( – promoted by David Dayen)

As far as an overall take on the convention I would pretty much associate myself with Robert’s remarks.  Ultimately these events are more important for the time-honored political practice of networking, of meeting and gathering impressions on colleagues and candidates for the future, not in a formal speech setting but one-on-one.  While these endorsement fights and resolutions and platforms get the attention of the activists and insiders, and as well you can pretty fairly judge the activist/establishment gaps in the party in this fashion (the activists got virtually everything they wanted in this convention, particularly with respect to the platform), ultimately it’s about people.  And at Calitics we were determined to bring that experience right to you by collecting audio and/or video of some of our most promising Congressional candidates.

First up are Charlie Brown and Russ Warner, but before that I wanted to sketch out some of the other candidates I met over the weekend:

1) Bill Durston (CA-03): We have an audio interview with Dr. Durston, an emergency room physician and a Vietnam combat vet.  Unfortunately the audio might be a little heavy on the background noise, so let me offer this.  While I’ve heard from some that Durston may be preaching too much to the choir and not going after Dan Lungren supporters, I feel he certainly would be credible if he chose to do that.  Durston is pretty progressive, and his views on health care (he supports single payer and does so from experience) and Iraq (he opposed it from the beginning and speaks powerfully on the morality of war) are compelling.  As I’ve been noting, CA-03 is a changing district, with more Democrats than any Republican-held seat in the state, and hopefully more to come before November, so this is an opportunity to offer a real contrast to Dan Lungren and roll the dice.  Durston is running on Iraq, health care and the environment (Lungren has a worse environmental record than even Richard Pombo by some measures) and we’ll see if he can gather support.

2) Debbie Cook (CA-46): Audio and video of our interview to come.  Cook, running against certified loon Dana Rohrabacher in a district mostly in Orange County and part of Long Beach, is running on the environment, but not as an advocate against global warming necessarily.  She is on the board of directors of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO-USA), and really is passionate about moving to a post-carbon future and radically reinventing our energy infrastructure.  When I asked about carbon taxes or cap and trade systems, she really looked beyond that debate about greenhouse gas emissions and toward a debate about sustainable living.  This is about land use, about smart growth, about living closer together, adopting mass transit, eating locally grown foods, reorganizing society to deal with the prospects of a world without as much oil.  It’s an interesting message for a Congressional campaign, especially when going up against someone who speculates that global warming may have been caused by dinosaur flatulence.  But Cook also supports the Repsonsible Plan to End the War in Iraq and understands the post-carbon fight as a national security and an economic issue as well.

3) Russ Warner (CA-26): We have full video of this.  I’ve seen Russ speak on a number of occasions, and let me say that I’m very impressed with his maturation as a candidate.  He’s more than ready to stand on a stage with David Dreier and go toe-to-toe with him.  And there’s a new passion to his message, including his belief that the Bush Administration is waging an effort to “destroy this county from the inside out,” that is uncompromising.  Warner will make Iraq a front-and-center issue in his campaign, along with health care and the economy (his answer on the housing crisis and the financial mess was pretty good).  This is a race we’ll all be talking about soon.

4) Charlie Brown (CA-04): WE’ll have full video of this, but for the moment we have a couple bits and pieces.  Listen to this part, when I ask how he’ll deal with the expected “anti-government” message from the Republican he’ll have to face in November, and you’ll see exactly why those military veterans support Brown and rebuke those career politicians who claim to want to represent them.

There’s another four-minute clip here.

Overall I think we have an excellent crop of candidates.  I was only able to talk briefly with some of them but I’ll be following up in the weeks to come.  Ultimately the fight for progressive change must not end at a convention but be wrested away at the ballot box.  These are some of the leaders trying to do just that.

AD-40 is up first. Blumenfield got 65% yesterday, but the cards just went up and it’s gonna be tight.

[Update by Lucas] Endorsement fails, endorsement is vacated. Art Torres is noting that a substitute candidate can come from the floor, would need 75%.

SD-03 will be coming next.  The Leno signs are out in force, not seeing the Migden troops yet.

