Monday, December 4th, 2006...11:07 am
Saturday’s Democratic State Convention
Well, there was no quorum for the meeting on Saturday. Folks from Maricopa County hate to drive down to Tucson for these meetings. I don’t know why that is, since the rest of us are supposed to be ecstatic to drive up for meetings up there.
The only real piece of business was a resolution to support Jim McGovern’s End the War in Iraq Act (also co-sponsored by Raúl Grijalva). Since there was no quorum, the resolution couldn’t actually be voted on. There was a sort of straw vote on the floor, however.
An interesting bit was the report from National Committeewoman Janice Brunson, who voiced her displeasure at the Democratic National Committee for neglecting the caucus system. Aside from showing up at Hispanic Caucus and Ethnic Council meetings at the National Conventions, I don’t know enough to comment on what exactly has been going on with them. I do know that one concern Howard Dean had was that too much outreach work was being balkanized into the various DNC “desks” instead of developing an overall vision.
One concern that she also voiced was that there were too many young people working at the DNC. I found this pretty insulting, especially coming from someone who at one time prided herself on wanting to bring more young people into the party.
I saw both Jeff Latas and Randy Camacho there. Neither one seemed to buttonhole people during the meeting, but afterward both worked the crowd. Latas found me after the meeting and wanted me to know that all of the concerns I had about his candidacy were addressed during his speech to the PDA.
Well, since I wasn’t at the PDA meeting, I had to settle for his précis. Latas pointed out to me that the turnout was laudable (In Pima County, it was 65%), this still meant that a significant number of voters didn’t show up. His question is: what more can be done to contact these voters and bring them out?
I’d like to see details on what sort of program he’d like to put together to do this. When I worked for the state party in 2000 and 2002 (and the weekend of paid field work I did in this election as well) the only job I had was to contact Democratic voters and make them show up. There really isn’t a heck of a lot more that the party does, really. I hope that his talking about this doesn’t mean that he thinks that the party doesn’t do this now, but rather that he has some new ideas about how this is supposed to work.
Nationally, the knock against the party (particularly in the 2004 election) has been that they are too willing to farm out paid canvassing work to outside groups. My feeling is that here in Arizona, we’ve been burned by these organizations one too many times (one that I worked for packed up after two weeks, not too much chance for follow up there) and the State Party should figure out some way to pay for it’s own longer term programs, and figure out ways that the activists can be better organized to do some of this work as well.
You know, I talked to David Waid for quite some time and never asked him if he was running or not. If I were him, I’d be non-committal right now anyway.
I saw some electioneering for the post of Maricopa County Chair. Apparently, two-time Corporation Commission candidate Mark Manoil is one candidate, and State Party staffer David Lelsz might be interested as well.
After the meeting, there was a reception for Gabrielle Giffords (her plane was delayed a bit because of weather). She mentioned that she went to England on a trip with her fiancee where she hung out with Stephen Hawking for about two hours. I’ve always had my doubts that very many of the thousands who made A Brief History of Time a best seller had ever read the darned thing (and I don’t blame them if they didn’t, I found the writing very dense. I prefer to read Richard Feynman if I want to read physics), but if Giffords did, more power to her. It all begs the question: what would Randy Graf have talked to Hawking about for two hours?
12 Comments
December 4th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Tedski,
Please elaborate, I thought your party needed to select a new chairman. Was that suppose to be done at this meeting or will it happen at an upcoming meeting?
December 4th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
phx kid -
I’m not sure, and Tedski will correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s because the new-elected members of the state committee are responsible for electing the new chair, and the new members won’t take office until January.
This meeting was just the wrap-up meeting of the old state comm.
Tedski - thanks for the write up; since I’m not a member, I wouldn’t have gone anyway, but it’s great to hear about what went on.
December 4th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
I was at the AzDPC meeting where both Randy Commaco and Jeff Latas spoke. Randy went first and is very eloquent. I could see that the crowd was impressed.
I didn’t think would have been in the same league, but wow. I from Maricopa and had heard about Latas because of my progressiveness. I thought his delivery was amazing. No notes and very, very powerful. There is no doubt in my mind that the leadership qualities shown by both are high but Latas is by far the more indepth leader and most sincere.
I would like to hear what other people thought that were there.
December 4th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Must be the cold meds..
What I meant to say was:
I didn’t think Jeff could have made it into the same league, but wow!
I think that sentence makes a little more since.
December 4th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
I have read Hawking’s book, and it’s not TOO tekkie, but agree with you about Feynman.
Sure must be nice being Giffords. Wish I could fly with my fiance to England to hang out with Hawkings.
Wish I had a fiance. Had one of those once–it was marvelous.
Then I married her.
Screwed up everything.
December 4th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
condem,
It’s good to hear positive feedback about Jeff Latas from someone who was not vested in this CD8 election.
x4mr,
Still whining about the ex-wife, huh? Reminds me of that slogan they put on T-shirts a few years back, “Life is a B*tch and then you marry one.”
My first ex and I just had our 25th wedding anniversary except, of course, we didn’t have it. We missed it by 21 years and he’s dead now, anyhow. However, he looked me up a couple of years ago and told me I was, without a doubt, the best of his three wives and he really screwed up. Maybe you’ll have a similar experience, x4mr. Give it time.
December 4th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
I love Feynman, and have enjoyed Hawking’s works … in the original Klingon even!
MI wouldn’t have killed someone, but I’d have seriously roughed someone up (who deserved it) for the opportunity to spend two hours with him.
Brian Greene is pretty good at making dense topics readable for someone more recent.
December 4th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
The only physicist I ever read is David Deutsch who writes about alternative universes and has interesting theories on childrearing.
The interesting thing about him is he has been working at Oxford about a quantum computer and apparently they are within sight of having one. According to his last post on his blog anyway.
December 4th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
I hope that Randy would not have said that reading Hawkins is “above his perspective pay grade”–like I think he said when asked about Iran during the campaign.
It’s good that Giffords read the book–we need a lot more people who are conversant with technical matters in Congress.
December 4th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Latas is one of the few truly inspirational [and technically knowledgeable] speakers I have heard in a long time.
December 4th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
The image of Randy Graf having a conversation with Stephen Hawkings is a real gut buster.
“STILL whining”, Liza? I think I have shown remarkable restraint. She got everything including the dogs.
Really miss those dogs.
Not to digress too far, but the physics stuff is running into consciousness stuff, things like Penrose “Emperor’s New Mind” and the “What the Bleep” flick.
I hope Jeff Latas finds the angle where his views and his voice can make a difference.
December 5th, 2006 at 8:04 am
x4mr,
I got off light, I guess, because I paid for his college education. Besides, greed wasn’t one of his faults.
BTW, is anyone out there besides me tired of reading about Giffords on these blogs? Does anyone really care who she talks to for two hours?
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