DPG convention blog

8:16 P.M. Yesssss! Yes. This blog is over. Time for one drink and a thankless drive back to Cobb. Fired up! Ready to go! Home!

8:09 P.M. I truly hope we are nearing the end of Candidate Speeches Part II. This is all I can handle!

7:44 P.M. Everyone needs to leave the building before I explode from candidate speech overdose (and they’ve started again). Snark fallout is very toxic and can cause random rude remarks, by the way.

7:38 P.M. County awards are going to Chatham, Morgan, Rockdale, and Cobb counties.

7:26 P.M. Jane is recounting her life and career, anecdote by anecdote. I hope we don’t get down to the detail where she played with the Sam Nunn Ken doll as a kid. As an aside, I think this might be one of the biggest GADCC crowds in a good while.

7:15 P.M. We are back underway. I can totally, unequivocally say that the herb potatoes tonight were singlehandedly the best banquet-style of any kind. Yummy yummy yummy. Also, BfD’s own JM Prince has put the bug in Nan and Pedro’s ears that the GADCC dinner should be named after Sam Nunn instead of Richard Russell.

6:52 P.M. Wooow, apparently I wasn’t the only one who failed to predict Rep. Sinkfield’s victory – the program tonight lists Gail Buckner as the nominee. Dewy beats Truman!!!

6:35 P.M. We are about ready to eat – apparently we have a special birthday tonight, Susan Berlon. Congrats! Just to be sufficiently meta, Nan Orrock and Pedro Marin are watching this iPad at work now – building a new America (them, not me).

6:19 P.M. We are underway here. I’m way cool with Jane being honored as opposed to chairing another meeting. Need notice before any more voting so I can pay a visit to my friendly beverage servers.

5:56 P.M. Pre-dinner schmoozing is winding down – what’s Yiddish for “glad I had a beer instead”? It should be illegal to politicking this much in 8 hours.

4:33 P.M. Oh-kay we are done until the dinner. Time for a drink.

4:20 P.M. Roy is focusing on jobs and education, seems like a standard platform for us this year. It’ll work better here than nationally for us. Of course we have to hear the George Wallace vs. Carl Sanders comparison again. Please let this be the last time.

4:04 P.M. Carol brings the crowd to its feet. Maybe SHE should have run for governor.

3:53 P.M. Huh, there are enough Martins that I thought Joe was one of the young guys. Carol Porter will be up here very shortly.

3:35 P.M. Yes, Darryl, we CAN see it. We really nominated the right guy in this race.

3:28 P.M. Rep. Sinkfield is accepting the nomination for secretary of state. Actually the first time I’ve seen her this season – presumably she ran a campaign I didn’t we or she wouldn’t have sailed through the runoff like she did.

3:20 P.M. John Barrow: “If you want to drive a car backward, put it in R for Republican.” True dat! Ken Hodges is up now – wonder how many people here voted for him. This is a race where we need to build some unity, forget the primary, and go after Sam Olens.

3:05 P.M. God bless these poor sacrificial lambs running for Congress. It’s sad to hear these guys talk about hearing constituents say how terrible John Linder is, without realizing that they will vote Republican anyway. Nice to hear some of Paul Broun’s greatest hits though.

2:47 P.M. Woohoo! We’re getting the Michael Thurmond version of the John Lewis chicken story, except possibly longer. Please, Mary Squires, don’t talk this long – Mike gives a better speech than you do.

2:33 P.M. Well Michael Thurmond is doing a pretty good job of accepting a nomination for a race he can’t win. It’s called “suspension of disbelief”. Too bad this isn’t “Mr. Holland’s Opus”.

2:23 P.M. Ah, yes, what would a DPG event be without some blather from Winifred Dukes. Look, spit it out – introduce the people who will introduce Michael Thurmond and be done with it.

2:14 P.M. Am I stupid or does the DPG banner not have a union bug? Check the photo and draw your own conclusion. Dubose is giving a post campaign speech. Apparently he met our friend Carol on the campaign.

