Katie's Convention News

Hey, If You're Still Reading This...

2008-09-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

Since the convention, I have had several people ask me if I would continue to post here, and I have considered it, but am not sure I can make the commitment that keeping up a regular blog requires. Before the convention, I posted somewhat sporadically at www.democraticdiva.com. I am posting more regularly now, so if you're interested, check it out. You can also read the posts of some other great women as well. And, thanks for coming along on this ride with me!

Get Your Convention Stuff Here

2008-09-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hey, I am raffling off some of my convention stuff to benefit the District 15 Democrats, of which I am chair. Contact me (see my profile) if you want a ticket(s) - $3 or 2/$5. Raffle closes Thursday September 11th.

Top Ten Reasons You Know Your Presidential Bid Is In Trouble

2008-08-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

10. Your lead in your home state keeps shrinking.
9. Your opponent draws over 75,000 people to his nomination acceptance speech.
8. Great sound bytes like this: McCain may pay $100 for his loafers, but we'll pay for his flip flops (Bill Richardson).
7. Or this: I want a President who cares more about Barney Smith that Smith Barney (Barney Smith - average American).
6. You think the word maverick means sidekick.
5. The best you could come up with for your convention spin is: Mile High, Inch Deep (let's talk about the real issues facing Americans, ok).
4. You have so much experience that your running mate doesn't really need any.
3. You make fun of your opponent's "celebrity" status and then choose a beauty queen as your running mate.
2. Your choice for VP comes from your everyone-else-said-no list.
1. You pick your running mate because you think the American voters are so stupid they will vote for a ticket just because there's a woman on it, even though your Administration will be nothing but an affront to women.

And the Winner Is

2008-08-29T10:35:00.001-07:00

Your life would not be complete if I did not show you this:

While it looks like Obama-on-a-stick, it is actually a planter. The artist is actually selling them, filled with a peace lily.

The Way Things Were Meant To Be

2008-08-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

I can't help but think that everything in this hard fought campaign between Hillary and Barack turned out exactly the way it was supposed to. This convention was scheduled a long time ago, before anyone knew who the nominee would be, before anyone knew what would happen in the primaries. But how cool is it that these two candidates gave the speeches which were the highlights of the convention on the anniversaries of 2 momentous occasions? Hillary, the first woman to ever win a Presidential primary, a woman who fights for women's rights around the globe, spoke Tuesday night, the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage. And Barack, who many have compared to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and who has stirred hope in so many Americans, accepted the nomination for President on the 45th anniversay of King's I Have a Dream address. That wasn't planned, it just worked out that way.

When Obama lost the New Hampshire primary, he gave the Yes We Can speech to his supporters. Artist will.i.am made this music video of the speech. You may have already seen it, but it's worth another watch, or 20. If you haven't already seen it, you will be sorry if you don't. And then you will want to watch it 20 more times, too.

The Roll Call Vote

2008-08-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

We cast our ballots for the nominee at breakfast on Wednesday morning. At this point, Clinton delegates knew we were meeting with her at 1:00, and were expecting to be released, but we hadn't yet. Not all of the Clinton delegates voted for her - Arizona's votes ended up 27 - 40 for Obama.

The meeting was supposed to be just for delegates, but they ended up not even checking. I couldn’t believe how many people were there. It was this big convention hall completely packed full of people standing. When she finally got in, she said, “if I knew I had this many delegates, well…” (It was a joke.) In case you thought the the PUMA's were just an invention of the right wing media to make it look like Democrats don't back Obama, I can attest that they are real, we saw them there. They talked throughout the meeting, and one thing I overheard is that she didn't really mean any of the things she was saying, that she was forced to say them. I don't know about them, but the woman I supported during this campaign would not let anyone force her to do anything she didn't want to do. They left the room chanting McCain. I guess they didn't listen very closely to Hillary's speech on Tuesday.

Anyway, she told us we were released, and told us we should vote how we wanted to vote, but that she had cast her vote for Barack Obama. We had already voted, as has most delegations, I believe, so we weren't sure what would happen - were they going to have us recast our votes?

We got to the Pepsi Center right as the roll call vote began. It is a very cool process, the delegation chair of each state says something about their state and then how the votes are cast. It goes through alphabetically. Ted has the rundown of each state in his live blogging, but I will just tell you where it got interesting. California passed. They have a lot of votes, and David Schapira told me they probably wanted to be the state that put Obama over the top. California went for Clinton in the primary, but oh well. (BTW someone told me Barbara Boxer was really mad that CA passed.) Then Illinois passed, and using the same logic, it would make sense that they wanted to put him over top. Then New Mexico yielded to Illinois. I hadn't been keeping a tally of the votes, but thought that was kind of quick.