[Update by Lucas] Migden supporters are now swarming in as well.  UFW representative speaks in favor of Migden, pitching on her union connections and support for farmworkers.  Sen. Migden reels off the endorsements.

[Update by Lucas] Speaking for non-endorsement is Speaker-Elect Karen Bass (nice!). And Mark Leno speaks next with Kamala Harris doing her best to establish her star.

[Update by Lucas] Here come the cards. The voice vote was a deafening support for “no.”  Everyone has to get back to their seats before the vote can begin.

[Update by Lucas] “No” cards just went up, it’s a stomping. It looks like the whole room.

[Update by Lucas] Final Tally: Yes 298, No 742. Wow. That’s 71.3% for No. Motion from the floor to endorse Leno- he’d need 75%. Quick speech now.

[Update by Lucas] Voting now on Leno- cards are up.

[Update by Lucas] Final Tally: 979 total votes. 591 Yes, 388 No. 60.3%, motion fails. No endorsement.

Perhaps not surprising, but certainly striking nonetheless, is the explosion of press and outside-the-center activity now that Bill Clinton’s arrival is near at hand.  Where once the blogger riser was empty, now there’s no room for everyone.  Leno/Migden and Blumenfield/Healey/Waldman will apparently be kicking things off this morning- presumably catching everyone while they’re half asleep and/or hungover from last night.  Frank Russo kinda stole my headline before I could write it, but it’s a good one- Migden-Leno Endorsement Fight May Overshadow Bill Clinton Speech at California Democratic Party Convention Today.  As a few of us were discussing earlier, it’ll be a story for the ages if Carole Migden manages to steal the spotlight from Bill Clinton.

…and we’re off.

[Update by Lucas] To clarify how this vote is going down, a “Yes” vote would be for the initial winner of yesterday’s endorsement (Migden and Blumenfield) while a “No” vote would mean no endorsement of anyone.

[Update by Dave] …the Hillary visibility extras are massing on the floor.  Incidentally, I heard that Phil Donahue’s movie, which screened here last night, is uncompromising on Hillary’s war vote, and during the time when she talks about it in the film she was booed.  The reaction from the audience here to the Big Dog should be interesting.

[Update by Dave] …Christine Pelosi is talking about the party platform.  Marriage equality is in there, which is awesome, as well as the party’s commitment to a safe and orderly withdrawal from Iraq and single payer healthcare.  That’s a good platform.  And it passed without any incident.  Fantastic.

[Update by Dave] …Inola Henry on the Resolutions Committee reports that the party endorses a no vote on 98 and yes on 99 for the June election, and endorses the recall of Jeff Denham in SD-12.  That’s great, though I hope that the party will put some muscle behind the racall.  Prop. 98 would end rent control throughout the state, and it must be stopped.  Art Torres says “that’s the easiest resolutions report we’ve ever had.”

[Update by Lucas] San Francisco DA Kamala Harris is taking the stage now, speaking on behalf of Obama.  Suddenly people have energy in the room.

[Update by Dante]Debra Bowen is talking about her review of the state’s voting systems.  Meanwhile, both Robert and Brian are looking at Debra Bowen’s Facebook page.

[Update by Lucas] Video montage of the Convention just ended. Clips of Willie Brown being awesome, candidates, Pelosi, activists, on and on. Pretty cool, if with a bit of an ‘end of summer camp’ vibe.

[Update by Brian]: And we’re killing time. This has got to be the longest secretary’s report EVER.

[Update by Lucas] Well, here comes Bill. And everyone’s gettin excited. Also, I could do without ever getting shushed by Art Torres again.

So Francine Busby has been working the convention for the past two days passing out literature to announce her campaign for CDP Chair in 2009.  I don’t have a horse in this race, but that also of course means that the other rumored candidates haven’t exactly lit me on fire just yet.  Speaking to San Diego delegates earlier, there was notable support for the idea.  The candidacy at the very least would be a nice break from the traditional Bay/LA power structure.

We’ll try to catch up with her for a few minutes tomorrow and find out what she has to say.

