Thoughts on the 2010 Salt Lake County Democratic Convention

When I got home from this year's convention Saturday, I posted on Facebook that I have a real hate/love relationship with political conventions.

I love going, but I hate being there. Long and tedious.

Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to the state convention on May 8. But I'll also be glad when it's over.

And now, some random thoughts as they would have probably come to you via live blogging or tweeting if I had the ability Saturday. (If I had been smart, I would have used the cool notebook Holly Mullen gave me to write these thought down. Instead, you have to rely on my memory.)

*I have been to most Democratic Conventions held in the county since 2004, plus one Republican one. Add to that numerous fairs and other "community events" where I have helped run a booth or just gone to as a patron. Every candidate booth looks exactly the same. Except Holly Mullen's. I think that I would have bought something from her, had she been selling something, it was that slick and professional. Also, donating a tree to Tree Utah for every endorsement was a great idea. (I didn't get a picture of the booth.)

*Arlyn Bradshaw had these potted trees all over the place with postcards with his name hanging from them. Very cool idea.

*I like that they split the caucus meetings into two groupings, so that it was possible to attend more than one. I made a cameo appearance in the education caucus (before I remembered that my brain wasn't yet fully engaged and the room was starting to fill up), and then an hour later went to the Young Democrats caucus.

*I love having candidates stop by caucuses, but it makes it really hard to conduct any business when candidates take all the time. I also think some deference to candidates in contested races should be paid.

*I am sick of candidates coming in and talking to the Young Democrats like we're all in high school. Most of us aren't.

*I'm amazed at the number of people who see my name and go "hey, you're the blogger, right?" It makes me proud, but at the same time, I have no witty comeback.

*I spent a good 20 minutes talking to Representative Jim Matheson about bicycle safety, earmarks, healthcare, redistricting, the Jazz, and blogging.

*I also spent several minutes talking to Claudia Wright about her pet issues, and what "moderate" means.

*And,I finally got to meet Christopher Stout. I was very impressed.

*I had a real tough time deciding who to vote for for District Attorney. I was leaning towards Sim Gill, then was to the point of wearing a Sim Gill button, to taking off the button and leaning slightly towards Greg Skordas, before then leaning slightly toward Sim Gill again, but asking some friends (and a few complete strangers) why I should vote for their candidate of choice. In the end, I voted for Sim.

*Two brilliant moves involving food: 1) The Young Democrats selling Little Cesar's Pizza for $2/slice and Big K Cola for $1/can. 2) Holly Mullen having Gelato. Awesome.

*Why aren't there recycling bins at the convention? I thought we were the environmentally friendly party.

Overall, it was a great convention. I give it a B+. Which is the highest grade I'd give any county convention I've been to.

And, I'm ready to make endorsements in the Senate and US House races. Look for those by week's end. I am also planning on making an endorsement in the House District 25 race. I'm going to be sending the candidates a questionnaire today, and hope to have the endorsement ready by next Monday at the latest.

-Bob

Attend Your Caucus Meetings and stop Bitching About Things!

When friends, neighbors, and associates find out I work in politics, the subject always runs one of three ways:

1) "I don't like the Republican Party. They are far to Conservative."

2) "I don't like the Democratic Party. They are far to Liberal."

3) "I think the Republicans are too Conservative and the Democrats are too liberal for my tastes."

OK, there's a fourth group that says the Dems aren't liberal enough and the Reps are not conservative enough, but you get the drift.

However, I'll tell you how you can change things for the better: Attend your caucuses or mass meetings tonight at 7:00 PM. It will be better than Dancing With the Stars, I promise.

What will your attendance at these meetings do? Well, at these meetings, you will elect delegates to the County and state conventions. These delegates will then vote on who your party puts on the ballot in many races in the state. Also, this year the delegates to the State convention will vote on who will represent YOU at the National Conventions in Denver and Minneapolis.

Moreover, the delegates you select tonight will be who selects party leadership next year. That will set in motion how the party runs things in 2010 elections.

To find out where to go tonight, click here for republicans, click here for Democrats.

I'm ba-ack!

