A donkey weekend

Earlier today I returned home, exhausted, from a weekend in Eugene. I wasn't there doing a sport or anything - I was there for the Democratic Party of Oregon's Platform Convention.

I arrived Friday evening, just early enough to hear Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) speak on behalf of the Barack Obama campaign. Congressman Abercrombie had known both of Obama's parents as well as Barack as a child (or "little Barry" as he was known then).

He told us a lot of great stories about Obama, reasons why he was supporting him, and more. Even though the crowd was a little restless (they'd recently learned that there was not a dinner that night as part of the event and this part of the evening started a bit late), they were drawn in by Abercrombie's speech. On more than one occasion during the evening I heard him called Hawaii's Peter DeFazio because of the way he speaks to a crowd.

After a quick dinner, we all headed upstairs for the hospitality suites. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus held a great event - the place was packed full of people and you could barely get around the room. I had the chance to meet and speak with people from all over the state on a variety of topics including the national delegate voting this June, gay marriage and civil unions, and my race for city council in Gresham

Next, I headed up to the other hospitality suite, hosted by our new Labor Commissioner, Brad Avakian. It too was packed full of people networking and discussing various issues. I had a great chat with Avakian and jokingly thanked him for making my choice in the Secretary of State race easier. I had been deadlocked between him and State Senator Kate Brown for months, and nothing seemed to be able to help me make up my mind. As is the usual for when I see Avakian, he was extremely friendly and engaging. I always enjoy talking with him - he has a vast knowledge on a whole host of topics and always makes you feel as if he's just an average citizen like yourself. I always feel like I'm having a chat over the fence with a neighbor when I have a discussion with him. Throughout the night I heard more than one person talking about how great of a governor he would be.

The following morning we had to be up bright and early for a State Central Committee meeting, which I missed a good chunk of because my stupid bank once again put an item through twice and I had to clear it up so the hotel could run my card for the room.

Later that morning, we headed into the breakout sessions for the various platform topics. The one topic I always make sure I attend is Food, Shelter, Health Care and a Living Wage. Poverty, food security, and having decent shelter are important topics to me. They're topics that unfortunately Democrats are often not as good at following through on as they should be. As someone who has watched family members deal with extreme poverty and the lack of a place to live, as well as having to live on a pittance of food stamps back in 2003 when I was laid off, these topics are near and dear to me.

For those who have never been to a platform convention, let me give you a short primer. There are a variety of topics in your platform. Each one is called a plank. You can have legislative action items (these are items you want the cities, counties, state, or federal government to undertake) and democratic principles (more general ideas of principle that goes with the given plank). When you begin, you already have a number of legislative agenda items as well as democratic principles - they've come from the various counties' platforms as well as items that the state platform committee has suggested. More items can also be added either once the draft platform is released or at the convention itself.

The work group discusses the items, makes changes, deletions, and additions, and then votes on the top six legislative action items and top six democratic principles. These votes are then counted up and the items are ranked according to the number of votes each item received. This ranked version of the platform is then provided to all delegates for the final vote.

Our breakout group was, as usual, a mess because we have too many topics to cover. We've asked for the past few years for Health Care to become its own plank, but it hasn't been done yet. Frustrated with trying to deal with so many topics at once, our group split the plank itself and voted accordingly. However, as this isn't allowed in the rules, the plank was not separated out and the items were ranked together (not that we didn't try... we even tried getting a suspension of the rules). We've been assured that they're going to look at this in the evaluation of the platform so that we can hopefully avoid this problem in two years. If the amount of support we received from delegates and members of the platform committee are any measure, we should indeed have the planks divided for 2010. I'm looking forward to it, as then we can have a discussion on poverty, a living wage, access to healthy food, etc. while another group can have a discussion on all the aspects of health care.