Well, Day 1 of the CDP convention is pretty much wrapping up at this point, well, save for the hospitality suites. The caucuses went pretty much as you would expect them. Steve Westly was at the computer caucus, Karen Bass made an appearance as the Speaker-elect in the Progressive Caucus, and Carole Migden was pretty much everywhere with two people with signs following her everywhere. It was all rather royal entrance-ish (Disclosure: I do some work for Mark Leno).

The progressive caucus recapped all of the committee work for the past few months. The election integrity is working hard to have the back of Secretary of State Debra Bowen as she fights for elections we can trust. Marci Winograd discussed the massive prison bond package, and the subject of Bob Mulholland came up again. In fact, the ProgCauc passed a resolution urging the party to distribute a list of alternate press contacts, including several members of the ProgCauc’s board.

Mulholland must be loving life. I think for Mulholland, every time somebody talks about him, he grows another fraction of a millimeter. And if nobody talks about him? He slowly shrinks in his own eyes. Yup, Bob does the job of attracting fire, and he’s pretty darn efficient at the task.

Other topics at the ProgCauc included education, the war (of course) and the normal litany of bills and legislators. Dave Jones talked about a new healthcare bill, which Shiela Kuehl called the “2nd most important healthcare bill”. Not bad praise, really.

I stopped by the Youth Panel, although, at least one of the presenters didn’t get a chance to talk. But, I learned some interesting facts, like Asian-American youth are now going, in vast numbers, to Democrats. Over 45% are registered Dems, while only 16% are Republicans.  Or something like that. (Sorry, Claire, if I messed that up). At the LGBT caucus, we saw several LGBT candidates and electeds. Some are either termed out, or otherwise not returning. It should be interesting to see how many LGBT officials we have next year to continue the fight for full equality and civil rights.  I’m hoping that the marriage fight will already be concluded by the time these new officials get sworn into office, though.

Enjoy the video of the rally cries. Even 2 months after the election, a few people still have lungs to scream “Yes We Can” and “Hill-a-ry.”  Good times.  Save some of those lungs for the general, my friends. And for yelling “NO ON 98!”

I’m sitting in the lobby with Congressional candidate Mary Pallant.  There’s no WiFi in the caucus rooms, which blows.  The crowd appears to be very pro-Obama; when Speaker Pelosi obliquely referred to him at the welcoming event there was a huge cheer.  More later as I’m off to a blogger hospitality event.

OK, so a lot of us will be out in San Jose for the convention this weekend.  And we’ve learned that Drinking Liberally San Jose is doing a special event on Saturday night near the convention site.  This will be a good opportunity for Caliticians and their friends to meet up and connect during the festivities.

Here are the details of the event:

What: Special California Drinking Liberally

Who: Hosted by San Jose Drinking Liberally

When: Saturday, March 29 6-8

Where: South First Billiards

420 S 1st Street, San Jose 95113

Phone: (408) 294-7800

Questions?: Mia from San Jose DL at sanjose-at-drinkingliberally-dot-org

There’s a California Young Democrats event afterwards, but us old fogies can linger around at DL.

All your energy and imagination is rejuvenating to us old party hacks. I want to be in contact with more of you.Thanks for welcoming Garry Shay and John Hanna to the dialogue.I hope they have deflected some of the paranoia that resulted from the events of Sunday afternoon. There will be a special Rules meeting in June where both the resolutions procedure and referrals to committees and caucuses will be discussed. Input is welcome ,email to [email protected].
I agree with most of the commentary and assessments of the presidential candidates.John Edwards got me. All the others seemed like they were giving their standard stump speech. Edwards talked to us with passion and sincerity and managed to include quite a few specifics. I’m sold.
Although I occaisionally post on Calitics and the California Progress Report I am very new to blogging and could use a tutor. I have no idea how to get exposure for my diaries and comments or do a whole list of other things. Any volunteers? I am more than willing to be a resource for all on Rules,Bylaws and the process in general. I also moderate the CDP Rural Caucus newsgroup and invite all to join at 1.
http://groups.yahoo….
-OR-
2. send email to [email protected]
Judy Hotchkiss
Member,CDP Rules Committee