2:06 P.M. We are back after some tasty beer for lunch, and are now in the Very Boring Speech portion of the event. At least Roy goes last.. although we are currently clapping revival style courtesy of Calvin.

11:17 A.M Yikes, these photos are blowing this page up to ginormous proportions. Sorry, Mel, I’ll have to try to fix this tonight when I get back to a real computer. We’re hearing the resolutions we’ve approved, and then I think we are off to lunch. I feel sorry for the people who will be eating a $50 sandwich.

11:09 A.M Just wanted to point out that the state party needs to remember that the more young Democrats they put on the podium, the cuter this convention gets. Not that Richard Ray and Mike Berlon aren’t cute, but we’re not rating cuteness based on one’s inner child.

11:00 A.M WTF moment survived. Subcommittee reports approved, Wyc Orr elected convention chair. Rousing speech from Wyc, but it’s hard to believe there’s been any “torch passed” when half the DPG exec has the title of “honorable”. We almost, ALMOST survived the platform vote without hearing from dear Carol.

10:32 A.M Oh. My. GOD. Some super genius decided every county party needed to physically caucus RIGHT NOW and elect a caucus chair. Because we really needed 100 separate groups of people to find each other in a large auditorium to demonstrate how organized we are!!!!! FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

10:16 A.M We are under way and Athens mayor Heidi Davison is welcoming us. I will be amusing myself by trying to figure out how to get only one copy of the photos on this page.

9:54 A.M Hm, so far the not-workingness of the photo upload is quite spectacular. The Voice of the Party, aka Will Fowlkes, says we’ll be starting shortly.

9:33 A.M First live blog in a while, and first with iPhone/iPad combo. The scene here at the registration area in Athens is a little chaotic, but this many Democrats is really a good thing. We’ll see how the photo upload works for the Apple WordPress app.


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14 responses to “DPG convention blog”

  1. Juliana Avatar
    Juliana

    I’m working on a DFI post, but the short answer is yes, it was agony.

  2. Sara Avatar
    Sara

    Re: DFI fine, are you talking about the monstrosity that was Ms. Barnes? Because I saw those pictures on Twitter and whoo boy did she earn that one.

  3. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    6:52 P.M. Wooow, apparently I wasn’t the only one who failed to predict Rep. Sinkfield’s victory – the program tonight lists Gail Buckner as the nominee. Dewy beats Truman!!!

    Hahaha. WTF?

  4. Mel Avatar
    Mel

    At the end of the day, all it needed to be was a big pep rally. And on that score it was a huge success, and major improvement over previous DPG conventions. Night and day really.

    And thanks to [Ataru] for the live blog. Love having this for the archives.

  5. jmp Avatar

    Ah EG, and they call me a cynic. You are mistaken on the ‘celebratory CJ’ part. It’s certainly celebratory, but more than likely it’s a ‘last flight ceremony’ for more than a few. And that’s always the fairly serious under current here too. One again that Carol Porter spoke to with her parting words to the GADCC audience last night too. For all too many of our constituents, we’re they’re last best hope. Slim reed of humanity that may be & truly seem down the ages as well. All the rest is commentary. JMP

  6. Trevor Southerland Avatar
    Trevor Southerland

    Just got home, 22 hour convention fest ended… and why does that picture of me look like I’m about ready to end it all… warning next time would be nice! 🙂

  7. EGaluszka Avatar
    EGaluszka

    The convention was an enjoyable distraction, even if it amounted to little more than a prematurely celebratory circle jerk. Maybe it’s my experiences in other state parties that tarnishes my experience at this state convention, or maybe it’s just my fresh eyes on the event, but I see no reason for the event to even have been held. It may as well have just been done as a series of press-releases and marching orders from the top, with all pretense of community participation discarded.

    Michael Thurmond came off as very likable, as he always does, but he did little to suggest that he was willing to put himself out there and campaign hard. US Senate races in Georgia are ugly, and his smile is not going to be able to beat off the attacks forever. US Senate races are also expensive, and that’s going to be even more of an uphill battle against an entrenched legislator like Johnny Isakson.