So, I got back from California last night. I had been hoping to blog more from the YDA Conference, but between exhaustion from all of the activities and a very slow "high speed internet" connection, I just couldn't find the time. And now need to catch up on everything, including blogging. Hopefully, I'll have a full report up later today or early tomorrow.

-Bob

Video for the UtPS victory Party at 8:03 PM

Vote NO

I went to vote this morning. I normally vote at Olympus High School, but my polling place got moved out of a public school into a Lutheran Church. It was different, but it made for a beautiful site when I was done with voting and was waiting for the bus.



I'm helping Utahns for Public Schools today. I ran into CraigJ from the Uah Amicus.



Go voe AGAINST referendum 1.

Democratic House Parties this Saturday!

From the Utah Democratic Party:

On Saturday, Nov. 3, over Utah Democratic Party activists are opening their homes to friends, neighbors, family and fellow Democrats. The purpose of these house parties is to begin an unprecedented precinct organizing drive being launched here and across the nation.

Attendees will have an opportunity to go into action right then and there. Walking lists, anti-voucher literature, and materials provided by the DNC will be available for people to take to targeted homes and get out the vote for the Nov. 6 election.

Visit the “Events” section of our home page at www.utdemocrats.org to find a link to an event in your area and RSVP. You can also call our office at (801) 328-1212 ext. 207 or email caxford@utdemocrats.org to RSVP. We look forward to seeing you this weekend.

My Lunch On Friday With Beautiful People and JM Bell

Last Friday was the Elenor Roosevelt Luncheon. I actually had two invites go to the luncheon for free. Since one of them was from work (and that invite came first), I sat with my coworkers. Actually just one coworker, as we had 12 people there, but the tables only sat 10.

I had barely entered the Sheraton Hotel when I saw JM Bell. He reports that he sat at a bloggers' table (which was my other invite) sponsored by The Utah Amicus. JM reports that the guest list at the table included:

Jason and Craig from the Sidetrack, Ryan (Republican) from For The People, Misty from Saintless and UtahForObama, Nikki from UtahForObama, Jeremy from Jeremy’s Jeremiad, and Rob’s hot mom.

I should have stopped by the table to meet some of those people.

People I actually spoke to at the luncheon were Pete Ashdown, Ralph Becker (the "doer" was also there, and looked about like JM Bell would in my ward -- like he wants to get the heck out of there), UEA's Vic Arnold, and Trisha Beck (her son was the coworker I sat with).

-Bob

[UPDATED 11/30/07, 6:58 PM] JM called me on plagarism, which I have now attributed. I should also attribute that I stole the title from him as well. However, the religious-themed dig stays, as it wasn't meant to be religious-themed. *I* feel out of place in my ward most times....

If you are confused by this update, see the comments section.

Impact Day 2007

My new job took me to Impact Day at the University of Utah. One disadvantage we had was the fact that we were moved indoors due to weather concerns.

Here are the photos:


The Candidates were out in force...

The College Democrats' Booth:

SLC Mayoral Candidates Jenny Wilson and Dave Buhler


Oh, and there was a special guest at Impact Day this year. I'll post pictures of the special guest later...

Salt Lake County Democratic Convention -- Education Ignored

Last Saturday was the annual Salt Lake County Democratic Convention held at Highland High School.

Most of the convention was the typical, mundane, run-of-the-mill boring convention that usually occurs. I won't get into that, other than to say that the new Executive Committee show a lot of promise.

However, I'll talk about the 8-9 AM time slot.

8-9 is reserved for caucus meetings. The Educators' Caucus met, excited to hear from many people. Usually, we have so many people want to come and speak to us, we have trouble finding time to conduct endorsement votes or other caucus business.

Now, granted, the educators' caucus was much smaller than ususal. We have been standing-room only in the past, and last week saw only 12 of us. That was partly due to a large UEA meeting happening at the same time.

However, the number of people who came to speak to us was disappointingly low. Rep. Carol Spackman-Moss (D-Holladay) came and addressed us on behalf of Salt Lake Mayoral candidate Rep Ralph Becker (who got stranded in Seattle). Outgoing County Chairwoman Megan Risbon, now running for State Party Treasurer, came in. State Chairman Wayne Holland stopped by for a moment, but didn't get the chance to speak (he came at the moment we had a line). 2nd Vice Chair candidate Lisa Johnson came and addressed us (and unanimously recieved our only endorsement of the morning). And, we had some represntatives from Democracy for Utah come and talk about a training that Democracy for America is doing here in Salt Lake in June.

Other than that, nobody came.

Given the momentum that the referendum has given our party recently, you'd think that education would again be on the top of every list.

But, sadly, it wasn't. Instead, the educators sat alone in their classroom in an empty corner of Highland High School.

-Bob

Utah for Obama, Meeting 1

The Utah for Obama meeting went very well. The attendance was excellent, and we all enjoyed the warm air at Gallavan Plaza. Well, except for the lady who claimed that the reason we moved it was because it was a White Mormon Male Conspiracy. I love how well the WMMC works, even when we have women and mostly non-Mormons there. It was moved to Gallavan because of a paperwork issue at the Library.

We discussed many diffrent things about how to organize ourselves. I think that good things will happen between now and our next meeting in two weeks (location TBD).

-Bob

Pete Ashdown at the Utah Democratic Convention

There is a new post on Pete Ashdown's blog with information from the state convention.

The best part is that he has posted an mp3 of his convention speech.

It's a must listen. I'm hoping to transcript it when I have some time. Right now, I'm working on a stand-up routine for a talent show tomorrow night.

-Bob

Ed Vice Chair

I forgot to mention in my post about the State Convention that I was elected to be the co-vice chair of the Edumacation Caucus.

-Bob

State Convention

I've tried writing this post for 3 days now. I just haven't felt up to writing. I still don't but there is alot to say today, and who knows when the opportunity comes again.

What a great state convention. There was lots of excitement about being a Democrat.

Pete Ashdown really got the crowd fired up. I haven't heard how many volunteers we signed up, nor how many donations we got, but it was quite a bit. There are 200+ fewer signs in the campaign's possesion now.

According to the Tribune's newest blog, Out of Context, here's what Utah's Senior Moment Senator from Pittsburgh had to say at the Republican convention:

"I will fight with everything I've got to keep Republicans in charge [and keep government] out of the hands of the liberal-dominated, radical feminist, Bill and Hillary Clinton-controlled, radical Democrat Party."

Mr Senator, If you had fought with everything you've got for 30 years for Utah, maybe you'd need to fight a little less for your job now.

-Bob

State Convention Tomorrow

Come one, come all, to the 2006 Utah State Convention. It is being held at the Salt Palace starting at 9:00 AM. We're on the south end.

You'll be able to find me somewhere in the vacinity of the Pete Ashdown booth.

No excuses for not showing up.

Not a delagate? Come anyway. The more, the merrier.

not a Democrat? Come anyway. Less fighting at our convention.

See you tomorrow.

-Bob

Bob and Shaun at the Republican Convention

If we had more time, Shaun and I could start a third joint blog (no, a joint blog is not about pot) called "the Bob and Shaun Show" with video of us out and about doing stuff.

This week's edition found us at the Salt Lake County Republican Convention. While some of the people we ran into knew that we didn't belong, we went largely unnoticed.

Well, as unnoticed as two large men, one with bright red hair and the other carrying a video camera, can be.

We picked up lots of campaign swag (if anyone wants copies of the compititions literature, drop me a line and I may have it). I am now the owner of some Orrin2006 buttons and bumperstickers to throw in a campfire sometime.

After a while, we got bored, and ditched out early, as we both had stuff to do (Heck, I even had a date that evening). We could have tried to cause trouble, but we decided the tought questions Shaun got in about Diebold and his Ashdown bumper stickers were enough trouble.

-Bob

The County Convention Part 3 -- Constructive Criticism

So, here we are a day later, and It's time for my construcive Criticism of yesterday's Salt Lake County Democratic Convention:

-The advertising for this event sucked! As I said earlier, the only reason one delegate knew it was happening yesterday was because he got an e-mail simply asking for volunteers.

-I got an e-mail on it.....today. It was timestamped 23 Apr 2006 8:12:48 -- nearly 25 hours after registration began, and it came from YahooGroups.

