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Having recently returned from his third Democratic National Convention, Los Altos resident Jim Thurber said no other political event could ever compare to the week he spent in Denver.
Thurber is one of six representatives from Anna Eshoo’s congressional District 14, which includes Mountain View, who attended the convention last week. In the spring, local Democrats elected three delegates to attend the political event and vote for Sen. Barack Obama, and three others to vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Clinton ceded the race later in the year, making Obama the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate — as a result, her delegates also voted for him last week.
During last week’s four-day event, the six local representatives met with other delegates, listened to speakers, attended caucuses and cheered their Democratic leaders.
“It was wonderful up to the ending night, which was magical,” said Thurber, who worked for the State Department before retiring, and now spends his time volunteering for the Democratic Party.
“You had to be there to see 82,000 people in the stadium,” he said of Obama’s speech the last night of the convention. “It was an amazing event.”
Along with Thurber, Bruce Swenson, president of the Foothill-De Anza College Board of Trustees, and Lorraine Hariton went to the convention as Clinton delegates from District 14.
The Obama delegates were Roger Hu, a Los Altos resident and engineer; Julie Lythcott-Haims, an administrator at Stanford University; and Molly Kawakata, a Berkeley student raised on the Peninsula.
“Every day I went [to the convention] feeling very grateful,” Hu said. “It was a chance to celebrate how far we have come.”
“It was big boost,” he added.
Daily routine
The local representatives joined other California delegates each morning for a two-hour breakfast, which normally included talks from state politicians. They attended lectures and caucuses until they returned to the convention center in the late afternoon for the evening speakers.
All delegates had to pay their own way, and convention staff arranged for the California delegation to stay in the same hotel. Some delegates fundraised, but many said they didn’t have time between their jobs and volunteering for the political campaigns.
Convention events ended at 10:30 p.m. each night and were followed by parties and celebrations, according to Hu, the campaign coordinator of the Silicon Valley headquarters in Palo Alto.
“You had to go to all the events,” he said. “You had to be part of the historical moment.”
Hu said some lines for convention events were more than a mile long, and that Secret Service agents were everywhere, checking bags and visitors before they entered the center. As a delegate, he was able to bypass these queues. Once inside, Hu said he was physically very close to many of the party luminaries, including San Francisco Congresswoman and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama.
Hu, who had never been to a convention, said it was quite a different experience actually being on the floor. He wrote about all the behind-the-scenes action on a blog the three District 14 delegates shared, www.obama14.com.
“No one saw the TelePrompTer that all the speakers were using,” he noted.
Proud citizens
Lythcott-Haims said she was surprised to see so many protestors outside the convention center, decrying everything from Guantanamo Bay to the candidate himself. Although she disagreed with some of their issues, “I found myself proud to be a citizen of a country with freedom of speech,” she said.
However, Lythcott-Haims said there was a small group of delegates who refused to vote for Obama, and she saw one man with a “Nobama” sticker.
For his part, Thurber said it was easy for him to support Obama.
“Hillary made it very clear she was backing Obama,” Thurber said of Clinton’s speech at the event. “That was a message we should vote for him too, which I did.”
Back home, the delegates have resumed their volunteer work for the Democratic candidate. Hu says he is continuing to spend the majority of his free time at the party headquarters in Palo Alto, rallying local support for Obama, and Thurber is now serving as a liaison between the Obama office and other Democratic offices in Santa Clara County.
I wonder if the Voice will publish a similar, glowing article about the Republican convention.
Of course it won’t. McCain/Palin for President!
It’s already in the works, you know-it-alls.
Why is it that its always Republicans whining about everything? Man up.
No coverage of the Republican Convention this week… . Just a predictable editorial.
Thanks for proving my point
Don — all those years of journalism school and this is what you have become.
USA,
No idea what that means. I never even went to journalism school.
You and “Ned” remind me of those two geezers on the Muppet Show who made dumb cracks from the rafters. They hated the show, but every week they were back for more. You hate the Voice – and yet you keep reading.
Come to think of it, at least those guys were funny. Also, they were brave enough to hold their opinions out in the open, instead of hiding behind anonymity.
The Muppet show was a great show to watch for comic relief. That’s why I would watch it, and that’s why I read the Voice. And as far as anonymity, how am I any different from eric above. My name is Ned, I live in Mountain View. Talk about a double standard.
In that case, Ned, I’m glad you’re enjoying the Voice. Thanks for reading.
Just to be clear: You and eric and USA and everybody else are welcome to leave comments under any identity you like, so long as the comments are not obscene or otherwise out of bounds. Also, obviously, you’re allowed to hold any opinion you want to hold — it’s a free country. The Voice’s editorial staff may support Obama in the coming race, but we will fight like demons to support your right to vote for, and advocate for, McCain.
And we appreciate your participation in Town Square (even though you said, on another comment thread, that you’d like to see the whole thing shut down).
I was only making a tongue-in-cheek observation that you’re different in some ways from the Muppet Show hecklers.