The punch line being, of course, that it's the best thing we've got.
I spent the day at the Travis County Democratic Convention with 1200 or so other local residents. It was a long, long day and voting on resolutions as a group proved to be a particularly arduous task but I'm really glad I went. ˇYa basta! George Bush was the reigning sentiment of the day - a show of hands early in the conference demonstrated that 1/3 to 1/2 of folks there had never attended a county convention before. I left feeling like there are a lot of really energized people in Travis County so, even with 4+ hours of resolution discussion, it was a wholly worthwhile way to spend a Saturday.
Only four people from our small precinct showed up for the convention from a pool of a dozen or so elected delegates. Not bad (a number of precincts had no representation whatsoever) but not as many as I'd hoped. Our precinct encompasses a small area comprised of two major populations - students and elders - so there are certainly significant barriers to turning out a large group.
I was elected an alternate at-large delegate to the state convention, thanks in large part to a friendly neighbor who sat on the nominating committee plus my age, student status, and union membership I suspect. Senate district 14 was a tight race for state delegates. Seth will be our precinct 152 delegate and Nathan from Mercury Campaigns will be our alternate.
The highlights of my day were having lunch with my fellow precinct members and running into a few old acquaintances. I'm really looking forward to the state convention and trying to find ways to get people excited about November. Travis County Constable Bruce Elfant, who I know from my days at the Community Action Network, is facing a challenger so I told him I'd like to get involved in his campaign. He's planning to focus on voter registration to spread the impact of his campaign around and help out the party as a whole - let me know if you're interested in volunteering with me.
Posted by sarah at March 27, 2004 5:52 PM | TrackBack