NC Party Convention Update

Draft Mark Warner for President recently attended the North Carolina Democratic Convention last Saturday, June 24th, and was met with a great deal of attention and interest from Democrats of all sorts. Among the dignitaries and representatives present were the state's party chair, Jerry Meek, U.S. Congressman Mel Watt, and U.S. congressional candidates Roger Sharp and Rory Blake, and many more. Draft Mark Warner ended up sharing a booth with Congressman Brad Miller's campaign (and some others), and seems to be gaining more and more interest from North Carolina Democrats. Many that came to the booth expressed quite positive sentiments regarding Governor Warner's term in Virginia, and others seemed quite eager to learn. Nearly every button was taken by the crowd.

By Andrew Bates

Merely whispered? I think not.

The head of the Peninsula Democratic Coalition wrote a column in the club's latest newsletter suggesting that the only serious contenders for the '08 nomination are Hillary Clinton and Al Gore. I decided to disabuse him of that notion. Here's the text of my letter:


To: pdc@peninsulayd.org
Subject: President's Column, June 2006 New Democrat

Dear Mr Mark Solomon,

Your column in this issue of the PDC's newsletter suggests that the names of candidates other than Hillary are being merely whispered, and that such candidates are failing to "generate buzz" like Howard Dean. I suggest you take a look at the top page of your own website, which is hosted in the domain of the affiliated Peninsula Young Democrats. As of today (June 19), http://www.peninsulayd.org/ features a large picture of Mark Warner with a group of beaming Peninsula Young Dems.

Governor Warner has been interviewed and/or discussed at length in the Washingtonian, the New York Times (including a cover article for the NYT Magazine), Time, Newsweek, MSNBC, the Washington Post, Salon.com, NPR, The Hill, and many local papers and TV stations. Most recently, Warner made a splash at YearlyKos, the first annual face-to-face convention of Democratic / leftist bloggers who generated the buzz -- and the cash -- that propelled Howard Dean from dark horse to front-runner. Arianna Huffington declared him "the clear winner of the Pre-Iowa Caucus." She's right. I was at YearlyKos as a representative of the Draft Mark Warner PAC, and the interest among the attendees was strong; I could never keep my totebag full of buttons for more than ten minutes at a time.

Hillary Clinton is a great Senator, but a lousy presidential candidate. If you want to excite the Republican base more than our own, and thus lose in a landslide, she's your nominee. Al Gore is intriguing, but I don't think he's really planning to run, and I suspect that if he did, the entire campaign would become bogged down in the media's rehash of its old tired themes -- "sore loser", "exaggerator", etc. Unfortunate, but we must deal with reality, not our ideal world.

Warner is a fresh face, with immense charisma, and a record of winning elections. But, more than that, he was able to explain progressive values to red-state voters whose true interests have lain with the Democratic agenda for decades, but who have been held in the GOP by dishonest, divisive rhetoric. As governor, he pushed through progressive tax reform, better environmental regulation, massive investment in infrastructure and education, expanded healthcare... a veritable Democratic wishlist. And he did this while facing a legislature stacked two-to-one with Republicans. He even proved, on several occasions, that he was willing to risk having a veto overruled to stand up for Democratic values. The voters responded, sending more Democrats to the legislature, and choosing a Democratic successor as governor.

The age of "triangulation" is coming to end. I look forward to seeing Warner steamroll whatever sacrificial lamb the GOP nominates -- their base is too unhappy with the last few years to accept a compromise, who might put up a credible fight (McCain's pandering to Falwell notwithstanding) -- and the ensuing transformation of the political landscape.

Best Regards,
RM "Auros" Harman
Volunteer, Draft Mark Warner
Chair, Angelides '06 Santa Clara County Steering Committee

We've been all over the country

When people come up to the booth at an event I usually get these 3 questions...

1. Why are you supporting Warner?
2. Where else have you been?
3. What is next for your group?

So, I thought I'd put a map up. Blue indicates states (15) that we have attended a statewide, regional or county event or held some sort of meetup. Gray indicates states (4) where we have plans to attend a function in the near future.

Not bad for a volunteer organization! If you know of any events in the states that we have not visited please let us know. Likewise, if you have held an event and I missed it, tell me.

With your help, we can continue to attend these important functions and get the word out about Governor Warner's huge successes as Virginia's Governor. Please consider contributing at our website by clicking here .

YAFW takes on Las Vegas

Las Vegas- Draft Mark Warner for President's Massaschuetts State Director Rich Couture was on hand as the Young Americans for Warner representative at the Young Democrats of America Winter conference in Las Vegas, Nevada over the June 9th weekend. Rich, and some of his friends from the MA Delegation handed out buttons, bumper stickers, literature, and cards promoting the potential Presidential candidacy of former Virginia Governor Mark Warner.

Rich said that, "Warner's speech to the YDA conference on Sunday morning went well. There was good turnout. Forward Together provided conferees with Warner t-shirts which a large number of people in the room wore, which was supplemented by the "President Mark Warner 2008" pins I got to people that morning. There was frequent applause, he rivetted the crowd, and no doubt made new supporters that day."

YAFW National Chairman Marshall Spevak said, "If everyone has the enthusiasm and dedication that Rich does to see Governor Warner elected President, then I have no doubt in my mind that together we can make it happen!"

NJ Happenings

To all:

We just finished a highly successful event with a street fair event in Fair Lawn New Jersey. People stopped by and took information about Warner, and a number took buttons and wore them around the fair. We also made contact with the Vice President of the New Jersey College Democratic Club. He is going to be helping us arrange speaking engagements at Rutgers University, TCNJ, and Kean College in the fall.

We have added more names to our growing mailing list of interested New Jersey democrats. We are moving on the right path here in Jersey and we are only 1/2 way through the year.

Our next major street fair will be in Red Bank in September. We can expect up to 50,000 people there. Looking for a large turnout of volunteers.

We will be concentrating on talking to Democratic clubs through out the state during the summer.

Tom Wolfe
NJ Coordinator

Draft Warner at YearlyKos

Eddie kindly offered to let me clone my LiveJournal post here at the official blog. After I posted the original LJ version, we also got Governor Warner's speech at the lunch keynote session, which was fantastic -- unfortunately, C-SPAN didn't catch it, due to technical difficulties.

First things first: Draft Warner made the NYTimes, in a bit of a sideways fashion. See here (or the full article), and below.

He's our man. Governor Warner is the most approachable politician I've met. I had a great time meeting him at his reception at the Stratosphere on Friday night.

Yadda yadda... Mark was interested in hearing about whatever his guests cared about. He's an information sponge.

What did I say? No, seriously -- I've completely forgotten what I said! I made some joke about the cellphone industry, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was.

Who's that third Blues Brother? He's the Governor of Rock!

Cross Country! Me with Rich Couture, another supporter of the Draft Warner group, Chair of the Massachusetts Young Dems Labor Caucus, and a grassroots worker (and convention whip) for Chris Gabrielli, a candidate for the Dem nomination for Gov in MA.

The Stratosphere is very tall. This is the view down along the Strip. Ah, Las Vegas, America's monument to excess.

Sign of the times... From the NYTimes, June 10, 2006, page A10, "Gathering Highlights Power of the Blog" by Adam Nagourney.

Steve & the Gang at the KOS

Steve Deak, co-founder of the Draft is in Las Vegas talking up the Governor and networking with bloggers and political thinkers from throughout the US. You will be hearing more from him as the convention proceeds.

One of the greatest things about this work is the relationships people build with like-minded folks who want to change the direction of our country. Vegas is just one more example of dedicated people coming together and rallying around a cause.

Harry Delizonna, Michael Harman, and others came over from California. All of these folks spent their own money, used their frequent flier miles, and gave of their time and energy to be there for this Draft event. Richard Couture, our MA Coordinator is there working the Young Democrats National Convention which is going on at the same time.

Across the country folks are using their own resources, taking days off from work, and doing whatever it takes to jump-start a Warner candidacy. It's a privilege to be associated with folks like this. I just want to say thanks to all the Draft folks who are working these events.

Today, the Draft table made the front page of the NY Times. I'll post the photo here soon.

Eddie
DMW

DMW at YealyKOS & YD Convention in Las Vegas

I had slight crisis at Atlanta-Hartsfield airport Wednesday,Amex booked me on the 9:25PM flight, not the 9:25AM flight. I was not going to go back home and wait so I decided to go ahead and pay the $50 to change my flight. I got the last available seat on the flight. Wednesday was just a relax and snoop around day. Check out the strip, meet up with a fellow atlantan who is here for the convention as well and lose a few bucks at the gaming tables.

Thursday was the first day of the convention. I attended the DFA netroots to grassroots training event and the Southern Caucus. I'll get into more detail about these workshops later.

Friday was the first day for us in the exhibit hall with the info table. We had really good traffic throughout the afternoon. Plenty of people stoppped by to pick up literature, buttons and stickers. A special thanks to Harry, Michael, Richard, Christa and the YDs from Massachusetts - I'll get their names in here..I promise....that have come out here to work the booths at YearlyKOS and the YD Convention.

We had press from the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, Las Vegas Sun, Washingtonian and others stopped by. Check out the NYT article, a picture of our booth is featured. You may need to log in to see it. Expand the picture.

The Forward Together sponsored party "Blogosphere at the Stratosphere". What a super event! Top shelf all the way. Governor Warner showed up at about 9:30 and stayed for the entire event. He was mobbed when he showed up. I still don't think he was able to walk all the way around the circle there. I took a bunch of pictures from the party including pictures with our Draft Warner team with the Gov.
Warner giving speech, talking with Markos, Harry Reid and Mudcat Saunders

DMW Conducts 1st New Hampshire Event

On Saturday, June 3, hundreds of New Hampshire democrats met at St. Anselm College near Manchester for the annual New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention. The dreary day did not dampen the spirits of the enthusiastic attendees, who were very excited to hear Governor Mark Warner speak at the lunch.

Two Draft Mark Warner volunteers stood at the DMW table, where there was a constant flow of people, most of whom seemed as excited about the prospect of Mark Warner running for president as us. We staffed the DMW table from 8 am until about 3 pm, running out of bumper stickers and pins. Senator Feingold’s table did not seem as successful.

We took a short break to hear Governor Warner speak at lunch, where we noticed many people wearing black t-shirts with red-white-and-blue pictures of Governor Warner on the front. These were volunteers from the Forward Together PAC. I was told that 46 Forward Together volunteers had flown up from Virginia. When we sat down in the cafeteria, each seat had a t-shirt – a gift from Forward Together to each of the several hundred in attendance.


Governor Warner was introduced by Governor Lynch of New Hampshire – another moderate Democratic Governor. Warner began by playing a video that we’re all familiar with now, before laying out his vision for the future of the Democratic Party – a vision with which we’re also familiar. But we were treated to more than a “stump speech.” Governor Warner jazzed it up with a unique criticism of President Bush, saying that his biggest problem with the President was the things the President had failed to do, rather than any one thing he had done. For example, Bush had failed to connect the dots between sound economic policy and foreign policy, instead borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Middle East. Governor Warner then noted that the entire yearly budget for research and development was equal to the amount of money we spend in Iraq in two weeks, bringing people to their feet when he noted that funding research and development requires a president who actually believes in science.

In the end, Governor Warner had certainly earned some fans, spending 30 minutes after the speech inundated by people who wanted a handshake, a picture, or a conversation. New Hampshire political events have always had a way of renewing my faith in the democratic process and in the Democratic Party – this one was no exception.

We will post photos of the event later this week.

Jon Dodson
jond@draftmarkwarner.com