Howie and Irwing came to talk to Democrats of the Desert on Wednesday, May 16th, and it was fantastic. Howie has an encyclopedic knowledge of our district, our neighboring districts, and the interests that the DCCC and PFAW have in challenging our GOP incumbents. Our members are longtime veterans of local politics in most cases, and they were amazed at how much they didn't know about the current landscape. I'm still getting emails about how great it was, and as I hoped, more people want to get active in the blogosphere.
Howie told how he got into blogs, gave us a bit of his own history of political activism, and took many questions on what we can do here in Riverside County: how to stop eating our young, how to overcome the blind paternalism that Mary Bono enjoys, what's coming next for crooked Jerry Lewis, and many other great questions that I lost in my previous draft diary. Damn. More good stuff on the flip:
Crossposted from Calitics with added links.
Here's Howie helping Renee and Eleanor find a Sinatra single that Eleanor has been trying to recover for years.
Irwing vlogged the session (so sorry, blogswarm, I forgot to post a reminder - I am covered in shame). Highlights:
Our members were all active in David Roth's campaign last year, and they knew of Blue America's support, but hadn't fully understood its impact. As Howie noted, he only started working with David in the last month of the campaign. Had we engaged the netroots earlier, who knows?
Amalia DeAztlan came and thanked Howie for his great work on behalf of David Roth. They hadn't met in person before, so that was lovely. Richard Roth, David's father, came, too. Howie emphasized how crucial it is that David run again now that he has name recognition and a good campaign behind him. David's working overseas right now, but we're all still hoping for a rematch.
Our treasurer, Art, asked when Howie was going to run (he does have that facility with electoral details and an easy humor that many candidates lack) and Howie answered, "I did, and I won. I was the freshman class president of my high school." But no dice, we failed to recruit Howie, despite the universal admiration of the audience.
Link to dKos preview diary: Howie Klein is coming to my Dem Club
Howie Klein's Blog, Down With Tyranny
Howie's Heading off to the Desertdiary
David Roth with Blue America, the Firedoglake link
Blue America's Have You Had Enough of Mary Bono? video, music by Rickie Lee Jones with the Squirrel Nut Zippers
CA 80thAD, CA-45th
Democrats of the Desert