So... I wanted to take some time to record my own experiences there as an Alternate for Barack Obama from Hancock County. However, I felt it was important to let my feelings on the weekend settle for a bit before I wrote it up, so I delayed until today (not to mention that I've been inundated with work upon my return). I crossposted this over at Turn Maine Blue as well. If you haven't also seen the report from badger1968 or the report on TMB from Eddie in ME, they are both valuable reads as well.
First, a little background... I'm just a "regular guy" who volunteered at the Caucus to be a Delegate to the convention (along with my wife). I've never been to a State Convention before, in Maine or elsewhere. I'm just a long-time supporter of Barack Obama, though I volunteer fairly regularly for the Hancock County Democratic Committee. Other than volunteering, I have really no other official connection to the party.
I guess it is best to start at the beginning...
At the Ellsworth ME caucus, we were effectively told that anyone who wanted to be a delegate to the state convention should stay behind. I did. Then there was a dispute over how we would decide which of us who wanted to be delegates would be chosen to be delegates vs. alternates. In the end it just happened to turn out that we had exactly the right number of people that stayed behind to fill all of our delegate and alternate positions for Obama (I don't know what happened at all on the Clinton side of the room). In an attempt to resolve the dispute peaceably, half of us there simply agreed to be Alternates, myself (and my wife) included.
Frankly, I didn't much care about being an Alternate vs. a seated Delegate. I just wanted to go and see the speeches, help HCDC in any way they needed, and experience the event. I thought it would be fun regardless, and I wasn't even sure if I would "try" to be upgraded. I figured that if I did, I'd end up likely separated from my wife anyway, and that would be less fun. Either way, my wife and I were both excited to go and have looked forward to it for months.
Friday
We ended up carpooling down to the event with our friend Anne from Bar Harbor (who many of you who were there will remember as Obama Sticker Dress Girl).
We arrived at the Civic Center (after checking into our cheap hotel rooms in Waterville) at around 5pm on Friday. I was surprised as we drove in to see the "balance" (or lack-there-of) between the apparent support for Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama. There were Clinton signs and posters everywhere outside and inside the convention center, while the Obama signs and whatnot were much more "homemade" and sporadic.
We searched and couldn't even find a single Obama button or sticker available. They had some of the small cardboard signs, but nothing else, even down at the Obama meeting room. Clinton buttons and stickers were everywhere.
The Clinton supporters were apparently much more organized and prepared, which was quite a switch from how it was at the Caucus. We were surprised by this, to say the least. Down at the Obama meeting, I spoke briefly to one of the Obama campaign staffers, who told me that their goal was to simply get the 15 delegates they won in the Caucus. Not one more and not one less. Then everything began to make sense... It was obvious that it was a concerted effort to be low-key from the campaign on purpose. To not kick the Clinton Team while they were down. I do wish I had been able to get more swag to be able to show my enthusiasm, but I can completely understand where the campaign was coming from as well.
After the meeting was over, we went out on the floor and watched the speeches and opening ceremonies, including a great speech from Gov. Baldacci and then checked out the hospitality suites. I was a bit surprised again by the lack of swag available in the hospitality suites. I expected to be inundated with bumper stickers and buttons, but it felt like everything was already long gone by the time we got there.
Later on, we traveled over to the University of Maine campus and checked out the "party" there. If you missed it, there really wasn't much going on at all by the time we got there around 9pm. The $2 Shipyard was good though, and we enjoyed the artwork in the Gallery!
Saturday
We were told by the Obama folks (not really anyone official, just the people in the room at the meeting) that Alternates should be there no later than 8am and report to the now infamous holding tank room. Anne, our carpool-friend, was running for National Delegate and wanted to be there around 7:00 though, so we showed up then. So, even though we didn't really care to be upgraded, we reported to the Kennebec room and sat in some chairs and waited.
As I mentioned before, we weren't even that committed to getting upgraded... However, the "word" in the Obama circles was that you really couldn't leave. The worry was that if lots of Obama people left, the (obviously dedicated) Clinton supporters would be there and take up the vacant seats and it could sway the vote. We felt trapped. We couldn't leave... Initially, this wasn't a huge deal. The scene in the Alternate holding tank room wasn't too bad. It was actually kinda fun! My wife and I mingled around and spoke to our fellow alternates from all over Maine. Everyone I met was friendly and anxious to talk politics and it was loads of fun.
