Finally, the primary comes to Davis. Former President Bill Clinton will be speaking tonight at the ARC Pavilion (that's the Rec Hall to you old timers) at 9pm, in his second trip to UCD campus. The speech will be free and open to the public, doors will open at 8:15pm, with an opening performance from the Cal Aggie Marching Band-Uh (have they endorsed Hillary?).
I'm not much of a fan of Bill, and even less of Hillary, but a speech in town is always worth going to. California's going to be contested in a serious way this time around, the first time in several decades (and in my political lifetime). Given that delegates will be apportioned in part by congressional district as well as at-large,this means that we may see some campaigning here in Davis, seeing as we're the second-biggest city in the first congressional district (the biggest, if one lumps UCD's on-campus population in with the city of Davis). Combined with Mike Thompson's recent endorsement of Hillary Clinton, it looks like the Clinton campaign may spend some effort here.
Which is a good move for them, considering that they have a grand total of 6 people on their "Davis for Hillary" group on the Clinton campaign website (as contrasted with 79 for Obama's UCD group alone (55 in Davis), and 38 for Edwards). Of course, the Clinton campaign's relying more on ads, endorsements and party-level support than online grassroots organizing, so the number disparity isn't all that surprising.
Last time around, we got a visit by Kucinich and Kerry's son at the Farmer's Market. In 2000, I think Nader spoke at the Varsity Theatre. Hopefully we'll see a bit more from all the campaigns this time around. There are Democrats (and Decline-to-Staters, who can vote in the Democratic Primary) east of the Carquinez Straits and Coastal Range, after all, 50,000 of them (D + DTS) registered in Yolo County alone.
originally at surf putah