During lunch we had a great Q&A session with the two candidates for Attorney General - John Kroger and Greg Macpherson. Kroger did exceptionally well, going into considerable detail on his ideas and plans for the office. Many of the people I spoke with felt that Macpherson relied too heavily on his votes in the legislature and not enough on why he would be a good AG, what his plans for the office were, etc. My one quibble with Kroger is that I wish he'd be more vigilant about making sure to point out that he isn't against changes to Measure 11 - that the quote that Macpherson regularly brings up relates to violent crimes (rape and murder, for instance) and not all M11 crimes. I heard from numerous people later in the day that the Q&A had made up their minds for them in support of Kroger.

After lunch we heard from Chelsea Clinton on behalf of her mother's campaign. As I said in an earlier post, I was very impressed with her. She's grown into a lovely, intelligent, and caring young woman. She's only two years younger than I am, so I remember clearly what she went through as the "first daughter" and thinking how I would react to what the press said if that was me. I have to give big kudos to Bill and Hillary Clinton for raising such an outstanding daughter in the midst of a governor's mansion and the White House. Many a Obama supporter could be heard saying "I'd vote for her" - and they meant it.

The first event of the morning today was the caucus meetings. We have several new caucuses just getting going (such as the Election Reform Caucus). I attended the Women's Caucus where we discussed what we could do through the caucus. Ideas included trainings for women on being candidates, media training for women, and setting up mentoring between the "old guard" and those under the age of 40. We have a great amount of talent and wisdom in women who have been in the party for some time, and they have a lot to offer to my generation and those younger who will be the ones leading the party (and the state, and the country, and...) in the coming decades. Even though there was only four of us in the meeting (it was accidentally left off the schedule and therefore most people didn't know about it), we did a lot to get things started.

Towards the end of the meeting, we had a visit from Speaker of the House (and U.S. Senate candidate) Jeff Merkley. We had a great discussion on some of the legislation that went through the 2007 session, but didn't pass in the Senate, such as family leave. I'd brought up my support for the bill that required overtime pay for work over either hours a day (it had exceptions for shift work and such). It was a great discussion and showed some of the things I love the most about Jeff - particularly his care for and understanding of the average working family.

At the end we had a quick discussion on our abundance of riches in this primary season. I'd mentioned how I'm regularly asked why I dislike Jeff. I pointed out that I didn't dislike him - I think he's great and will support him 110% if he's the nominee. It just happens to be that I like Steve Novick better for this particular position.

As has always been my experience with Jeff, he was completely gracious and understanding of my comments and even offered me a button for his campaign (which I took). After all, it's about supporting one candidate, not opposing the other.

Since this was really the first time I'd had the chance to say more than "hi, how are you?" to Jeff in some time, I was afraid things might be a little awkward. In the past, I'd often given him a hug (I have to admit I'm a hugger), but I was a bit hesitant since I wasn't sure how things were between the two of us. I was glad to see we were still able to talk about the issues and the election just as we have in the past. So, Jeff, if you (or your staff) happens to be reading this - you owe me a hug next time. ; )

The day ended with what has to be the most touching moment of the entire convention. A few months back, two of the Party's long-time activists lost their home to a fire. It, and everything inside, was a complete loss, including their collection of political memorabilia. Since hearing about the fire at the SCC meeting in The Dallas earlier this year, people have been gathering together memorabilia, pictures from political events, etc. A small collection of these items were presented to them during today's lunch - with even more coming once their new home is ready. I doubt there were many dry eyes in the house as DPO Secretary Becky Gladstone introduced them and told them about the items that had been collected.

Other than my quibble with the DPO over the handling of the one plank, the platform convention was great. I see some areas for improvement (many of which were brought up as suggestions at the convention, like more networking ability and an orientation at the beginning), but overall I enjoyed myself. There were a lot of first timers there, many of which I had the chance to speak with, and it was great to have them there. It really showed the energy, the passion, and the commitment from many of our newest supporters, and I think it foretells a great future ahead for us as a Party.