Illinois, however yielded to New York. Then I saw all of the secret service and Hillary in the middle of them walking towards New York. The crowd went crazy. Either, New York was going to announce that all of their 282 votes were for Obama and that would put him over the top, or something else. The delegation chair turned it over to Clinton, and she asked for a suspension of the rules and for Obama to be nominated by acclamation.

It was absolutely poetic, and for me as a Clinton delegate, absolutely the best way this could have ended. I think this was really the highlight of the convention for me.

Yes I Do

2008-08-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Love Barack Obama!

Emerge-ing Force

2008-08-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

The Emerge luncheon on Tuesday got some coverage.

I'm So Tired!

2008-08-28T01:27:00.000-07:00

I have so much to say about today, it was an amazing day!! But I'm so tired. I will try to post in the morning before breakfast. All I will say right now, is it was a great day. Oh, wait, I may have already said that. I hope you were able to catch some of the coverage of the floor vote. I am happy to say that the Democratic Party, for the first time in the history of this country, has nominated a black man for President of the United States.

I have, like, less than 2 seconds on 12 News tonight (last night?). I am not a techie and don't know how to get the video in here, but you can see it here - find the video Criticism aside, Bill Clinton gives Obama forceful backing.

Oh, and I heard a rumor that two members of our delegation, who do not want to be shown up (you know, with the proposal and all on Monday), will get married tomorrow during the goings on at Invesco Field. Because I heard the speeches tomorrow will be pretty boring anyway.

Edit: By today, I actually meant Wednesday, and tomorrow means Thursday, even though this is posted on Thursday. I am still up, so it is still Wednesday. I definately need to go to bed now.

I Know, He Had to Eat a Lot of Words

2008-08-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Say what you want about Terry McAuliffe, but I really like the guy. He addressed us at the Arizona breakfast this morning. (BTW we are being fed really well. Monday breakfast was sponsored by APS, Tuesday by Pfizer, and today by SRP - thanks for the great food, corporate sponsors.)

McAuliffe told us that the latest poll shows McCain up by only 5 points in AZ. He also talked about us losing in 2000 and 2004 because the Republicans wanted to win more than we did. Every day after the 2000 election, while the recounts were going on, there were protestors outside the VP's house on Massachusetts Ave. with signs calling Gore a sore loser. There were no Democrats out there to counter that. In 2004 there is no way we should have let the Republicans do to Kerry's service record - a man who twice voluteered to go to Vietnam - what they did when Bush used his family connections to sit it out in the National Guard.

There is a rule that you don't go negative during the other political party's convention, but that rule has been broken this year. The stuff we are going to see in this race will make the Swift Boat ads look like PSA's.

We have to want it more. This is what touched me the most about McAliffe's remarks: he said we have to want it more because we need to be fighting for the people out there who don't get a breakfast like we are enjoying. Our worst day is better than the best day for those struggling to get by. They are counting on us to fight for them.

Hilarious

2008-08-27T09:00:00.001-07:00

If you haven't checked out Ted's live blogging from the convention floor, I highly recommend it. Very funny. He also has profiles of several delegates posted.

Look Who Else Showed Up

2008-08-27T01:25:00.000-07:00

Future First Lady Michelle Obama and George McGovern (also right behind us!). Don't know who the other guy is.

Live From the Convention Floor...

2008-08-27T01:21:00.001-07:00

I will be calling in to the Jeff Farias show on KPHX 1480 AM at 5:00 p.m. Wednesday. If you're not in Phoenix, you can stream it here.

Look Who Showed Up

2008-08-27T01:19:00.001-07:00

Senator Joe Biden and President Jimmy Carter (right behind us!).

Hillary's Night

2008-08-27T00:57:00.000-07:00

Well, being from Arizona, it was also Janet's night, but the highlight for me was obviously Hillary.

Janet was great. She talked about the unsuccessful runs at the Presidency that Arizonans have had - Barry Goldwater, Mo Udall, Bruce Babbitt - and said that's one tradition she hopes we keep. She is pretty confident that Arizona can go for Obama. I'm not someone who always pays attention to all of the polls, but a recent one shows McCain up by only 6 points in AZ.

Lilly Ledbetter of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 (you can read more about her case here) was also on the agenda. She was an amazing speaker and received a standing ovation.

