With Arizona's Janet Napolitano in front, behind her you see Chet Culver of Iowa, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Chris Gregoire of Washington, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, and Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. In town for the National Governor's Association, they took time after a Democratic Governor's Association event for a dessert fundraiser at the Capitol Hilton in DC, about which I will offer some observations (but no more pictures) below the fold.
This event was organized on short notice by the MidAtlantic Finance Committee of Obama for America, several of whose members I know. Originally scheduled as a high-end event ($1,000 and up), near the end there were some people admitted for as "little" as $500. While I do not know the take for the night, there were over 120 people preregistered, and perhaps one or two dozen who registered at the door. Remember, this was an event done on short notice, without the presence of the candidate. For point of comparison on fundraising, the Clinton campaign recently held 3 events in New York with HRC for which the total was about 500,000.
The si governors circulated briefly among the crowd before they spoke, and stayed around for additional conversation afterwards. But they were not the only luminaries present. One member of that finance committee is former two term Virginia Lt. Governor Don Beyer - a well-known auto dealer in the DC area, and a friend going back to the Dean campaign, for which he was national treasurer. I saw but did not speak with one of Washington's best-known restauranteurs, Tony Cheng. And I was privileged to have an extended conversation with Eugene Fidell, one of the nation's great experts on military law. Eugene was drawn to Obama specifically because of foreign policy, and has been impressed both the his having Brezinski advising him but also Samantha Power. I also saw and spoke briefly with Mike Espy, former Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture under Bill Clinton
Perhaps the most interesting attendee present, easily recognizable, was not a Democrat: William Coleman, who served as Secretary of Transportation under Gerald Ford, was quietly present. When I asked him if this was a sign he was crossing the aisle, he protested that he was there just as a fellow Harvard Law grad, but several others (including Eugene) told me that he is strongly committed to Obama.
I will recount a bit of what the governors said in the public remarks, but I want to share my experience of talking with and observing them in informal settings. I have shared contacts of a sort with three. When I first spoke with Janet Napolitano I began by saying I needed to apologize. She looked puzzled and asked why, and I told her that Tom Horne (Arizona's Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction) was my igh school classmate, she said "You're right! For that you should apologize!" and smiled. Chet Culver was a high school classmate of a guy with whom I teach and with whom I have also coached soccer, so we exchanged hellos. And of course I am friends with his predecessor, Tom Vilsack (whose most visible supporter at Daily Kos I was until he withdrew from the presidnetial race).
Christine Gregoire and I talked about my college classmate, Peter Goldmark, who having failed in is attempt in the 5th CD in 2006 is now running for Commissioner of Public Lands. She tld me he has been able to avoid primary opposition, but that it is a tough, albeit doable, race against the Republican incumbent. She then volunteered that with Obama on the top of the ticket she thinks he has a chance - this concern with the top of the ticket is one I have heard from political figures around the country.
Kathleen Sebelius served as the mistress of ceremonies when the six governors went up on stage. She made some opening remarks about how Kansas considers Obama one of their own because of his mother and maternal grandparents, and how coming from the heartland as she does how nice it is to have a candidate who is running a 50 state strategy. Christine Gregoire told about one of the caucus sites she visited, where four years ago the turnout was 68 - this time there were more than 1,200 in attendance. Jim Doyle opened his remarks by saying that he was glad he was speaking before Deval Patrick so he wouldn't be accused of borrowing language - a theme that was mentioned by several others, always to laughter. Doyle spoke of his amazement at the size of crowds, not just in Madison where it could be expected, but in places like Eau Claire and Oshkosh. In a conversation I heard afterwards he noted that as many times as he heard Obama's stump speech, it never seemed stale, he varied it enough to make it connect even with those who had heard it multiple times.
Deval Patrick began his remarks by saying "I apparently write speeches." His focus was that while of course he agreed with Obama on policy, all the candidates had at least some good policy ideas, but we needed to change more than our policies, we needed to change our politics, so that Washington did not remain the place where good policies went to die. Without that change policy ideas were not going anywhere. By the way, Patrick told us that he grew up on the South Side of Chicago. He is an effective speaker, dynamic, able to connect with his audience. He told us this is not about a claim we are making on our candidate, but one that our candidate is making on us, that people of all backgrounds are putting their cynicism down and voting their own aspirations.
In her closing remarks Kathleen Sebelius reminded us that the race is not over. She, like others, urged us to dig more deeply, to be able to to wrap this up more quickly and directly turn to the general election campaign. She told us to keep doing what we have been doing , but even more. She and others urged us to make more phone calls, and if we can go to one of the March 4 states to help. She told us that the six governors all would be out for Obama this weekend, although as yet they do not know their assignments - they would go where they are needed. As she said this, I remembered that her father was the Governor of Ohio, and tried to imagine what effect her presence on the trail might have.
I want to return to one part of the remarks of Christine Gregoire. She told of man who came up to her at one caucus. He had been one of the bodyguards for Bobby Kennedy when he was shot in Los Angeles. He had become disillusioned, and had dropped out of anything in political life. For four decades, he had not bothered to participate. But this year, because of Barack Obama, he has been inspired to reconnect, to participate, to vote. This was not the only such story. One of the other Governors told of an old woman in her 80s who was in hospice care, close to death, who asked to be taken home so that she could vote for Obama - it took several hours to get her dressed and take her to the polls, but she voted.
One fundraising event with a lot of well-off people in a hotel in the Nation's Capital probably is not by itself indicative of anything. But this event is not an isolated one. We hear tales and read stories of similar kinds of enthusiasm, not just as the big rallies in the huge arenas, but of people organizing on the ground in Texas and Ohio, of people giving up weekends to to travel to the next states in the cycle.
I hope this brief recounting of this one event will inspire a few people to dig more deeply, to work even harder. Polls are nice, but they are meaningless if they are not proven out by the results in each successive primary.
Peace.