    I’ll admit, I’m more optimistic about the party’s chances in November than I was before going, but that was not a terribly great hurdle to overcome. What has changed over the last 4 years that will have reversed the fortunes of our party? What in the last 2 years? If the single-issue hordes of voters didn’t abandon the Republican party in 2008, what work has been done to make them change their minds now, with the walls of Rome already crumbling?

    With few exceptions, I consider all of our candidates sincere in their words and their desire to help the people of Georgia, but what is sincerity without commitment? How many of our state-wide candidates are going to go south of Forest Park to campaign for more than a token week? How many are going to take the fight to constituencies once reliable, which are thought forever lost?

    I sincerely hope each and every one of the candidates runs a successful campaign, and wins by wide margins. But to prematurely declare the campaign will be easy or make light of the tremendous odds against each and every state-wide candidate is foolish and irresponsible. The convention should have been about strategy, recruitment, and planning. Instead it was turned into a feel-good hugfest courtesy of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

    It was, all in all, pretty offensive.

  8. jmp Avatar

    Intervention also saved the 1st DFI unsolved homicide most likely too. Be that as it may, some more random observations on the day.

    1.) People are about as tolerant of economics in person as they are reading it in print. And precisely so.

    2.) You can tell many of the folks who’ve ‘never attended before’, who are the ones dressed to the 9’s in 90Deg heat. Comfort is a necessity people. But yes, everyone was looking swell.

    3.) Some folks take the time to show us that they can be very cuddly during certain visits/times of year despite being stinkers for the rest. (Sure blame me for this one).

    4.) Yes, there really is some decent behavioral economics behind ‘donating to a winning cause’. This is why some of the ‘away’ teams continue to be popular here in Ga.

    5.) DelMonte Fruit chillers in your itty bitty ‘school daze’ hotel freezer make for a great pick me up. Mixed with some decent liquor, even more so.

    6.) Yes your room key can become demagnetized/re-magnetized by your magnetic money clip.

    7.) If you get really lucky in life, you are fortunate to wind up with a wife who shows you up as well as Carol Porter does.

    8.) All & all an exhausting but relatively low whine event, which is a very good thing. JMP

  9. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    Benson, thanks for this..I was twittering through most of it, and can summerize in this way.

    Wyc Orr as chairman of convention was brilliant…Orr for Senate 2014.

    Love that folks had intro music, esp. Calvin Smyre getting us all up to dance to Stevie Wonder..

    Michael Thurmond gave a speech for the ages, we laughed, cried, stood and cheered.

    Carol Porter arrives to theme of Rocky…love it you go gurl..Oh and Mary Squires will get your back!

    Good job everyone who worked hard to make this event really memorable, I had a really wonderful day with all
    My Dem friends.

    However, a serious Democratic Fashion Insitute fine was issued. Benson spared you the pic..but trust me it was heinous and you would agree that an intervention is necessay asap..

  10. Mel Avatar
    Mel

    Finally home. It was a fun day and a great event. Nice town, nice venue, nice people. And a huge thanks to Angelia Knight for the extra pair of stockings. Don’t ask.

  11. jmp Avatar

    Geez all that work & effort & only 3 comments? How about on closer inspection of the numerous photos evidently you managed to capture the best side of me? Or that the original suggestion was for a Russell-Nunn dinner, just to make the history more complete & recognizable for folks under 50, among other good reasons. But always nice seeing everyone. I even forgot to bring along my own liquor so I’ll need to go out too. JMP

  12. jmp Avatar

    “The scene here at the registration area in Athens is a little chaotic…”. I was on the credentials committee, so foolishly thought this was serious enough to show up early. So that statement was literally true @ 8.00AM when there were no more than a dozen people total in the registration room. And I’m not sure why exactly, (it was adequately staffed), except perhaps that it would have been unnatural otherwise I guess.

    And yes, if you sit with your county crew, you can get whatever needs to be done quickly & efficiently. Little known fact. And reason enough not to sit with the ‘State committee members’ down front. The most exciting news on the day, (other than the usual) was Will Avery’s good news & Dan Ledford’s (HD14) brownies he was selling in the back. Great to see everyone, on to the drinking… JMP

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