Convention Diary: California Democrats Convening in the Silicon Valley Today Through Sunday

By Alicia Lanier

Despite the attention focused on this year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Silicon Valley this weekend promises to attract a turnout of Dem bigwigs that may be almost as glamorous as the extravaganza planned for Denver.

I am a delegate from the 24th Assembly District to this California Democratic Party convention which will begin today and run through Sunday at the San Jose Convention Center. Last Spring, I was a delegate to the 2007 state convention held in San Diego - and it was a veritable Blue Book of Party A Listers. For starters, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a keynote speaker at the annual convention dinner and she’s the honored guest at this year’s Welcome Reception. Mayor Gavin Newsom from the City by the Bay was a crowd fave, and eight of the nine of the Presidential candidates made an appearance and spoke to the delegates. And there are too many others to mention!

At one point, I was close enough to give John Edwards a good-luck-pat-on-the-back. And later I admired from up close Hillary Clinton’s classy Japanese-inspired tangerine silk pants suit and assertive speaking style. And cheered on Barack Obama as he entered the convention hall in rock star style, with groupies crowding him as rock music blared through the hall.

As each of these three spoke, I waved a poster that supported him or her. This was confusing to some of my fellow delegates and one asked, “Just who are you supporting?” “All three of them … I can’t make up my mind … they’re all great!” I replied. And, truth be told, I still feel that way even after casting my vote for one of them in our Super Tuesday primary. But, for the record, I’m quite ready for the last two standing candidates to “make nice and make up” and, if I had my favorite wish, they would work together be on a much-mentioned Dream Ticket.

So, this should be an equally exciting convention. We delegates had an email a couple of days ago from Art Torres, CDP chair, saying that Former President Bill Clinton will be speaking at the Sunday morning session. Hmmmmm … wonder what he’s going to say? That same e-mail mentioned that author-activist Christine Pelosi (she is Nancy’s daughter) will present her acclaimed Campaign Boot Camp on Friday.

And yesterday we had another message saying 20-time Emmy winner Phil Donahue will be keynote speaker for the Saturday evening dinner. He will be discussing and sharing clips from his new documentary Body of War has been several years in the making and was personally funded by Mr. Donahue. The documentary is set for limited release and has already been met with international critical acclaim.

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