My favorite quote of the evening (except for Hillary's entire speech) was Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts who said Democrats don't deserve to win just because Republicans deserve to lose.

And Brian Schwietzer, Governor of Montana, was highly entertaining.

I just loved Hillary's speech. Yes, it made me cry. If you did not like Hillary on the campaign trail, all you need to do is watch this speech and you will understand the inspiration she is to so many Americans. It was just so good, and I think what so many people needed to hear from her. I really don't have any more words for it.

After the speech, I was interviewed by a newspaper reporter from the Netherlands (he just randomly stopped me). If I can find the article, I will share it. I, along with a couple other Clinton delegates from AZ, also talked to KFYI (550 AM, Phoenix), so I am guessing they will use clips of the interviews on their news coverage of the convention. It seemed like most reporters were looking for Hillary delegates who either a) said they wouldn't support Obama, or b) said the speech pushed them off the fence towards supporting Obama. The thing is, everyone I know who is a Clinton delegate or supporter is a Democrat. The one thing we Democrats are united in is that America can't afford a McCain White House. I don't know anyone who needed Hillary's speech tonight to push them off the fence and support Obama.

Another Cool Thing About Denver

2008-08-27T00:55:00.001-07:00

They figured out a way to fund homeless services.

What You've All Been Waiting For...More Chum

2008-08-27T00:41:00.001-07:00

THIS is a Serious Problem!

2008-08-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

Emerge

2008-08-27T00:24:00.001-07:00

Emerge is what really started this whole foray into politics for me. Well, foray makes it sound a little temporary, but I don't think I can ever get out now. Anyway most of you that know me know about Emerge, but please indulge this explanation for those readers that are not familiar.

Emerge is a political training program for Democratic women who want to run for office. It began in the Bay Area in California in 2003, was successfully replicated in Arizona in 2004, and is now Emerge America, with affiliates in 7 states.

Why Democrats? Well, duh. If we want more women in office, we want the RIGHT ones.

Why women? I believe that we will never reach our full potential as a nation until women participate equally at all levels of government. The barriers for women running for office are much greater than for men. Emerge is about the new girls' network, helping women to overcome those barriers and have the confidence they need to take that leap and run.

I was a part of the inaugural class of Emerge Arizona in 2004.

There are several Emerge women that are here as delegates, so Emerge America hosted a lunch today. It was a nice little break in all of the convention activities and a chance to connect with some awesome women from around the country who are doing amazing things.

Women's Caucus

2008-08-27T00:11:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I attended the Women's Caucus. I missed a lot of it because I'm still trying to navigate. Donna Brazile, mentioned earlier, spoke. Donna is a superdelegate who commentates for CNN and kept quiet about who she was supporting for President. I didn't hear her, but Dana told me she spoke about signing the petition to make sure that Hillary Clinton's name is placed into nomination. She said (paraphrasing because I wasn't there, and remember I don't do quotes so well anyway) she did it for Shirley Chisolm, she did it for Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (who was a Clinton supporter), and she did it for the unity of the party.

I think there are a lot of Obama supporters who just don't get how allowing a floor vote for Clinton will help with party unity, but as a Clinton delegate, it makes perfect sense. A lot of people just need to be able to vote for the person they were elected to vote for, and not feel like they are being silenced. I hope that makes sense. It is not whining, it is not about catharsis, or whatever else the pundits are saying.

Women's Equality Day

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

Yesterday (even though as I'm posting this, it is the end of a very long Tuesday, it is technically Wednedsay) was the 88th anniversay of women being granted the right to vote. If you are reading this and for some strange reason, you are not registered to vote GO DO IT NOW!!!!!! If you are registered to vote, but for some strange reason just don't, I would suggest watching Iron Jawed Angels to perhaps motivate you to do so. This is one of my favorite movies ever. Yes, it makes me cry. And for God's sake PLEASE vote for Barack Obama on November 4th, whether you've always had the right to vote, or just gained it 88 years ago.

Revisiting Yesterday

2008-08-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

There are just a couple of things from the events yesterday that I forgot to mention.

Another featured speaker at the Unconventional Women event was Congresswoman Hilda Solis from California. I specifically wanted to mention her because of her work on the issue of violence against women and helping to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in 2005. My work is about domestic violence, and VAWA has helped us to make huge strides in the services that are available for all those who experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Domestic violence, especially among the immigrant community, is something that is a big issue in Solis' district, and I appreciate her committment to it.

