I am sitting here at 2:15 in the 2d of two rooms in the Days Suites in Orlando. I have got to give this place serious props. Free Wi-Fi, three beds in a suite, pretty solid. Which is good, because a bunch of volunteers are staying here, thanks to Dave, so they have somewhere to sleep.
I have lots of pictures from tonight and I will be posting them when we get back and I can P-Shop them, but for now, it's been a great time. I'll try to run through who we met and what happened, forgive me if I miss anything.
The evening started off with Dave's ad-hoc Congressional candidates meeting, where several candidates and their staffs stopped by. We all talked about the FDP and the DNC and DCCC, how they choose candidates before the primaries and how that needs to stop. I don't want to list all the folks that came by, because I know I'll miss some.
Following that, we proceeded to the Chair's reception, hosted by the always lovely Karen Thurman. Despite previous qualms aired about how she works with Congressional candidates, she is still doing an OUTSTANDING job as FDP chair.
There was a period of meet and mingle, during which Dave talked to both gubernatorial candidates, Rod Smith and Jim Davis. We have pictures of those meetings and I think they were very productive. Both seemed very supportive of Dave's campaign, which I am happy to see.
We also met quite a few other candidates, and a lot of the volunteers and folks from the Alachua County DEC, some great union leaders from Marion County, Bob Italia, Chairman of the Lake County, DEC and of course, the greatest Democrat of them all, E.G. "Red" Lackey.
Red is 89 years old. He campaigned, as a 14 year old, for the "Happy Warrior", Al Smith. How great is that? A dude who campaigned for Al Freaking Smith, and he's chilling out, listening to Howard Dean speak. The guy walks around with a donkey on his hat, and when you pull its ear, a cigarette comes out it's uh... donkey. Awesome. He told a great story which I will regale the three readers of this blog with, at another time.
After the speakers, the Young Democrats I was hanging out with met Howard Dean and talked to him. I gave him my card and repeated the mantra I said all night, "Give us the tools and we'll finish the job." It's an old Churchhill quote. He said it to FDR to precipitate Lend-Lease. We need the DNC, the DCCC and all of you out there in the netroots to back us up.
We also met Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa (boooo hawkeyes...), who had given one of the speeches at the reception. He talked with Dave about ethanol, corn, peanuts, and all the other alternative fuel stuff that is right in Dave's wheelhouse. I understood about ten percent of it, but basically the gist is, we can make fuel in America, create jobs by making engines, refineries, production and industries that use the fuel, and declare our independence from the Middle East oil, once and for all.
We then went to the Rod Smith and Jim Davis receptions, which were a lot of fun. I got a chance to talk to former Governor, Senator and all-around awesome public servant Bob Graham. He and his workdays are actually the reason I became interested in politics. He came to my school when I was a kid and I got to meet him. I gave him a card also and let him know that we needed some help from him up North. He seemed amenable to the idea, but I guess that's what politicians are good at :).
OK, so that's about it. Tomorrow, the General Assembly, I'll be in a suit, which will be nice I guess. If you're in or around Orlando, come on by, it should be a lot of fun!
PK