After the Convention

I am home and just now catching up with life. So much happened in the last couple of days at the convention. I want to share just a few of the highlights.

Wednesday morning as John and I got in the elevator we ran into Rep Charles Rangel of New York (Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, Chairman of the Board of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Dean of the New York State Congressional Delegation) who has always been someone who I liked very much. It was a thrill to talk and laugh with him for a few minutes.

First things first….a visit to the hotel lost and found to retrieve my drivers license so that I could vote for Hillary. When you get your delegate credentials each morning they ask for your license. So glad that it was found and I voted for Hillary!!!

At the breakfast that morning our own former Rep Leon Panetta spoke and John and I had a nice chat with him afterwards. BTW John ran against him in the Democratic Primary in 1976 and we have been very friendly ever since.

I went to a roundtable discussion of congressional leaders entitled “They Got the Memo: Members of the Congress Reveal How They Push a Pro-Women Agenda”. It was sponsored by Women’s eNews and the Women’s Media Center. It was very good and even though I was not able to stay very long I was able to talk briefly with Martha Burk (political psychologist and women’s equality expert, is co-founder and President of the Center for Advancement of Public Policy, a research and policy analysis organization in DC. She was formerly the chair of National Council of Women’s Organizations - 200 organizations representing ten million women) who I had met on the Ms. Cruise a few years ago, Sara Gould (President and COE of the Ms. Foundation for Women), Jennifer Thurston (Associate Editor for Women’s eNews), and Linda Meric (National Executive Director for 9 to5, National Association of Working Women). “The Memo” is on the Women's eNews link on the right.

Then I joined Hillary delegates and supporters from all across the country at a gathering in which Hillary thanked us personally, talked about the campaign and released us to vote for whoever we wanted. Most people had voted by then and most people voted for who they wanted to anyway even though there are 12 states which have Binding Voter Laws, 9 of which voted for Hillary Clinton, some like California, Kentucky and Massachusetts by large numbers. The 12 states are - Arizona, California, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia - The law states "All delegates to the National Convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them."

About the Roll Call Vote

From one Hillary delegate who heard an interview with Alice Germond, DNC Secretary, who was asked directly about the “300 Group” nominating petition and whether it would create divisiveness in the party. She replied that it was all part of the process and that following through with the roll call vote with or without Senator Clinton's name formally placed in nomination would be a demonstration of our unity and not disunity.

At the California delegation breakfast Tuesday morning a group of us had asked Gloria Allred (the most famous woman attorney practicing law in the U.S., a feminist, activist, and television and radio commentator and an elected Hillary delegate) to research and give a legal opinion on whither or not CA delegates are legally bound to vote for the candidate that they are pledged to. She did that and asked to speak to the CA delegate breakfast in order to announce a short meeting of the Hillary delegates after breakfast. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about the fact that they were legally obligated to vote for Hillary according the CA rules. She was not allowed to make this announcement, but got some good press coverage wearing a gag. She was able to gather a small number of Hillary delegates where Gloria and Dolores Huerta spoke with difficulty over some loud background music.

At each hotel on Wednesday morning, delegates cast their votes and at the convention center Wednesday night Dolores Huerta (a CA delegate) placed Hillary’s name in nomination. She was asked to do this by Hillary’s campaign and was given a speech by the Obama campaign. They had moved the time up an hour without telling anyone and started the roll call at 3:45. California was still counting when they got to us so we passed. I, along with many others, did not get to see Dolores which was a real disappointment. I did however sit with her the whole night. She and Gloria Allred and I had a good time talking about what was going on and what needs to be done.

California passed because, as I was told, not everyone had voted yet (and I believe they did not want to show a big jump in votes for Hillary). They then went through the other states until New York when Hillary so very graciously moved for acclamation.

According to the Secretary’s office, the hotel vote was called a "posterity" vote. Some the Hillary delegates were told at the last minutes that we needed to collect 800 signatures to force a roll call vote of all 56 delegations. We tried Tuesday but did not make the deadline because we were told this at the last minute and did not have time to organize. It thus moved our ballot vote from the hotel into an acclamation vote, and our final official Hillary vote was turned into a vote of acclamation for Obama. As a part of Hillary’s historical campaign, the final roll call tally in California was Barack Obama: 255 and Hillary Clinton: 145 (with 41 people not voting). Hillary won California by 10% so many Hillary delegates defected. Nationally the final roll call was Barack Obama: 3188.5 and Hillary Clinton: 1010.5.

Bill Clinton spoke Wednesday night and was another high point of the convention for me. He was amazing and the reception for him was overwhelming. I ran into Joe Klein, in the hall way and he signed a picture that was taken of the two of us at a Hillary rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At the end of the night I had a wonderful conversation with a fellow old time feminist in the women’s bathroom of the hotel which brought tears to my eyes……a lot of emotion and some very busy days and nights.

Thursday night was the big night at Invesco Field with Obama accepting the Democratic Party nomination. It had been a long week and there were many people who wanted my ticket for that night so I gave it up. John and I spent the evening with our new friends from the “300” group having a wonderful bar-b-que, talking and watching everything on TV.

I have put up pictures from the adventure on flicker to the right. I want to thank all the wonderful new friends that I have met and my old friends that helped make it possible for me to be a delegate to this historic convention. Our friendships will continue on. There is more to do…..please keep posted …coming soon…. An exciting new project!!