I was struck by how organized and prepared the Clinton supporters were. The Hancock for Hillary team was definitely right on top of everything. However, I was also very struck by how civil everything was. I met and spoke to lots of different Clinton supporters, and everyone was very nice and open. The vast majority of them that I talked to expressed generally: "We still hope that she can pull this off somehow, but defeating John McCain is certainly more important than anything in the long run." This was quite a nice surprise and shows just how skewed the mainstream media reports of divisions in the Democratic Party are. There were certainly some "kool-aid drinkers" on both sides, but they were the small minority. Early on, I observed lots of examples of groups of Obama and Clinton supporters all sitting together and having a great time.
However, as has been reported elsewhere, things quickly devolved. By 8:30 or so, there were far too many people jammed into the room. It began to get incredibly hot and stuffy. People were bumping into one another all the time, it was sweaty, and tempers were flaring. Making things incredibly worse, we were told that we had to self-organize by county and then into separate Obama and Clinton groups. This was plainly an impossible task. At first we had almost no materials with which to make signs to help people find their own counties, and the room was thoroughly mixed together (as people had just individually grabbed chairs and wallspace as they came in). Luckily, Beth Reynolds (the spectacular HCDC Vice Chair) showed up and was able to help our county delegation organize. I'm not sure who the woman who seemed to be running the Hancock for Hillary crew was, but she was also great and was obviously a huge asset to their team.
Things got chaotic quickly. People were pushing and bumping around. Elderly people were stuck without chairs and pushed up against walls, and some people refused to give up chairs (and some were inappropriately "saving seats" for people who never arrived). Of course, there were probably only enough chairs in the room for 1/3rd of the total people. To top it off, all that body heat made it HOT in the room. I couldn't even begin to guess at the temperature, but it felt like it was in the 80's or 90's.
At some point, someone came in (Arden Manning, the Executive Director, perhaps?) and made an announcement that a bunch of the counties were being moved to another room. This helped somewhat, but honestly, we needed twice as many people to leave for it to be comfortable. Our county managed to stake out a spot next to the big open window in the corner of the room, which helped us immensely, but the room was still sweltering and packed. I mostly felt terrible for all the elderly folks and the few wheelchairs I saw in the room.
It was just, plain dangerous. If no-one was seriously hurt or dehydrated, it was by sheer luck. Had it not been overcast and raining outside, it would have been an unmitigated disaster and certainly would have involved hospital trips and ambulances.
Around five minutes to 9:00am, the announcement was made to delay the closing of registration until 10:00am. While I thought this was a good idea, the mood in the room fouled noticeably. This would have been a perfect opportunity to tell us all to head out to the bleachers and that there would be an announcement made when and where we should go. This, of course, didn't happen.
A little later on, Beth told me that we would be heading up to our County Caucus room. I couldn't have been happier. It took some time to get permission to do this, but as soon as Beth said "go" I grabbed the Hancock County sign we had made up and lead a procession of our people upstairs. Once we made it to the County Caucus room, and left everyone else behind, the situation improved dramatically. Tempers calmed, and everyone quickly organized into Obama and Clinton camps on separate sides of the room.
Then, we waited.
And waited...
And waited.
I'm not sure what time it was when we headed up there, but it wasn't until around 2:15 that we finally got to do the upgrades. My guess is that we were stuck in that room for 4 hours or so with nothing to do. We completely missed all of the rallies and events in the main hall. This did not make anyone happy. I was extremely disappointed to hear the Obama rally going on through the walls, but not to feel comfortable leaving and missing the upgrade process (which never came). The worst part was that we were told over and over that it would be "any minute".
Then, at one point, lunch was announced and (certainly anxious for any excuse to escape the room) many of the Alternates cleared out, cautioned that they needed to check back in 10-15 minutes or so. That was a complete joke! As you may have heard... The boxed lunch distribution was a fiasco. They were literally throwing bagged lunches into the crowd. I was reminded of the Bob Marley lyric: "A hungry mob is an angry mob." Once I did get my lunch though, I was impressed at how tasty it was!
