Three weeks ago in mid-July, just before the Democratic National Convention, I got the opportunity to meet Diana Kerry (one of John's two younger sisters) on her five-day swing through Montana. With the great crowds Kerry-Edwards are getting on their tour through the southwestern U.S., I thought I would blog Diana Kerry's northern tour through Montana.
Diana Kerry flew into Billings, Montana on a Saturday morning and attended the Yellowstone County democrat's summer picnic. Then it was off to meet Kerry supporters and the local press in Big Timber, Livingston, Bozeman, Butte, Helena and Missoula, where she flew back to Boston on a Wednesday to get ready for the DNC. The local press coverage was pretty favorable promoting John Kerry, as far as I read, with little rebuttal from the right wing nuts that have currently come to infest this portion of the Northern Rockies.
Diana's tour was put together at the last moment, and we had only four days notice to organize events by email and phone. Still the turnout was pretty good for summertime in Montana, and Ms. Kerry got to meet with over 1,000 Montana democrats in around ten scheduled events.
Her tour came as a result of our democratic state chairman Bob Ream's urging of the national Kerry campaign to contest every state, even Montana, which hasn't voted for a democratic presidential candidate since Clinton in 1992. In his remarks to our Helena event, Ream mentioned one national poll (reported in the NYT?) that showed Montana moving from the "solid Bush" category to the ""leaning Bush" category. (I was unable to find this poll). According to Ream, Montana has the second highest percentage of veterans of any state, some 13% of the electorate, and their turning against Bush was improving Kerry's chances.
Our Helena event for Diana Kerry was held as an after work potluck held in the beautiful backyard of state representative Mike Galik's home. We had good attendance of around 150 hungry people with great food and none of our regular afternoon thundershowers. I talked with Diana briefly before her remarks to the crowd, and thanked her for her efforts in organizing Democrats Abroad. Diana had flown into Montana having spent a week in Mexico organizing American expats there.
Diana Kerry's short talk was very good, telling the crowd of growing up with her adventuresome older brother who always led his sisters and brother into interesting situations, but always managed to keep them out of trouble. "The sign of a good leader," she said. She mentioned her own background, which included teaching stints in Iran, Afghanistan, India and Africa. For the past year, she had come back to the states and was teaching in the Boston school district, but had been laid off last winter due to funding cuts linked to the No Child Left Behind fiasco. "Then I knew I had to join my brother's campaign!" she joked. She ended with a what I now realize was a preview of one of the convention's themes, "Kerry will not just campaign in blue states but the entire Untied States!"
Its great to bring the battle to all of the United States, especially Montana, home of Smilin' Marc Racicot, chairman of the Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign.