DMW Hosts Reception for PA Committee Members

Draft Mark Warner hosted a reception on Friday night, September 8th for members of the PA Democratic Party State Committee in Harrisburg. Prior to the event, we obtained the list of committee members and emailed several hundred inviting them to stop in and learn more about Gov. Warner.

Perhaps it was the Free Pennsylvania Yuengling Draft Beer and Hors d'Oeuvres that brought so many people in. We were delighted with the turnout. People started arriving before 6 pm and the room was filled until 9:30 pm. By 8 pm we had already counted over 120 visitors.

Mike Hillman, one of our PA Young Americans for Warner coordinators was there to assist and did a fantastic job networking with the crowd. He also helped keep the Warner video playing throughout the evening.

We learned Gov. Warner already has a sizeable following among College & Young Democrats. This will serve him well when a campaign begins to take shape. We also met several people who are already working for Gov. Warner in the state.

Many of those attending the reception were not familiar with Gov. Warner. Some said "Wow" when they read the literature and vowed "This is the kind of candidate that will play extremely well in PA, particularly in rural regions of the state which tend to lean Republican."

On Saturday morning, the Lt. Governor addressed committee members at a breakfast. Several members that attended said the reception the night before was the big topic of discussion.

We also set up a table in the lobby Saturday. Many thanks to Don Richards and Steven Wheeler for working the table. Some of the folks we introduced Gov. Warner to on Saturday were not at the reception so sticking around paid off and we were able to network with another 50-60 committee members.

A number of members took Mark Warner fliers back to their local county committees.

There is no doubt DMW planted a seed that will begin to grow and bare fruit in the future when Gov. Warner announces he is indeed running. Until that time, you can count on DMW supporters to be there campaigning hard, wherever there are opportunities.

This weekend, we're headed to Ohio to the Democratic Party State Convention, followed by the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Charleston, WV the next weekend.