Young Dems convention, Part II

(at long last...)

The opening ceremonies were supposed to have taken place in the auditorium, but for some reason they’ve been moved to the hallway/concourse where all the campaign tables are set up. I’m cool with that...counting the car ride, I’ve been sitting for three hours now. Standing is totes fine by me.

There are all kinds of cute boys around. Usually, when I see an attractive guy, I check out the left ring finger to see if he’s available. But, this being the Young Dems convention, a bare wedding-ring finger isn’t enough. We Dems proudly support civil rights for people regardless of sexual orientation, which is great…but it means that I have to establish availability on multiple fronts, if you know what I mean. The Young Republican women just don’t have to deal with this stuff. *sigh*

So they’re introducing various candidates in attendance…which I don’t completely understand, since a few hours from now I’ll have to sit through stump speeches by everyone from Senate candidate to agriculture secretary. I understand the idea – Candidate A is here now and might not be later, so go for it. Which is how I end up standing in the concourse listening to an impassioned speech by state auditor hopeful Beth Wood. Incredibly, this seat is contested in the primary. Even more incredibly, Wood tells us she’s on the way to Hamlet, N.C., to see about an endorsement. Candidates for state auditor get endorsements??? I’m learning more about politics by the minute.

The funny thing is that Wood has massively more charisma than any other candidate I’ve seen here so far. When she stares me down (and she’s tall, too) and says that she’s my “best opportunity to take back the office of State Auditor,” I believe her, you know? I’m fired up about State Auditor. Capital F-U.

I get a mild funny when someone from the Young Dems starts reeling off the list of candidates who are here, or will be here, today. Surprisingly, the mention of John Edwards gets kind of a tepid “WOOooo……” whereas Jim Neal, trying to fight off Kay Hagan for the right to fight off Elizabeth Dole for U.S. Senate, gets Bono-level cheers. When Neal first announced, I was skeptical: no political experience vs. a state office-holder, btw a personal orientation that I find completely irrelevant, but that every news story on him feels compelled to mention…Now, I wonder if a high turn-out of progressive Obama voters in the primary can help him. Also, Neal has spent the last several months totally barnstorming the state. Wherever two or more of you are gathered in the Democrats’ name, Jim Neal will be there to ask you what you want from your Senator. I gotta say, the guy’s got a shot.

After the “ceremony,” I swing by the Obama table. Time for another “state of how people actually feel” reality check: they are completely out of T-shirts and bumper stickers; they actually have a waiting list for buttons. Seriously. All this table offers are a couple of pleasantly overwhelmed, yet competent, volunteers and a dozen hand-outs on various issues. Being fresh from the session on peer-to-peer networking, I know that young voters, e.g. Me, really don’t have much use for the glossy slogan-y tri-fold brochures popular with campaigns the world over. We prefer actual information – no matter how text-heavy and graphically unpleasing it may be – so that we can come to our own conclusions. The Obama hand-outs are one and two pages long, dense with policy bullet-points. The Hillary stuff is glossy and slogan-filled. Hmm.

On my way through the gallery, I’m mugged by a sticker-wielding guy from the Bev Perdue for Governor campaign. Sticker Boys (and Girls) are the folks who jump out at you asking if you want to plaster a button-sized sticker on your person. At this point, I’m still uncommitted in the gov race, so I’m trying to remain de-stickered…this will change in a few hours, but not soon enough to vindicate Sticker Boy.

Oops, time for Session II. I select “Chapter Building” because as chapter VP, I’m meant to be concerned with outreach, etc. I make my way to the appropriate room (which hasn’t been changed at the last minute, to my knowledge). Just in case, I check with the other YDs gathered there – “Are you here for chapter building? Good.” – and take a seat. One of the people in this session is the YD president of the Guilford County chapter, Malcolm, whom I know because he’s a senior at Guilford. I’ve always been mildly impressed with Malcolm, because he’s not just an officer, but president of the county YDs, not to mention being involved with a million other things on campus, whereas when I was a college senior I pretty much devoted my energy to merely graduating. Remember his name, folks, really.

So, after my morning session I’m all pumped to learn about how to apply my new peer-to-peer networking skills to building chapter membership and all…and instead I get this pleasant Power Point presentation from a state staffer on the “Constructing Victory” campaign…which is really cool, and exceptionally organized, for a bunch of Democrats. The problem is, I’ve already heard all this. I want to talk about chapter building. I start to look around, anxious. Maybe I’m in the wrong banquet room after all…?

Then they open it up for the Q&A. Good ol’ Malcolm is first up. “Are we going to talk about chapter building?” he says. “Because I’ve heard this speech before.” The rest of the room murmurs assent. The chipper staffer looks like she just smelled a fart.

“I have to confess, I don’t know why they called this session ‘chapter building,’’’ she says. Great. I'm paging Will Rogers again....

So basically the restless natives took over after that. During the PPT, I got so bored I spent a good 10 minutes searching the carpet after I accidentally flicked off the lid of my complementary pen. The Q&A was way more productive, mainly because the “audience” turned away from the PPT screen and toward each other. There was a guy who’d done canvassing for Heath Shuler in the last election, which got me all excited because that district is pretty rural once you get out of Asheville. There was the high school kid from Raleigh – North Raleigh, the “red” part – needing tips about how on earth you organize when you think you’re the only Dem in a sea of Republicans (answer: you’re probably not). There was lots of exchange about how to start high school chapters.

So the session was productive, though maybe not in the way intended by the organizers. I guess I could feel frustrated…but I don’t. The people who went to that session wanted to talk about chapter building, and by God we talked about chapter building. I left feeling strangely encouraged – these people are fired up, with a capital F-U, from North Raleigh to Shuler-ville. As we rural types of both “red” and “blue” persuasion like to say… WOO-HOO!

Now it’s on to the governor’s forum, lunch, Carville and Edwards…