DFL Saturday

I've been busy. Since arriving home from L.A. work seems to have consumed me. Oh, this is bittersweet as money is always nice, but it's always great to have downtime too. Today is Saturday & I had great plans for my Saturday night, but, I drank 2 beers this afternoon with not a lot of sleep under my belt and experienced an evening hangover. It really sucks being a light weight. But the beers were worth sacrificing my evening for; they were celebrating my aunt, Jill Davis winning DFL endorsement for her Minneapolis School Board Race.

It was a great day, DFL delegate conventions are always interesting and entertaining. As my grandpa said to me this afternoon as we wandered waiting to hear the results, "These conventions bring all kinds, people like you & me and then people like that old lady over there holding her dog. Who brings their dog to a convention?".

At these conventions you are required to sit with your ward. I live in Minneapolis' ward 6 and beside me sat my Council Member, Robert Lilligren who was pretty fun to sit next to. Not because we know each other well, we don't know each other at all, but because enthusiasm for the whole event was contagious.

The most entertaining aspect of these conventions is the anger that comes out of people. I saw people visibly shaking with anger as they approached the microphone to oppose a ballot measure being discussed. One man stood up screaming about the rules for voting (you had to sign your name on the ballot) & finally stated, "To hell with all of you, I'm outta here!" and out he went. During the Q&A one of the candidates stated that he would run even if he did not receive the endorsement (a major faux pas) and was actively booed only to be topped with, "There's no place for you in our party!" But I think the most interesting outburst occurred when we were waiting for the votes to come in.

County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin made a speech while we waited for the votes to be tallied. As he concluded his speech a man stood up and yelled, "I want my tax money back that went to the new baseball stadium!" The Commissioner politely ignored the man & urged us to continue our activism with public schools as he walked off the same man yelled, "And Carl Pohlad can go to hell!" (Carl Pohlad is the owner of the Minnesota Twins). Gasps were audibly heard around the auditorium and the moderator spoke sternly into the microphone of respect and there being a time and place for certain topics. She then apologized for bring out her "mama voice" but said it seemed like it really needed to come out just then.

In the end Jill received the endorsement with 77% of the votes (60% was needed) and if she is elected in November, I know she will do great things.

xoxx