No Oregon for Me :(

Lenora and I were planning on driving to Oregon to do some visibility and hopefully go to a rally to see Chelsea and/or Bill Clinton. However, I had a pretty severe knee injury shortly after returning from Pennsylvania and we have been unable to make it to Oregon. I keep an eye on the Oregon for Hillary Blog and wish I could be joining the activities.

I hope that Oregon voters are able to see how Hillary's goals match closely to Oregon's culture. Hillary's "Oregon Compact" addresses issues that are important to Oregonians. I wish my friends in Seattle could have seen these goals broken out before the caucuses in February; these goals (which include salmon habitat, energy independence, forest restoration, and rural assistance) are important to many voters in the magnificent Northwest.

North Carolina and Indiana

Today was primary day in Indiana and North Carolina. This evening I attended an election return party for 7th Congressional District Hillary Delegates and Alternates at Mr. Villa Mexican Restaurant on Lake City Way. I'm not a delegate but Sean and I crashed the party because I wanted to spend the evening with fellow Hillary people. I'm not running for national delegate but many of the attendees are. It was exciting to see the literature people were handing out in support of their candidacy for delegate to the national convention.

Unfortunately, we were unable to watch the returns at the restaurant so people were checking Blackberries and iPhones and there was a computer set up in a corner. As expected, Obama won North Carolina. As I type, Indiana remains too close to call.

Many people we met this evening are headed to Oregon over the next couple weeks to volunteer. Mail-in ballots are reaching Oregonians in the next few days and are due back on May 20. I'm hoping to head down to Oregon with Lenora. She wants to do some volunteer work and is especially interested in meeting former president Bill Clinton.

The Day After

I got up at 3 a.m. and left for the airport while Teresa and Linda still slept. From the vantage of the parking garage I looked out to see if the news vans were still lined up in front of the hotel. Along with the news vans that hadn't yet departed, I saw discarded Obama signs lying on the sidewalk. The day before, a loud crowd of Obama supporters had been marching up and down the sidewalk in front of the hotel, carrying signs that spelled out "O-B-A-M-A." It seemed symbolic to see the signs discarded as litter on the side of the street.

I drove the twenty minutes to the airport on near-empty roads. I was wearing my Hillary jacket and everyone I spoke to (at the airport and rental car office) congratulated me on the win. When the final results were in, Hillary had won Pennsylvania by 9 points, but lost Delaware County by 12 points.

I got on the plane and was asleep before the plane took off. I slept most of the way back to Seattle, waking only to change planes.

I arrived home in time to pick Lenora up after school. It was a surreal experience, stepping off a plane and reentering the world I normally inhabit. My life here in Seattle remains relatively unchanged but I am deeply changed by the experiences I had and the people I met in the few days I was immersed in the campaign.

The Party!

Maybe you saw it on CNN. It was pretty exciting to be there in person. Teresa and Linda got prime position in front of the podium. I stayed back on the periphery, unwilling to be in the crush of people.

I spent the few hours with a campaign staffer I had met earlier in the week at the Radner High School event, Eric, and his parents, Joe and Diane. They are from Lancaster County, PA so, in addition to the personal investment in the campaign, this was their primary and their votes we were celebrating.

The celebrating really got under way when CNN called the election for Hillary Clinton!

The festive mood was apparent wherever one looked. I was particularly fond of the "Bring Socks Clinton Back to the White House" button!







During the party, reporters were wandering among the crowd interviewing revelers. I was interviewed by BBC Radio, Radio Sweden, and The Jewish Exponent. The guy from the BBC didn't take my name, so I'm pretty sure I didn't make the BBC. I couldn't find and article related to the victory party in The Jewish Exponent. And my Swedish isn't good enough to find out if I made it on Radio Sweden.

U.S. Representatives Allyson Schwartz and Joe Sestak were the first politicians to take the stage.

They were followed by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia. I didn't think it was possible for the crowd to be more excited, but Mayor Nutter and Governor Rendell had the crowd going wild as they introduced a victorious Senator Clinton and her family.

Chelsea, Bill, Hillary, and Hillary's mom were greeted with chants of "Madame President!"





I was unable to see Hillary's mom during the speech, but from my vantage point, I could see Bill and Chelsea looking on with admiration and pride.


I've never heard any kind of victory speech and I found it quite inspirational. (Of course, this could be a "cries at McDonald's commercials" thing!) You can watch her victory speech on YouTube or read the text. At the end of the speech, Vince let the confetti fly at exactly the right moment :)


After the speech, Senator Clinton, Bill, and Chelsea signed autographs on the rope line. Linda and Teresa met all three of them. Teresa, as a resident of Florida whose primary vote doesn't count due to the fiasco with the Democratic National Committee, had a few minutes to talk with all the Clintons about the fate of the Florida delegates.


When the ball room was mostly empty again, with just a few stragglers and the press corps, I took a moment behind the podium. I don't have any political aspirations, but, hey, it was a pretty cool photo op!


After the party wound down, it was up to the hotel room to head to bed. It would be time to leave for the airport at 3:45, less than 4 hours later.

The Confetti Dude

You know the confetti that goes flying at the end of a big celebratory event? Ever wondered where it comes from? I wonder about such things. While sitting in the empty (except for the press corps) ballroom, waiting for the crowd to be admitted, I learned about confetti.

I met Vince the confetti dude. He's the guy who makes the party look festive. It's a pretty cool contraption. Basically high pressure CO2 blows the confetti out as fast as they can pour it into the machine. I asked him how he knows when to let it fly. His answer: "Sometimes I get a cue. But usually I just know. There's a moment and I just know."

Vince thinks I'm a moron.

Election Day

Linda, Me, and Teresa plotting our strategy over lunch

I slept late on Election Day, venturing out of the hotel at about 11:30 to have lunch with Teresa (from Florida) and Linda (from Connecticut), volunteers I had met over the previous days. Our primary goal for the day was to figure out how to gain entrance to the evening's victory party, scheduled for the Grand Ballroom of our very own hotel!

We were in a festive mood; we had worked hard for the campaign and intended to play hard in celebration of the anticipated victory. We were impressed by the line up of the press vans and the general feeling of electricity in and around the hotel.

Teresa, Linda, and I ran all around the hotel, using contacts we had built over the previous week until we eventually gained entrance to the Grand Ballroom, as the first non-press attendees.

Leaving Delaware County

On Monday, it became apparent to me that it was time to leave Delaware County and end my time as a campaign volunteer in Pennsylvania. I was getting less than 5 hours of sleep each night and had developed painful sores in my mouth (likely a result of a combination of a reaction to medication and stress) making eating and drinking unbearably painful. I felt completely spent. The primary was the following day and I felt that the work I had done in the office leading up to primary day fulfilled what I had come to Pennsylvania to do.

So on Monday night, I said good-bye to Beth, Cindy, Billy, and Richard and headed east to Philadelphia. I checked into the Park Hyatt and promptly fell asleep in much-desired luxury!