I was elected on Sunday to be an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.  As a delegate, I will be one of the people from Washington State who will actually get to cast a vote for Barack Obama for President.   I think this is an incredible moment in the history of our country and I am excited to be a part of it. Plus, the Democratic National Convention is one great big fun political junkie party!

Here is how it happened:

The Washington State Democrats State Convention was in Spokane this past weekend.  At the State Convention, the 29 Obama delegates who had already been elected through the caucus process were responsible for electing 11 more "at-large" delegates and also electing 7 "Party Leader or Elected Official" (PLEO) delegates.  About 450 people filed as candidates for the 11 "at-large" positions, and about 100 party leaders and elected officials filed as candidates for the 7 PLEO positions.

On Tuesday evening, I received a call from the Obama campaign in Chicago asking if I would be willing to be considered on the short-list of candidates for a PLEO position.   Apparently the campaign has the right to narrow the list.  I hadn't planned on running for the position because of the competition and because I had other stuff scheduled for the weekend and couldn't go to the convention.  But, when they put me on a list of 14 people for 7 spots, I decided to go for it.  4 of the spots were for males, and 3 for females.  The campaign had selected 8 males and 6 females for those spots.  So, I was one of 8 people competing for the 4 male PLEO spots. 

I had a very busy week already planned (lots of legislative and constituent meetings), but I managed by Wednesday to track down a list of the names and emails of the 29 delegates that would be voting.  I didn't know any of them.  Thus, I realized I had lots of work to do in a short amount of time.  I called Capital City Press (the union print shop in Olympia I use for my campaign stuff) and asked them if they could turn around a print job overnight (since I was going to have to leave for Spokane the next night).  They said they could squeeze it in if I got them the pdf of the piece "in the next hour or so".  So, I called the graphic artist I use and said "don't laugh, but what are you doing right now?"  She dropped what she was doing, had me quickly email some text, and she managed to design a gorgeous campaign piece and get it to Capital City Press in less than 90 minutes.  (My campaign piece eventually was mentioned in the Seattle Times)

I then got on the phone and tracked down someone who could come with me and provide staff support at the convention (since I haven't hired a campaign manager yet).  I talked Joe Fitzgibbons, a 21 year old legislative staffer from Burien, into helping out.  In exchange for me covering his costs, he agreed to help me with my campaign for the weekend.  I quickly made hotel reservations and tracked down the conference agenda for the Democratic State Committee weekend.

With this work done, I stayed up late Wednesday night writing my letter to the 29 delegates, and personalizing and emailing it to each one of them.  I also checked to see which of them had Myspace or Facebook pages, and requested to add them as friends.

Thursday, after working out in the morning, and a long day of legislative & constituent meetings, I sped down to Olympia to pick up my campaign literature at 5:00PM and then drive back up to Burien to quickly pack a bag and then pick up Joe, put some gas in the car, and hit the road to Spokane by about 7:30PM.  We arrived at our hotel a little after midnight.

In the morning, Joe got on his laptop and built a spreadsheet of each of the delegates and notes about what we knew about them (information I had gleaned from those who had myspace or facebook pages).  He also Google-searched them to get more info about each of them.  Armed with a list of 29 names, and now some information about them, we headed over to the convention center.

The rest of the day was spent hunting for delegates-- and it was slow going.  There were a couple thousand people in the area, and we were trying to find and connect with 29 of them.  The technique that I found worked best was to show the list to other friends of mine (I ran into lots of friends at the convention) and ask them if they knew anyone on the list.  If my friend knew one of the 29, we would ask that friend call Joe's cell phone if they ran into that delegate....so we could quickly come find them and get introduced.   Friends also took copies of my nice printed materials to give to delegates they knew...or to people who might know the delegates.  It was VERY slow going.  I managed to meet and talk with maybe 10 delegates before dinner.  After dinner, at the Obama hospitality suite, I hit the mother lode...and managed to introduce myself to and talk with another 6 or 7 delegates.  They were getting bombared with people (since, as I mentioned, hundreds of people were running for the at-large positions). 