And Donna Brazile spoke, who is just Donna Brazile - she is amazing. She is speaking at a lot of stuff this week. BTW, it's a good thing I'm not a professional reporter because I am terrible about getting quotes right. So, she said some really cool stuff, but that was about 36 hours ago and I've heard a lot more stuff since then.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also a big highlight of the speakers at the convention yesterday. They played clips of when she was elected as Speaker in 2006 and had her grandchildren all around her. I cannot see that moment and not totally tear up (why yes, I do cry at everything).

Something else that I thought was a cool feature was that among all of the politicians who spoke, they scattered regular people who were just there to tell their stories against the backdrop American Voices: American Values.

Apologies to the Denver City Planners

2008-08-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

I discovered today that the trek between the Convention Center and Pepsi Center really is walkable. My problem yesterday is that I was not in control of a map or the info about where we were going. So, bonus, today I walked a lot down the 16th St. Mall and got lots more photos of fun political chum and other random stuff for you to enjoy. Bet you can't wait for me to post it.

Besides being pretty pedestrian friendly, Denver is very green.

A Proposal

2008-08-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

If you watched any local (Phoenix) news coverage, you probably saw this, but two of our delegates got engaged at the convention last night - Ruben Gallego and Kate Widland. It was really funny because Ruben and Kate are the whips, and they're supposed to tell us when to hold up our signs and stuff. Well, Kate wasn't there, and Ruben was really distracted wondering where Kate was because he was planning to propose. Kate said everyone kept texting her to find out where she was, so she thought she was in trouble. Anyway, when she got there, Ruben gave the signal to hold up the "special signs".

She said yes. I'm sure it was a proposal neither of them will ever forget. Hopefully, we will be much more disciplined about our sign holding tonight because our whips will both be paying attention to what we're doing. Congratulations Ruben and Kate!!

At the Pepsi Center

2008-08-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

Getting around to the different events has been somewhat challenging. Denver is kind of spread out, like Phoenix, and although public transportation is a little better, nothing is really walkable. I thought that the Convention Center and the Pepsi Center were the same thing, but they're not - silly me. Most of the daytime events are around the Convention Center and then we have to get to the Pepsi Center for the convention around 3.

Anyway, although it probably looks way better on TV, here is a picture of the convention floor:

When I first walked in, I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm here! It was pretty amazing.

The Arizona delegation is seated right below the boxes for the Biden and Obama families (so, lots of opportunites to see us on TV):

That is how close we are to Joe Biden. He got way more attention last night than he ever did during his Presidential race. I think he was kind of enjoying it.

One of the highlights of the evening was the tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy. Also, Michelle Obama's speech was absolutely amazing. I cried.

P.S. We aren't allowed to bring computers on the floor, except for Ted, who is our official blogger (linked on the side). If you want live blogging, I recommend going there, except that his battery ran out before Michelle's speech.

Political Chum

2008-08-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Walking around downtown where all the events are is really fun. Denver is a great city and the weather is beautiful! There are convention-goers everywhere and all kinds of campaign-related stuff for sale on the street corners. The best I've seen so far are these Obama dolls.

A Day of Inspiration

2008-08-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

On Monday, I attended the event Unconventional Women, which was put on by a group of organizations, mostly nonpartisan, that work to increase women in elected office. It was incredibly inspirational. The highlight for me was hearing from two freshman Senators, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. They talked about their experiences as women in the U.S. Senate (there are still only 16 of them!). Also, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York talked about her new book: Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated - Why Women's Lives Are Not Getting Any Easier. I plan to go get a copy.

Then I headed to the Women's Equalitea (get it - a tea about equality) sponsored by NOW and the Feminist Majority Foundation. To get in, we had to walk though the throng of abortion protestors - they actually had delivery trucks with really awful pictures all over the sides driving around the block. Because women's equality is really only about abortion. What made me really sad about it is that these are the same protestors who sit outside of women's health clinics, so even women just going in for a routine exam or birth control have to go through that. This poses a barrier for them accessing necessary healthcare. So, we still have a long way to go. The event itself was great - I love Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California! All of the speakers paid tribute to Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of Ohio who died last week and was a great champion for women's issues.

Didn't Mean to Disappoint

2008-08-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

The schedule they have us on here is GRUELING!! Breakfast at 7am, events, caucuses, more events, the convention floor, parties, sleep a few hours, repeat. So, I know you all are waiting for my posts so that you can vicariously be here, but when I got back to the hotel last night (this morning), my computer was freezing up and I was too tired. I'll try to do better!

