So, I Was Elected As A Delegate

I attended my first Democratic National Convention as a bright-eyed, fresh out of college volunteer for Clinton-Gore in 1992. (Admit it - when you think back to that time, you can't get that Fleetwood Mac tune out of your head. :) ) The energy captivated me and I knew that I found my professional calling to work in and around politics.

Having now attended every convention since then, I feel like a veteran. However, when it comes to serving as a delegate, I am a certified rookie. Just getting elected was a bit of an eye-opener.

During the primary, I was fortunate to plug into the Obama campaign on behalf of my employers. Our collective hard work helped deliver a victory in North Carolina for our next President. As a result, the Obama campaign endorsed my delegate candidacy and I made "the list" last weekend.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should let it be known that I actually ran unsuccessfully for delegate at the district level. Though I harbored no illusions about the difficulty of the task, the turnout surprised me. In the 4th District, we had more than 100 people running for something like nine delegate slots. The campaigns approved everyone who ran and as a result, there was a virtual forest of campaign flyers being handed out that day. There's no chance to stand out in that madness, much less build any coalitions.

I knew that I stood a much better chance for an at-large delegate slot, since the campaigns pare that list of candidates waaaaaaaay down. So I filed the paperwork and started making the calls between Raleigh, DC and Chicago. My efforts were successful and the Obama campaign called me last week to inform me that they were endorsing my candidacy.

Looking at the list of approved candidates, and seeing my name in bold, I knew that my elections was a near-lock, but you don't feel good until you hear the words = "The Southern Male Democrat is elected."

The delegate election just before mine ended up in a division of the house, which of course had to be voted in caucus. Not wanting the same thing to happen to me - I worked the floor to ensure that all the counties where I knew people spoke up loud and proud - AYE! One resounding chorus of ayes later, I was elected.

I know that there were some people who were not happy with how the process was conducted. Truthfully, I can see both sides of the issue. On the one hand, it is an election and everyone who wants to run should have a fair shot. On other hand, the campaigns can't approve everyone or else you'd have chaos. There is a legitimate need to have the campaigns endorse "their people."

I think the biggest lesson I learned was that the district election is much more of a grassroots process and the at-large election is more of an insider's game. I am ok with that distinction. Having worked in professional politics since 1992, I have learned that both grassroots troops and professional politicos are needed to achieve anything - it is not one or the other.

What could possibly have been improved upon was the communication of how the process works. Even as an approved candidate, I didn't totally get it until about a week beforehand. Some of the hard feelings could have been avoided if people knew how the game worked going in. From what I was told, this year was a piece of cake compared with 2004. That year, the Kerry-Edwards team did not communicate to any of the delegate candidates who didn't make the list. As a result, you had people show up at the state convention to run - and they weren't even on the ballot.

So now it's on to Denver! My guess is that I am going to have a major adjustment with more of my time spoken for as a delegate. For the past two conventions, I could pretty much do whatever the heck I wanted, as my role there was to glad hand for my clients. I made liberal use of the hospitality suites when the sessions dragged on. Delegates can't really do that can they?

Anyway, it should be fun. I will try and post a few updates here on BlueNC during that week.

SMD

http://southernmaledemocrat.com