Well, I've returned from my first political convention - not quite as contentious as the Democratic Presidential one described in H. S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, but there was some controversy at the Working Families Party State Convention.
We started with a presentations and everything was going as scheduled, until the Senate nomination came up. There was definitely a certain amount of tension in the air as the rules for debate were read. The debate was divided into Clinton, Tasini, and "No Endorsement". The meeting chair explained the voting would be a single roll-call vote, though it would be argued over later, no one seemed to mind at first.
I have been a Tasini supporter, and I may vote for him in the September primary. I also hold no illusions as to who is going to win the primary and general election for Senate. Though Hillary is certainly not with us on the war, she does often vote the way I would like. Her recent vote against Hayden for CIA chief gave me a new measure of respect for her.
I didn't really think those that spoke on behalf of Hillary Clinton made much sense, but the John Tasini supporters seemed overly pessimistic on her record in the Senate. Those that spoke on behalf of "No endorsement" for Senate made a lot of good points, and I was initially inclined to that position along with the majority of the North Country chapter. Most of the Clinton speakers stated they where anti-Iraq war but one was pro-Iraq war and implied that being anti-Iraq war was not supporting the troops. He was followed back to his seat by chants of "Bring Them Home" from around the room, some of them even at his own table.
When the vote was about to begin it was explained that under the current voting rules "No Endorsement" could not actually win the vote and those voting for "No Endorsement" would be abstaining effectively.
The "No Endorsement" supporters did not want that and the consensus was that they would be changed to two votes: "Endorsement" or "No Endorsement", and then Clinton or Tasini. "Endorsement" was clearly in the majority before the vote came to us and our group went into a conference about the vote. In the end we decided to go with Clinton because we felt it would be better for our down ticket races, and we would be voting for Hillary in the general election anyway.
It was a blowout with over 90% percent of the committee for "Endorsement" and for endorsement of Hillary. In the end though the committee endorsed a resolution against the war in Iraq, and it will be sent to Hillary with the State Chairs' signatures. I spoke in favor of the resolution, noting that Howard Dean was right when he said the War in Iraq had not made us safer back in 2004.
Eric Massa gave an excellent presentation and I am sure he will make a great addition to the Congress with our future Congressman Bob Johnson after they win in November. Mike Acuri also gave a decent speech. The Convention was very enthusiastic in supporting the effort to take back Congress.
When it came to the Attorney General vote there was some small opposition to Cuomo, but no one presented any other candidate. I've seen Denise O'Donnell is on DFA-Link but with all the local and state elections I'm involved with I haven't really been following the AG race.
Our State Committee member wanted to nominate Cuomo, but the majority of the group has disagreed with him on many candidates. We aren't even sure how he got to be the State committee representative. He is one of our co-chairs, but none of us voted on his being our state committee representative. Even so, we decided to go with his recommendation with little opposition.
If one of the other candidates had bothered to have someone distributing materials like the Tasini and Clinton people maybe things would've turned out differently, maybe not.
The acceptance speeches of Paterson and Spitzer were excellent, Elliot Spitzer will make a great Governor of New York. I told him so myself when I shook his hand at the end of the convention.
The Fair Share for Health Care Posters have been taken down now and the delegates are back home, but the energy and excitement of the convention continues. We had some points of contention, but in the end we are united in our desire to Take Back New York, and to Take Our Country Back in November.
Together, New York Can Do Better!
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