A Word on Obama

2008-08-25T05:42:00.001-07:00

I fell in love with Obama when I saw his speech at the 2004 Convention. It was one of the most inspiring speeches I have ever seen. At the time I thought, he will be President someday. But as you know by now, I am a Clinton delegate. She was my candidate. And I'm still having a little trouble getting on board the Obama train. (Please don't attack me - I'm a Democrat!! Not voting for McCain, will work to get Obama elected.) I think I was still holding out a little hope that he might shock everyone and pick her as his running mate. Anyway, I really need to fall in love with him again, and am hoping his speech on Thursday night does that for me.

Sunday Night

2008-08-25T05:36:00.001-07:00

There is a group of Hillary delegates from AZ known as the Fab Five - Dana, Debra, Bree, Michael, and Angie. They travelled to several states to volunteer for Clinton, and everywhere they went, Hillary won. Last night we met up with them for drinks and dinner and then headed to the Tri-State Reception here in the hotel for the delegates of AZ, WA, and OR, who are all staying here. The excitement of all those here for the convention is quite contagious.

Today I am headed to the Unconventional Women event, sponsored by the Women's Campaign Forum Foundation; Latina Initiative; Women's Voices. Women Vote; and the White House Project. Michelle Obama is the featured speaker at the convention tonight.

Edit: Forgot to mention that some guy's shirt caught on fire at the reception - I guess he was leaning on a wall where there were candles in these holes. I tried to get a picture, but I couldn't find him.

I'm Here!!!

2008-08-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

We left our house Friday afternoon and drove our kids to meet their grandparents in Cheyenne, WY (about an hour and a half north of Denver). They will spend the week at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin in South Dakota. We got to Denver this afternoon.

We're at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center. It's a beautiful hotel and the staff are friendly and very accomodating. Also here are the delegations from Oregon and Washington. And Fox News. I hope I run into Bill O'Reilly.

Ok, I have to go figure out where I'm going. I have about a million invitations.

A Little Introduction

2008-08-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

(I meant to post this earlier this week...better late than never.) If you are reading this, it's probably because you know me or you know someone who knows me, but I thought I'd give you a little info about me and how I became a delegate.

I am from Phoenix, Arizona (native actually) and live in a central Phoenix historic neighborhood with my husband and two children. I work at Sojourner Center, the largest domestic violence shelter in the country, as the Director of Government Relations. As a social worker, I have been involved in issues like homelessness and domestic violence for many years. My involvement in politics is much more recent - I have been really politically active for the past 4 years.

So, a lot of people have asked me what I had to do to become a delegate. The 2004 convention was the first one that I really paid attention to and watched coverage of. When Barack Obama gave the speech that propelled him into the national spotlight, that is when I decided that I wanted to be a delegate. So I started asking people what I had to do. Most of them said that I needed to pick a candidate and volunteer on their campaign. If my candidate won delegates in Arizona, then I could run to be a delegate. It's actually a little more complicated than that. But, when Hillary Clinton announced that she would run for President, I knew that I would volunteer for her and that I wanted to be a delegate for her more than anything else.

So volunteer I did! My good friend Dana Kennedy started organizing a steering committee for Clinton in Phoenix and I signed up for it. I tabled at events, had a house party, and made more phone calls than I care to remember. I took several days off work for GOTV, and our efforts helped Clinton win in Arizona. The results of the Presidential Preference Election are what determines how many delegates each candidate will get. To become a delegate candidate, I had to submit a form pledging who I wanted to be a delegate for. Before the lists of delegate candidates are published, they are sent to the respective campaigns for vetting. The campaign can strike anyone off (which is why being a volunteer is important - if they don't know who you are, you probably won't stay on the list).

The elections are held first at the congressional level and there are a certain number of slots for each candidate in each congressional district. My good friend Dana Kennedy and I both happen to be in Congressional District 4, and there was one female Clinton delegate slot in our district. Dana is a mentor to me, and I did not want to run against her, so I ran a really bad campaign, and she was elected. She deserved to be. Oh, the people voting in this election are the Democratic precinct committeepeople. Then there are at-large slots, and the election for those is done at a state convention of all the Democratic state committeepeople. I ran at this level and won, with more votes than anyone else who was elected!

I am very proud to be a delegate representing Arizona and I welcome you on this journey with me.

Coming soon...

2008-07-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

I am very excited for the convention and will begin posting on August 24th! Be sure to come back.