A whole lot of little bits and pieces to share with you before I get to the meat of the entry -- a behind the scenes from Saturday's campaign staff meeting.
1.) Tonight, Jim Dean will join Ned in NYC at 6:30 for a DFA endorsement event (more info).
2.) The campaign launched an online resource page. Please use some of the tools for participation at the link, and expect much more coming soon.
3.) We have a new Flickr page. Bookmark it or subscribe to the feed.
4.) Someone sent me this handy "GoogleBomb CT" reference page for your blog entries.
5.) This Thursday at noon in New Haven, DFA and MoveOn are holding a joing rally for Ned. (more info)
6.) Check out the local
CT online landscape and invite your networks to do the same.
7.) Put a Ned Lamont button on your website or blog.
Now that that's out of the way, let me get to the good stuff.
a. Saturday's Staff Meeting
b. Earth-shattering Hartford Courant Editorial
c. Gay Marriage & Trampling the Consitution
d. Yearly Kos
Saturday's Staff Meeting
There's undoubtedly a buzz about the campaign across Connecticut, and much of that enthusiasm manifested itself Saturday morning. What started out as a small-ish gathering of staff, spun out of control as people thirsting for more information about the effort just started showing up.
Photo: Campaign Manger Tom Swan Addresses the Crowd
Photo: The Other Half of the Overflowing Room
The meeting started with brief introductions from everyone in the room--name and a quick sentence about themselves basically. Then Rick Melita, part of the field staff (and the guy whose dog, scooch, didn't make the cut in the commercial) gave a cursory overview of the field campaign and the kind of things we hope to accomplish over the next two months. Yes, two months, it's that close.
Video: Rick Melita Gives a Field Update
Then Ned entered the room to thunderous applause. It caught me off-guard and I wasn't able to get the camera out in time, so I only caught the tail end of the reaction. Good news is I caught Ned addressing the crowd for a few minutes, thanking all of you for your support thus far and a few other tidbits.
Video: Ned Addresses the Crowd (Part 1)
Ned continued by complimenting everyone in the room and the way people in Connecticut identify our supporters as polite, friendly, prompt, and how you just conduct yourself as tremendous representatives of the effort. Indeed, you are the face of the campaign.
Video: Ned Addresses the Crowd (Part 2)
We talked a bit more about the field program, delved into the online piece of things for a bit, and conlcuded with media, fundraising, and scheduling. After that, the room was broken up into congressional districts for meetings with the coordinators from those areas to discuss some strategy and upcoming events.
Photo: CD-2 -- Katie leads the discussion
Earth-Shattering Hartford Courant Article
Paul Bass of the Hartford Courant wrote a piece yesterday that sent absolute shockwaves through the political landscape in CT and the blogosphere both locally and nationally. Although Paul Bass has been covering Joe Lieberman for over a decade now, it was interesting to note how much information in the piece was discussed earlier that week in both the local and national blogging community.
I had forgotten how he played the leading role in 1993 to thwart Democrats who tried to close loopholes allowing companies to cook the books on millions of dollars of stock options. Thus began the regulatory abandonment that spawned Enron and its sibling rip-offs.
I had forgotten how that same year, Lieberman joined with Republican Sen. Alphonse M. D'Amato of New York and against Democrats to "work the cloakrooms" of the Senate, in the words of a news account, to "line up unanimous support so that a tax break eagerly sought by the real estate industry could be passed without senators having to vote on the record."
How many Connecticut Democrats remember that their senator was one of only two Democrats who voted with Republicans in 1995 to kill a lobbyist-gift ban? Or that he called affirmative action "un-American?" Or that in August 1994 he voted in favor of a proposal by Republican Jesse Helms to cut off all federal money from schools that offer counseling to suicidal gay teens by referring them to gay support groups or in any way suggesting it's OK to be gay?
The entire thing is blistering. Here is a collection of links discussing the piece online.
Gay Marriage
With the gay marriage "debate" up in the Senate, it's probably a good time to give you an indication where the candidates stand on the issues. Courtesy of the Lamont Blog.
Joe Lieberman: "Although I am opposed to gay marriage, I have also long believed that states have the right to adopt for themselves laws that allow same-sex unions."
Ned Lamont: "If two people want to get married, God bless them."
Yearly Kos
I'll be there representing the campaign with a bunch of goodies to hand out (stickers, buttons, etc...) and available to talk strategy or just chit-chat about where we are at on the campaign.
Tim