A warm San Francisco night was the perfect setting for a really terrific fundraiser for the Brown campaign last night. I've met Charlie and Jan a few times and they greeted me like a friend and thanked me for posting comments to Charlie's first couple of diaries. Some other dkos folks there were marksanfran and willymugobeer (helped organize it) and Jan aske me if I had Nolan's email since he moved out to DC. Yes, they love the dkos crowd. See below for a full recap.
I'm sorry I don't have photos because you have to really see how friendly and engaged Charlie and Jan were with everyone who was there. It was the first of 2 fundraisers in the city this weekend. Last night was for in the $25 - $50 crowd (or as Will said - even a few bucks helps). There is a Brunch Reception this morning with CA Assembly Speaker Pro Tem, Dr. Leland Yee.
After personally thanking everyone for coming and answering questions in small groups, Aaron Peskin (pres or our Board of Supes) introduced Charlie. I love Charlie's speech, some of which I'd heard before, but it never fails to energize me.
He spoke of how this campaign is very personal to him - on the subject of the war: Charlie is a retired Lt. Colonel in the Air Force and was Saudi Arabia in the 90s. He speaks with utter assurance that they knew then there were no WMDs in Iraq so when this administration lied us into the war, he was very outspoken before the war. On a local level, he talks about working for the Roseville police dept. and a couple of years ago, when a local reservest who was serving in Iraq was coming home, a woman sent out a 'praise the lord he's coming home' email to all city employees - well Charlie answered from the heart - he 'replied all' and said 'only 130,000 to go' - only to receive physical threats, had to undergo counseling on how not to use the city's email systems and 2 police officers had to restrain one man who wanted to attack him.
He spoke very personally about 3 specific names on the vietnam war of people he knew - 2 who were killed because their helicopters fell apart becuase the contracters lied and 1 died because of bad intelligence that almost cost Charlie his life - so he does take those issues very seriously.
He is a long time member of the Sierra Club and is a kayaker and loves the outdoors, so he does take it personally when Doolittle tries to sell off the land that is part of his district and does nothing to protect it. CA-04 covers from just east of Sacramento out to Tahoe and up to the Oregon border and is one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
He talked about traveling around the district and meeting people and how he has invited Doolittle to a series of 5 public debates, but has had no response. He said he has been the local Air America stations and thought 'hey, I think I'll call into the local conservative station'. A couple of weeks ago he called into the station that plays Limbaugh and O'Reilly and said Hi I'm Charlie Brown and I'm running for Congress..he took questions for 1/2 hour and they wanted him to stay but he had to leave to attend his office opening. They asked him back so he went into the station a few days later and was on for 1.5 hrs taking questions and they want him back again. People have been very positive. They know Doolittle is part of the Abramoff, Cunningham, Wilke crowd.
Taking questions he answered questions about Global Warming - was he going to talk about it directly, or like most dems, just talk about energy independence. He said he does talk about it. In his district they depend on water from the Sierra and a small temp rise causes the snow pack to melt to soon and can affect their water supply, so yes it does affect them directly.
Someone asked about the 'wedge issues' guns, gods and gays - he said he addresses those w/personal stories as well. He owns a hunting rifle and he'll come up and hunt with anyone who asks him to, but no he really doesn't think people need to own uzzis and automatic weapons for fun.
He said in the Air Force there were 2 friends who he thought were gay, but because of the 'time' they never said anything until they retired, then they came out to him. He said they were his friends then and they still are. Either we're a country of equal rights or we aren't.
On God he said when he was in the AF academy, they figured out that the Catholic service was 10 min. shorter than the Protestant one so they all tried to go to that, until some guy was directed to check their dog tags and make sure they only go to their 'own' services. He's had first hand knowledge of the gov't trying to impose religion and is a huge supporter of separation of church and state.
The most moving moment of the night came when his wife Jan (who is also a veteran) spoke of their son Jeff, who served 3 tours in Iraq and when Doolittle went over for his photo op, ended up on Jeff's plane. Not that Doolittle knew it..Not only did he not talk to anyone except for the commander of the plane (Jeff was merely the co-pilot) he insisted on flying in the cockpit (because on C-130 there is no room in the back = snark - or maybe it was because Katherine Harris was with them). Anyway, when they got to where they had to drop him off, Jeff asked his commander to deliver a message and not let Doolittle back on the plane. The message: Tell him Charlie Brown and his son say hi. Jan said she asked Jeff what he would have asked Doolittle for had he had the chance: He wanted the wings on their planes repaired because they were cracked and so many planes had to be taken out of rotation, he wanted the families and returning vets to be taken care of and he wanted some sort of respect and acknowledgement for the servicemen/women that he had had to transport in coffins.
So yes, the Browns campaign is a very personal one. Doolittle's campaign is just gearing up the swiftboating and trying to question Charlie's patriotism. Makes me want to vomit when I think about it.
I'm linking to some other diaries about the race:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
And if you have any 'loose change' to spare, I know Charlie and Jan would appreciate it and put it to much better use than the Doolittles (Julie Doolittle takes 15% of all campaign contributions). Last night, after Charlie spoke, pretty much everyone took out their credit cards and check books and made a second donation, it was really great.
http://www.charliebrownforcongress.org/...
BTW, the guy who only 2 years ago had threatened him recently asked him how the campaign was going and how he could help.