there six total men running for two spots. And since only two of us showed up at the convention, guess who won! I won on the first ballot with over 50%, the other delegate was voted on by acclamation after that.

So here it is - we're off to Denver. What all does this mean? What do we have to do? What about my pledged vote now that Hillary is out? All of these are things I want to blog about throughout the summer. And of course, I'll do my absolute best to write about the convention itself while there. I've got more stuff already, but since I'm just starting, I'll spread it out over a few posts.

I look forward to hearing from anybody that has questions. This should be an awesome time and hopefully some folks will find this, read it, and decide that they'll go for it in 2012.