3/11/06: Politicking in Mass and NH

[TayTay]

I had an amazing day yesterday. Just amazing. Now that I have had a little sleep, let me see if I can make sense of it. (Cuz last night I was in 'bubblehead city' and none of my posts are any good.)

I was here yesterday:



This is an campaign rally to thank the good Democrats of Massachusetts who staged a surprise upset in the Democratic caucuses in February and elected delegates for the man in the center of the pic statewide by a 2-1 margin. There were about 500 people inside old Faneuil, and about 1200 outside. It was an amazing event. (Damn it, that picture looks like Massachusetts, or at least the Mass I have always longed for. It's inclusive, diverse, hopeful and full of fun and energy. I was in heaven at this event.)

[TayTay]

1. Congressman McGovern spoke

His best line was:

"Many people believe that Deval Patrick is too liberal to be elected Governor of Massachusetts. That's not true. *I'm* too liberal to be elected Governor, not him."

Cong. McGovern is probably one of the top ten most liberal Congressmen in the House. He is also a great guy and had a ton of fun yesterday. He had his son with him, who seems to be around 9 years old. Great kid, tolerates his Dad's speechifying very well.



After the big rally at Faneuil Hall, my husband and I went to a reception for Deval in the Great Hall of Quincy Market and picked up our packets for getting sigs and such. (It's not all wine and roses here. We are charged with going out and getting people, signatures and money. It's all in the packet. Sigh!)

I met some brand spanking new campaign workers from my area at the reception. They had never participated in a political campaign before and we answered questions for them about how things work. They asked what the caucuses were, how they were run, who got elected and how and so forth. Then we discussed what we will be doing in the upcoming months. I was so happy to see this. There is nothing better for the body politic than an occasional infusion of new blood.

We had to leave Faneuil Hall, cuz we had the dinner in NH that evening, so I didn't get to see Deval speak again. But I will hear reports in the coming days.

[karynnj]

4. He was also funny when he responed to

questions about the cast on his foot that "it was dangerous fighting Republicans".

That event was incredible.

[TayTay]

5. Were you inside the Hall?

The guy we shared a table with at the JK dinner last night was in Boston, but was 5 people away from getting inside the Hall. Our table-mate at dinner had had a really busy day; he started out in the early morning at a St. Pat's Day breakfast in Dracut where Gen. Clark appeared and made remarks. (Yesterday was a big political day in Mass. There will be a lot more breakfasts and stuff this whole week.)

[karynnj]

6. We were in the balcony

We were there before 11:00 because the subway was really an easy short trip and we allowed too much time.

[TayTay]

2. We arrived at the NH dinner at around 5:30 or so

and the first person I saw was Tracey coming out of the door to make a phone call. Tracey works for Senator Kerry as a PR person. (I believe she works half time for the Senate office and half time for the PAC. Or something like that. I'm not sure how it works and I didn't ask.) She recognized me from the DCI event last weekend and we talked a little about that event and other local stuff. (She is a real sweetheart. Very nice and very young. She can't be more than 24-25 years old.)

We had some snafus in getting connected to DD and in getting the tickets straightened out, but then we were told to go to the reception. (Which was through the room with the bar, go through the double doors, hang a right, then go through one parlor room and into another. Damn, that was complicated. Whose idea was it to have a reception with no bar? Oh, yeah, I forgot, We're not in Massachusetts any more Toto. NH people don't need bars in order to 'meet and greet.' Silly me.)

Ahm, I met the woman who organized the Exeter School phone bank for Kerry. She told me she got those kids to make 27,000 calls for John Kerry in the 2004 race. 27,000 phone calls! I told her that I couldn't even motivate my kids to clean their rooms and she got 27,000 phone calls from 'kids.' (OMFG!) She told me to send my kids on up to her at Exeter and she would straighten them out for me. Great woman. She was recognized later on by Sen. Kerry personally for her amazing efforts and her wonderful organizational abilities. (I liked her a lot. I like people who are quick to laugh.) Again, this type of 'meet and greet' with local people like that are what the 'retail' politics end of New Hampshire is like. You can easily talk with folks who have been doing the Primary and all the events leading up to a primary, for years. Nice bunch of folks. (And NH turned blue! This is a great source of pride for the Dems up there.)

[TayTay]

3. We also got a quick chance to talk with

Setti again. I saw him at a quiet corner of the first parlor room at the reception and he was not engaged in anything in particular. So I went up and complimented him on the Sunday morning DCI events of the weekend before and on how jealous I was that he had brain cells first thing in the morning on a Sunday.

My husband and I also talked a bit about the rally at Faneuil Hall and Setti talked about how he thought that race was going to go down to the wire. We just talked local stuff for a while. (I have mental whiplash here. The DCI event was about doing local stuff and doing it better and more efficiently. Good thing. The Faneuil Hall rally was about statewide politics in MA. The Dinner in NH was in the rarified air of Presidential and national politics. It is a bit jarring for me to go back and forth and up and down and try to remember that all the pieces do fit together. I am not going to any more events for awhile. I need to pause and sort all this out.)

We were in the Reception room when Sen. Kerry came in. He really looked great. I thought he might have had a cold or something earlier in the week, but he looked as good and energetic and relaxed as I have ever seen him. Maybe it was seeing old friends again, maybe it was seeing Del Sandusky again, I don't know. But he was just happy and friendly and in a great mood.

We did get a pic, but it didn't come out on my camera. (The lighting was awful. I tried 5 or 6 different settings on my little camera. Nothing came out. I will try the website the professional photographer that was there was uploading pics to. Mine came out all blurry and awful. I can't post them, there is nothing to see.)

This is the very, very best pic I got and it is not good at all: