CDP Update #6- What Kind of “Party” is This, Anyway?

The only real fun at any convention, GOP, Democrat, Green, Whig, whatever party are the many parties held after hours at the convention hall and elsewhere. Many candidates hold events of their own, as do many supporters. Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve seen so far this evening:
-Treasurer Phil Angelides had a squad of eager young folks promoting his big party this evening and true enough it had all sorts of Greek food. But the room they picked was incredibly small – so small it made it almost impossible to get a chicken kabob, much less talk to anyone or see anyone. Memo to Phil: if you promote the hell out of a party, get a room big enough to hold everyone – or at least most of ’em! For people like me who hate crowds, it was a bit difficult to manage.
I did have the good fortune of meeting an Assembly candidate from my home district, Mike Gordon who is not only the mayor of El Segundo – he’s running against the Mayor of Redondo Beach who appeared on Blind Date. No I am not making this up.
-The Kucinch Campaign’s suite at the Fairmont had a great selection of food and had the most political of all gatherings. Delegates and supporters gathered to have a drink and have some very animated conversations about Big Issues. Very much in line with the campaign itself, and worth popping in to check out for a little while.
-Best Party Crowd Award goes to the Clark ’04 campaign’s suite at the Fairmont. I find that the Clark campaign seems to attract an interesting, laid back, cool crowd that’s fun to hang out with, both in LA and up here. A good friend of mine from college, Chris O’Sullivan, was a delegate from Sonoma County for Clark, and told me where the party was. Very quickly it was the one with the most beer, the most going on, and the most fun energy of the ones I attended. If they could somehow broadcast this, I think Clark would win in a landslide.
-Biggest Invisible Group Award goes to the Howard Dean campaign. For a group that had huge representation amongst delegates, it seemed like they just vanished at night. No one ever seemed to know where they were or what they were doing. I can’t believe they all just went back to their rooms and slept – surely Dean’s people know how to party once in a while, don’t they? Baffling.
There were some others but they were just so so. AIPAC had free ice cream (nice respite from the overpriced convention center drinks everyone else had to serve) and many delegates started having their own parties to liven the mood up since it seemed that unlike past years, the political “party” scene was a bit dry.
Look for a wrap up of the CDP proceedings later tonight!