I made it to bed in the hotel room by about 2:00am and was completely exhausted.  The next morning (Saturday), Joe drove me to the Spokane Airport for an 8:30am flight back to SeaTac.  My brother picked me up at SeaTac and drove me immediately down to the Seattle waterfront for a 10:30am tour of a Holland America cruise ship waste management system.  The company had gone to great lengths, and had worked around my schedule, to arrange this tour for me and Rep. Christine Rolfes (the Vice-Chair of my committee), so I didn't want to cancel on them.  After the tour, my brother picked me up and we drove to Covington for the campaign kickoff BBQ for Rep. Geoff Simpson and Rep. Pat Sullivan in the 47th District.  From there, he dropped me off at my parent's house, where I had a time for a 30 minute nap before heading downtown to the Flying Fish for my cousin Ashley's graduation dinner.  She graduated Saturday from the University of Washington and I'm very proud of her and excited for her and it was important to me to be there for the dinner.  The dinner was great-- lots of good food and lots of good wine and lots of good champaign.  After dinner I went out on the town with Ashley and a couple of her other friends.  I stayed out way too late, and took a cab home to my place in Des Moines...getting home about 1:00am. 

Around 5:30am, my mom called to let me know she was on the way to pick me up.  I had arranged for her to give me a ride to the airport for my 7:00am flight back to Spokane.  Joe was waiting at the Spokane Airport, and drove us back to the hotel, where I quickly showered again (to wake up) and changed clothes (into my "Be the Change" t-shirt) and we hurried off to the "delegate breakfast".  For $40, we could have breakfast in the same room as the delegates.  While I didn't meet any new delegates, I was able to say hi and reconnect with a few that I had met the day before.  After breakfast, the process of electing the at-large and PLEO delegates began.  There was a bunch of other business to conduct first, and a bunch of formalities to go through.  The Mayor of Seattle (who also was on the short list of PLEO candidates) was busy working the room, trying to talk to the delgeates, so we chatted for a while.

Finally, the PLEO candidates were invited up to make 1 minute speeches.  The 29 delegates were seated in front of the stage, and about 500 people were seated behind them in the big ball room at the convention center.  The female PLEO candidates went first.  You had EXACTLY 60 seconds...no more.  The Chair began the meeting by asking everyone in the room (all 500+ people) to please start clapping when the timekeeper stood up and clapped.  So, when a candidate was speaking, the timekeeper would hold up a sign when there were 10 seconds left, then 5 seconds, and then at exactly 60 seconds she would stand up and start clapping, and everyone in the room would clap and drown out the speaker.  It was harsh but it worked.  A number of candidates clearly had not timed their planned remarks and were clapped down before they even got to much substance.  I quickly started making plans in my head for how I could adjust the later portion of my planned remarks if I ran long.  I had planned a speech on the airplane on the way back over to Spokane.

After the 6 females spoke, the delegates turned in their ballots, and the 3 winners were announced:  Sen. Jeannie Kohl-Wells, Spokane County Democrats Chair Kristina Reeves (a crowd favorite!), and Seattle PCO and Obama Organizer Shanna Sawatzki (a friend of mine).

Then, onto the males.  I was one of the last of the 8 males to speak.  A couple people sent surrogates to speak on their behalf.  I was surprisingly nervous.  I don't normally get nervous public speaking, but noticed my hand was shaking before I went on the stage.  Instead of reciting my resume or what I've done for the Obama campaign, I took a different approach...making an emotional rather than a logical appeal.  I gave a passionate speech about diversity and equality and why we are Democrats.  It seemed to work.  I think I was the only person who had my speech actually interrupted with applause, and folks told me afterwards I had the loudest cheers and applause when I finished.

Then the delegates voted.  When they read the results, it was like American Idol or a beauty pagent....There was tension in the air, and everytime they read a name, people cheered.  First name:  State Senator Chris Marr from Spokane.  Then they read the next name:  Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles.  Then the third name:  Clark County Commissioner Steve Stewart (a friend of mine...will be fun to have along!)...and then FINALLY they read my name.  I realized later that it was simply in alphabetical order, so I didn't need to have been so nervous after the first three names had been read.

The 7 of us who were elected (4 males, 3 females) then were invited up on stage for a series of photos.  I was mobbed afterwards with people who wanted to congratulate me or who wanted to tell me they thought my speech was great, etc, but we eventually got out of there.  At this point it was about 1:00PM.  We hit the road back home, stopping for a quick Subway sandwich as we left Olympia...feeling good about our victory. 

As in all campaigns-- this was about connecting with the voters.  It was about likability, not about resumes.  Everyone on the short list had done tons for the campaign and for the party.  I think the determining factor was simply whether the delegates knew us and liked us...and I worked hard to make that happen.  I am so thankful to the 29 delegates for selecting me.  I can tell this is going to be a group of great new friends.  Everyone I met was authentic, positive and motivated...and fun!

I got home from Spokane just in time for a fathers day and graduation BBQ at my folks house...caught some of the Lakers/Celtics game....and was home in bed before midnight.

This morning (Monday morning) I got to sleep in until 9:00am...then off to the gym...and back to the grind....