When I finally got back to my County Caucus room, I found a drastically changed scene. Most, if not all, of the seated Delegates had arrived and the room was now packed and sweltering again. Unfortunately, this new room had no window to open to get some relief and no ventilation to speak of.
And, we waited some more... I can say, the only thing that "saved" this part of the experience for me was the wonderful Hancock County DC people. Beth, Heather, Dexter, and Scott all deserve the highest praise for everything they did to keep us informed and entertained. Without them, I imaging people would have been fleeing the process in droves.
Anyhow, we eventually got through the upgrade process and moved on to voting. Unfortunately, I ended up being the only male Obama supporter in the county to end up not getting upgraded, by random chance. My wife and I ended up serving as "door guards" for the duration of the voting, because closing the door was out of the question. This was a challenging task, to say the least. Of course, the delegates had now been stuck in the room for the better part of 2 hours, and most were cranky and had to use the bathroom. We did our best, but I'll say this... Doors have it rough!
The voting went slowly but relatively smoothly once an initial problem with the barcode scanner was solved. When the voting was finally over (at least the first phase), everything got lots better. My wife and I (and Anne's boyfriend) made a run to Panera Bread Co. across the street and got food and danishes for a bunch of the remaining people and staff, and moods improved.
The Rest of the Convention
When we got back, we camped out in the main hall, right up front and waited for the festivities to resume.
The rest of the night was great! We were all exhausted from our ordeal, but the speeches were fantastic. I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to see each and every one of the Dist. 1 candidates for the House. Since I'm a 2nd District voter, I really hadn't been following the race very closely, and it was great to see them all one-by-one like that. I was particularly impressed by Ethan Strimling, Michael Brennan, and Chellie Pingree. I'm actually glad I don't have to vote for one of them... Choosing would be so hard!! Tom Allen and Tom Ledue's speeches did go on a bit long (at one point I lost interest and left the hall to get wireless access on my laptop to check on the DNC meeting that was in progress over MI and FL).
Dick Durbin's keynote was fantastic, though, and I really enjoyed that.
The Victory Party (the cheaper one) was also lots of fun. The cover band was quite good, and had I not been so exhausted I certainly would have been drinking and dancing a lot more. The food was mediocre, but there was plenty for everyone, and the bar wasn't too expensive (though for that price, one complimentary drink ticket would have been good).
We ended up leaving around midnight and heading back to the hotel. We did come back the next day, as Anne was a seated delegate and wanted to be participate. Plus, we were all excited to find out if she was elected as a National Delegate, and she was!! Sunday was actually a great end to the weekend. As Alternates, our duties were completely over, so my wife and I (and Anne's boyfriend) went got to enjoy the beautiful sunshine outside, and then go shopping across the street.
So, all in all, my experience was mixed but still enjoyable. I'll definitely be back again, but next time I think I'll certainly fight more at the beginning to be a seated delegate (or just volunteer). Hopefully, this experience will force the party to really reconsider the Alternate upgrade process. It could have been done so much more smoothly, even with the computer problems.
The main problem was that it seemed like they were continually hoping to get back on track. Instead of just setting a firm time and giving themselves 2 hours to fix the problems (and sending us all out to the main hall to enjoy the event) they kept us trapped in these horrible rooms. I understand the concern over getting everyone back right when the problem was solved, but if you just said "Come back at this time, nothing will happen until then" and then made an announcement on the stage at that time, everything would have been fine. Sure, it was possible that you'd be able to fix the problem 5 minutes later after you sent everyone off, but it wasn't like you weren't already completely off schedule anyway!
As it was, it felt like no one cared about our plight in order to cling to their precious plan and schedule. Again, not the people in the room, but those who were giving our Chair information.
Hopefully, next time there will be a lot more preparation and a lot more "contingency planning". It was obvious that they simply weren't prepared for the huge turnout. They should have been, because it's been obvious that it has been a "different year" all along.
I'd love to hear feedback from other Delegates and Alternates on their experiences!