-Those who run meetings of any kind need stopwatches. And don't be afraid to cut speakers off.

-Why do we have our ceonventions on the east side? And in the NorthEast quadrant of the valley? Granted, I like having the short drive, but what's wrong with Kearns High? How about Alta?

-A note to candidates: The education caucus knows all about the need to reduce class sizes. Please tell us how you are going to do it.

Well, that's all. Next up: The bad that was the convention. Stay tuned.

-Bob

Today's Convention Part 2 -- Funny Quotes

In Part 1, I discussed the good things from the convention. Now, for some quotes that I jotted down (with no intention of posting them until I re-read my notes):

-Credit cards are easier to get than health insurance. (Random thought by me inspired by hearing a candidate talk about needing "pre-approval" for health insurance.)

-"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." -unsourced quote written on board in the classroom the education caucus was meeting in.

-"The Republicans think they have a corner on morality, but they really have a corner on stupidity." -A Candidate that I won't name for fear his opponant will use it against him in Novemebr (unless you ask me who it is).

-"Oh, you're hanging out with this Hoole-agin." Mayor Peter Corroon to Shaun, referencing my Roger Hoole button, and a slight jab at me, further cementing Peter as one of the sharpest wits we have.

-Bob

Today's Convention Part I -- The Good

Notice the foreshadowing. If I'm identifying this as the good from the convention, it means that there is bad right around the corner. I just thought I'd warn you.

This post is a collection of thoughts from today's Salt Lake County Democratic Convention.

-We really need a bigger, better venue for this convention. The parking lot was beyond full very early, and there seemed to be a lack of space. Let's go for a 5-A school.

-It was fairly fitting that the Education Caucus met in an overcrowded classroom. Also telling was that there were three types of books in the front of the room, stacked like they were used as a classroom set. One was an Earth Science book that was Copyright 1997, An Algebra book Copyright 1986, and the book "Holes," which I believe is written on a 9-12 year old level (We were meeting at Highland High.)

-Millie Peterson made sure to work in the URL of her website during her stump speech to the Education Caucus.

-Pat Jones stood in the Educators caucus meeting the entire time.

I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, This will be the first of 4 posts. The rest of the posts will be

Part 2 -- Fun Quotes
Part 3 -- Constructive criticism
Part 4 -- The Bad

-Bob

Last Night's spaghetti Dinner

Last night's spaghetti dinner was as much fun as I advertised. Plus, I won myself a handy-dandy keychain that lets me know just how much longer George W Bush has as President (1004 days, 23 minutes, 27.3 seconds as of when I'm writing this).

Some other observations:

-As the "guy who lives in my basement" said, it was a "candidate potluck" with candidates bringing salad, breadsticks, and dessert.

-Why wasn't Pete Ashdown given time to speak? He's only the TOP OF THE TICKET this November. Give him some love.

-Mayor Peter Corroon reminded me of a funny experience that is the type of thing that makes campaigns fun. Pete was supposed to march in a parade in Kearns, then drive up to Murray for annother parade. I was going to be marching with him in the Kearns parade. There were only a few volunteers for the Kearns parade. I was the only one at the start when Pete's camapign staffer realized that the candidate was with his car at the end of the parade. I made it onto the parade route just before they closed it, flew up to the finish, picked Pete up, and luckily knew a back way to Kearns High School for the start. We got Pete there just after his group was leaving, and he easily caught up. However, I still had to find parking, and then run to catch up (and I'm not exactly a runner). It was crazy, and fun.

To read annother perspective on the dinner, read The Utah Amicus.

Tonight's Spagetti Dinner

I'm going to tonight's Democratic Spagetti Dinner because, well, it's a great place to meet the who's-who of Utah Democratic politics.

I went last year, and I guess I left an impression.

I first met Bob at the SL County Spaghetti Dinner. Admittingly suffering from tunnel vision while passing out some flyers, I missed a well dressed gentleman who was adimate about receiving a copy. Since then I have run into Bob a couple of times, but not often enough. -From Utah Amicus (Rob Miller)

Tonight, 5:30-8:30, West High School.

-Bob