It's Friday evening, and I'm driving through L.A.'s legendary traffic on my way to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel to register and attend some caucuses at the 2002 California State Democratic convention! The traffic sucked along the 101, hey that's no surprise, I'm used to this sort of thing although that doesn't mean I like it. I'm driving Fern who is a candidate from the 24th district for U.S. the House of Representatives.
We finally get there and find that the parking deck is full and I drop Fern off and park at the Arco Plaza. Inside, at the registration desk, she is listed as an "Honored Guest" and there are packets waiting for us with special orange "Candidate" badges that get us pretty much anywhere in the convention except the speaker's podium. Sweet.
Friday is all about caucuses (meetings of groups especially interested in specific topics.) We visit several of these meetings and Fern was given time to get up and introduce herself to the attendees. This is really important because although she is running unopposed in the primary, she will need all the recognition and support she can get to unseat the incumbent Elton Galaghley in the general election.
The caucuses wrapped-up after 11:00pm and then the social gatherings took place. We visited several of the gatherings and especially enjoyed the ice-cream served at one of them. Finally, just after midnight, we figured it was time and we hit the road for home.
This was an interesting prelude, Saturday will be the main event...
Links: