Yes. On April 26, a number of us Los Angeles Kossacks assembled at Casey's Irish Pub in downtown Los Angeles for the first of THREE political events, each connected with the huge field of candidates running to replace Henry Waxman in the 33rd Congressional District, which covers the beach areas of Los Angeles from Malibu in the north to Palos Verdes in the south and swings inland to cover some of the more liberal bastions of the West Side. Our candidate today was David Kanuth, the youngest of the 18 candidates and, possibly significantly, the best fundraiser. We don't have a picture of him from the event, so this from his campaign website will have to do.
In many ways, this was a typical LA Kossack get-together. We even began on the Red Line.
That's me, your diarist, Dave in Northridge, wearing something orange, and 714Day.
We didn't have a bad turnout either. This is not the easiest setup for a group shot, so we have a couple of group shots to get us all in. Group shot #1:
Clockwise from bottom left: susans, your diarist, Roman Smith, the candidate, Joe Bacon, Shockwave (I think making an introduction), zwenkau and lordpet8.
Clockwise from bottom left: the candidate, Joe Bacon, Brecht, Shockwave, zwenkau and lordpet8.
Clockwise from bottom left: gmats, susans, your diarist, the candidate, ducktape (obscured) Joe Bacon, Brecht, Shockwave, zwenkau, lordpet8 and 714Day.
We had two first-time attendees as well, both attracted by a candidate from the congressional district they live in. From the two extremes of the district as well.
knucklehead, from Malibu at the northwesterly extreme, and Shockwave. (Incidentally, that's all the food pr0n we have. First, it's Casey's, which doesn't pretend to be a gastropub, and second, as our photographer, SanFernandoValleyMom noted,
Notice there is no food pr0n, as we were eating it while David was speaking, and also the reason I didn't get a picture of him!
By "picture of David," she means 'Full solo picture of David.")
jhb90277, from Palos Verdes at the southeasterly extreme, and your diarist.
David made a good case for himself. He didn't do a lot of talking about his high-tech roots. Instead, he emphasized the time he spent as a public defender in Los Angeles County after graduating from law school, where he learned how to succeed with resources limited by decisions other people made about his department's budget. If that was his stump speech, it's not a bad one.
Back to the Kossacks!
Your diarist. In the background: most of zwenkau, lordpet8, 714day, gmats, Roman Smith.
susans, Roman Smith and gmats.
SanFernandoValleyMom and jakedog42. Sorry, that was taken with my phone.
Our next meetups will take place on successive weekends in May, the 24th and 31st. The diary announcing them is here.