This year's YK2007 was absolutely incredible. For me there were many fantastic aspects to this trip--foremost among them meeting people and feeling the love and support for our campaign for Congress. It was an event and a feeling I will never forget.
There were so many beautiful people who wanted to shake my hand and who offered me congratulations, words of encouragement and contributions. Teacherken was fabulously helpful; he dragged me to meet John Dean, George Lakoff and Jeffrey Feldman, Darcy Burner and others.
I know we as a community and our campaign for Congress have arrived for a lot of reasons. Not the least is that we have the support and offers of help from Ken, George and Jeffrey to go along with that of so many people who stopped me this weekend to offer congratulations and support and contributions.
I had so many moments and incidents that as of today I still feel the buzz and excitement of the convention. A couple that involved the reception and applause of fellow Kossacks still give me goose bumps. One involved a supporter who said he'd never ever contributed to a politician before, but who wanted to contribute to my campaign. We even got a picture of that which we'll post in another diary. I was incredibly moved, touched and excited by everything.
On Friday Greg (aka Major Danby) and others attended the Pacific Coast Caucus chaired by our friend and Kossack David dday Dayen. It was in a fairly large hall and attendance was high.
David asked that everyone stand and introduce themselves. There were several other candidates in attendance--my friend Steve Young who's running for nearby CA-48, the genuine Russ Warner (CA-26), and Kossack favorite Charlie Brown who's going to win this time in CA-04. Charlie, as we all expected got a rousing reception and applause. When it came my turn to speak I was floored at the applause as the candidate born in the community. I was moved and energized at the same time.
The next memorable event was the Candidates Forum which was held on Friday evening. Kossack candidate pioneer Brian NYBri Keeler did a phenomenal job of pulling this event together in 3 weeks. This event was live blogged and I hope that the excitement came through.
The number of candidates was far greater than I imagined and they are all a great group of people. Meeting them was incredible and I have to say that meeting Darcy Burner was absolutely unbelievable. She is magnetic and I'm happy that she a Democrat.
Because my campaign was a sponsor of this event I would have the chance to speak. Brian first introduced all the sponsors and gave the mic to each. When my turn came Brian, as dday did earlier, introduced me as the candidate to come from the community. I still feel that I'm following in Brian's footsteps but his generosity and help in highlighting my run for the 42nd as a netroots candidacy will never be forgotten.
The applause and whistles when I was introduced exceeded anything I could have imagined. Just as had happened earlier at the Pacific Coast Caucus I was energized and moved. I can't say enough about how all this has affected me and gave me the confidence that we can win. With the commitment and help of this community we are a force to be reckoned with.
For me this convention was the next step in the evolution of the netroots. At last year's version we had to pinch ourselves to make sure that Howard Dean, Harry Reid and others were coming to speak. We saw the seeds of what was to come in our influence and knew in our hearts that it would be big.
The door was opened for all to see in the 2006 elections. The netroots was for real. This year with the Presidential Debate which was the most amazing I've ever seen and the number of candidates for Senator, Representative and down ballot races we can see that we are at the leading edge of a paradigm shift in American politics.
We have indeed crashed the gates and are not only walking the corridors of power but opening the doors to the offices to wield that power. We are here and we are not going away. Politics has been changed in ways that will be documented in history. We have made it happen.
So thank you to everyone who came to the convention and also to everyone who wanted to come but couldn't. It was a humbling experience, and I am deeply hopeful that we can carry the shared spirit of people-powered politics through to victory.