Governor Jim Doyle gives his address
Wood County was well-represented at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin Annual Convention in LaCrosse this weekend. Dave Wille, Dede, Gary, Bill, Lois, Shirley and Ed were part of the group that "hung out" together for most of the proceedings. AmySue Vruwink was seen at the Feingold reception Friday night with some other members (also Vruwinks, I think) but I didn't get to talk to them and I didn't run into them again on Saturday.
I think most of us who attended would agree that the Convention wasn't as exciting or interesting this year. The most interesting side issue going on was the race between Peg Lautenschlauger and Kathleen Falk for the nomination for Attorney General. The competition between the two at the convention was intense as each side tried to out "image" the other. I attended Peg's reception at the art museum and got to spend some time talking to her. Kathleen Falk had a hospitality room after the speeches on Friday night but I attended Feingold's and the "blogger" meetup instead.
Doug LaFollete has some serious competition for Secretary of State from Scot Ross. Quite frankly, that race surprises me.
The "straw poll" results were interesting. Peg Lautenschlager was ahead of Kathleen Falk something like 58% to 42% and Ross was ahead of LaFollete 65% to 35%....that was a shock.
You can read the straw poll results here
No surprise that Russ Feingold stole the show again. In the straw poll, Wisconsin Democrats favored Russ for the Presidential nomination by a huge margin (75% or more). As usual his speech brought the crowd to its feet again and again. He is a pleasure to watch on the political stage.
About that "STRAW POLL". I'm a little bit upset about that because the published results include the votes of not only the delegates to the convention, but also the "guests". Now consider this: The Falk campaign brought is at least one (and maybe two) busloads of supporters who were NOT delegates to the convention. I saw them first when they arrived to pose in front of the tv cameras chanting "Falk! Falk! Falk! as Kathleen walked in and then again on the convention floor....seated in the cordoned off guest area separated from the delegates. Those "guests" were allowed to vote and artificially inflated Kathleen's numbers. I think Ross
s numbers were inflated the same way.....I'm also suspicious because the second place finisher in the Presidential preference portion of the straw poll was HILLARY CLINTON.
We didn't get to haggle over the resolutions this year. Because of new rules of proceedure, the resolutions were passed by 5:30 pm on FRIDAY NIGHT! I understand there were only 40 or so people in the room when that happened. Note that the convention formally convened at 5pm that night. I want to formally complain about that.
We had a bit of excitement in the hotel on Friday night.....NO! NOT THAT KIND OF EXCITEMENT!
Around 1:40AM, lightning hit the Holiday Inn and set off the fire alarms. Management evacuated the building and roused us all outside. They said that it was just the sensors but I've talked with Dave and LoLo and we all agree that we smelled something burning on Lois' end of the hall. After we finally returned to the rooms and got settled back into bed, the alarms went off AGAIN! At that point I think everybody was in the mode of "screw it".
Dede and Gary were saying that their room was next to the College Democrats who apparently decided that sleeping was not a priority. Gary had to complain a couple of times to both the Dems and the Management about the noise.
By the way Dede and I made some good contacts for the 7th CD convention that we will host next year. Kudos to Dede for taking a lot of initiative there!
edit 7:57PM Thanks to LoLo for pointing out that the keynote speaker was NOT JIM DOYLE but the Governor of West Virginia.....
The blogger meetup was smaller than usual but we all know each other so well that it is always a good gathering....
2 comments:
Thanks for your very thoughtful and comprehensive post, Ed. Besides the novel experience of being evacuated in the middle of the night, I have only one comment. Our keynote speaker was Gov. Joe Manchin III from West Virginia, the one who you probably saw quite often on TV during the Sego Mine disaster. He gave a good speech, but the most enthusiastic speaker award, in my opinion, was a tie between Rep. Lena Taylor and Mike Slade, of Fair Wisconsin. Oh, yes, one more closing remark--I WASN'T SMOKING ANYTHING AT MY END OF THE HALL!!!!
Ha!
A likely story......
You're right about the keynote speaker...and Lena Taylor was one of my favorite inspirational speakers of the convention. Mike Slade also got the crowd "rockin".
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