A NIGHT OF POPULAR LEADERS, AWARDS AND CONTROVERSY
by the Creative Youth News Team
October 21, 2007
On October 19,2997, California Democratic Leaders and Democrats packed the Grand Ballroom at the Disneyland Hotel for the largest Truman Dinner ever. The Truman Dinner is the annual awards banquet thrown by the Democratic Party of Orange County. The elected members of the Democratic Party have no say whatsoever in who will receive awards or be invited to the event. The elected members of the Orange County Democratic Central Committee have little say in much of anything that affects their party. A lack of say in the dinner is something they are used to. That lack of say did not affect the size or take from the dinner.
Melahat Rafiei, reportedly the head of the John Edwards campaign in Orange County and the appointed Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Orange County, proved her ability to raise funds and put together a top quality event. Staffing the event with an estimated 45 comped-in Edwards volunteers who all did an excellent and polite job of making sure things went smoothly, Rafiei sold tables with leaders for $10,000 and stood firm on not comping in Kucinich volunteers, even though Kucinich and Edwards both spoke at the dinner. Tickets were $150. Right before Kucinich's acceptance, roughly half of the volunteer slots were open and the committee was eager to find volunteers to fill the remaining slots. When Kucinich said "yes," the slots were suddenly gone. Even the Hull-Richter family members, who had contacted Kucinich and convinced him to speak, were told they would have to pay. A Congressional candidate, Christina Avalos, insisted on writing a check so that Kucinich would have support inside the room, and labor leader Al Ybarra gave a ticket to another Kucinich supporter so he could attend. A double-sized table was set up outside for the Edwards and Kucinich supporters to share. However, the Edwards supporters were inside for most of the evening and the table was mostly manned by the Kucinich supporters.
John Edwards gave the keynote speech. A trophy so large that is took up much of a table was personally presented to Edwards by Bisner Chase, the President of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association, following Edwards' speech. The reaction from the 1100 people in the audience was mixed towards Edwards' speech. Some applauded while others commented on changes in positions and lack of specifics. Others wondered if the Federal Elections Commission was watching what appeared to be a major in-kind donation to the John Edwards Presidential campaign. Some Edwards supporters hoped that this, coupled with recent indictments of three of his key donors/bundlers, would not result in John Edwards being Eagletonized as an unnecessary liability to the Democratic Party.
The surprise highlight of the evening was a speech by former governor Jerry Brown, who received the largest applause from the full crowd. Various awards were presented to a number of individuals, including Dick O'Neil, who had been a long-time chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County.
As the evening continued, the crowd wondered where Dennis Kucinich was. He had had to fly in from Washington D.C. Friday is often a key voting day and Kucinich never misses a vote. Roughly three and a half hours after the opening of the event, he arrived. Virtually all the members of the crowd who stayed till the end for the best of the presentations were delighted. His presentation brought frequent applause from the crowd. Even those not supporting him found that they were impressed with his plans for the Presidency. An interesting point was that his official staff seemed much less enthusiastic than most of the crowd. There were some serious problems involving one appointed team leader who had backed Bush in 2004. These problems, which included conflicts with ticketed guests at the Truman Dinner and other matters, were personal on that person's part and unrelated to the campaign. It may have been in bad taste to have someone who backed Bush appear to have campaign authority at a Democratic event. Nothing could change the fact that the audience loved Kucinich. Following the event, members of Obama's and Edwards' campaign in the crowd expressed full agreement with all Kucinich had said.
Dennis Kucinich made several stops around California with his wife Elizabeth and his mother-in-law Julia Massey. The most successful of these was at Sierra Vista Park in Sierra Madre. It took place at 9 A.M., on a Sunday morning, a difficult time to draw a crowd, and it was packed. Much of the audience had to stand. Without any official assistance from the campaign, a team of volunteers, mostly from the Pasadena area, headed up by Mary Lee, pulled out all the stops in promoting and putting together the event. In the past, volunteers have found that events come off better if organized by the grass roots as certain campaign staff members, busy with other matters, often give out the wrong dates, times, locations and contact information for events. All the volunteers from the Pasadena Group did a top quality job. Grass roots supporters from Orange County also helped out with planning and outreach. Among the crowd were members of the National Youth Rights Association who had gotten up early and driven an hour to arrive at the event.
Prior to Kucinich's speech, Dawnelle Keys (from the documentary Sicko) moved the crowd with a brief speech about her daughter, who had died after she was taken to the local hospital but could not get timely treatment for her condition because Kaiser, the Keys' "health care" carrier, forced the child to go to Kaiser. The audience was moved by her presentation about the problems with the health care system and the dangers of capping medical malpractice damages. John Edwards is among those who favors capping medical malpractice damages, a policy known to increase the probabilities of under-treatment and mistreatment of patients. Kucinich, who supports single-payer, not-for-profit, universal health care, picked up where she left off on the health care issue and continued on into a speech that evoked numerous standing ovations.
Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who has come out in favor of lowering the voting age. The National Youth Rights Association would like to see him introduce legislation between now and the election to lower the voting age. NYRA members who were present were hoping to have a change to get a question in at the event. Dennis has to rush to the airport and answers to the question NYRA members wanted asked will have to wait for another time.
Copyright ©2007 by the Creative Youth News Team.
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On October 19,2997, California Democratic Leaders and Democrats packed the Grand Ballroom at the Disneyland Hotel for the largest Truman Dinner ever. The Truman Dinner is the annual awards banquet thrown by the Democratic Party of Orange County. The elected members of the Democratic Party have no say whatsoever in who will receive awards or be invited to the event. The elected members of the Orange County Democratic Central Committee have little say in much of anything that affects their party. A lack of say in the dinner is something they are used to. That lack of say did not affect the size or take from the dinner.
Melahat Rafiei, reportedly the head of the John Edwards campaign in Orange County and the appointed Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Orange County, proved her ability to raise funds and put together a top quality event. Staffing the event with an estimated 45 comped-in Edwards volunteers who all did an excellent and polite job of making sure things went smoothly, Rafiei sold tables with leaders for $10,000 and stood firm on not comping in Kucinich volunteers, even though Kucinich and Edwards both spoke at the dinner. Tickets were $150. Right before Kucinich's acceptance, roughly half of the volunteer slots were open and the committee was eager to find volunteers to fill the remaining slots. When Kucinich said "yes," the slots were suddenly gone. Even the Hull-Richter family members, who had contacted Kucinich and convinced him to speak, were told they would have to pay. A Congressional candidate, Christina Avalos, insisted on writing a check so that Kucinich would have support inside the room, and labor leader Al Ybarra gave a ticket to another Kucinich supporter so he could attend. A double-sized table was set up outside for the Edwards and Kucinich supporters to share. However, the Edwards supporters were inside for most of the evening and the table was mostly manned by the Kucinich supporters.
John Edwards gave the keynote speech. A trophy so large that is took up much of a table was personally presented to Edwards by Bisner Chase, the President of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association, following Edwards' speech. The reaction from the 1100 people in the audience was mixed towards Edwards' speech. Some applauded while others commented on changes in positions and lack of specifics. Others wondered if the Federal Elections Commission was watching what appeared to be a major in-kind donation to the John Edwards Presidential campaign. Some Edwards supporters hoped that this, coupled with recent indictments of three of his key donors/bundlers, would not result in John Edwards being Eagletonized as an unnecessary liability to the Democratic Party.
The surprise highlight of the evening was a speech by former governor Jerry Brown, who received the largest applause from the full crowd. Various awards were presented to a number of individuals, including Dick O'Neil, who had been a long-time chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County.
As the evening continued, the crowd wondered where Dennis Kucinich was. He had had to fly in from Washington D.C. Friday is often a key voting day and Kucinich never misses a vote. Roughly three and a half hours after the opening of the event, he arrived. Virtually all the members of the crowd who stayed till the end for the best of the presentations were delighted. His presentation brought frequent applause from the crowd. Even those not supporting him found that they were impressed with his plans for the Presidency. An interesting point was that his official staff seemed much less enthusiastic than most of the crowd. There were some serious problems involving one appointed team leader who had backed Bush in 2004. These problems, which included conflicts with ticketed guests at the Truman Dinner and other matters, were personal on that person's part and unrelated to the campaign. It may have been in bad taste to have someone who backed Bush appear to have campaign authority at a Democratic event. Nothing could change the fact that the audience loved Kucinich. Following the event, members of Obama's and Edwards' campaign in the crowd expressed full agreement with all Kucinich had said.
Dennis Kucinich made several stops around California with his wife Elizabeth and his mother-in-law Julia Massey. The most successful of these was at Sierra Vista Park in Sierra Madre. It took place at 9 A.M., on a Sunday morning, a difficult time to draw a crowd, and it was packed. Much of the audience had to stand. Without any official assistance from the campaign, a team of volunteers, mostly from the Pasadena area, headed up by Mary Lee, pulled out all the stops in promoting and putting together the event. In the past, volunteers have found that events come off better if organized by the grass roots as certain campaign staff members, busy with other matters, often give out the wrong dates, times, locations and contact information for events. All the volunteers from the Pasadena Group did a top quality job. Grass roots supporters from Orange County also helped out with planning and outreach. Among the crowd were members of the National Youth Rights Association who had gotten up early and driven an hour to arrive at the event.
Prior to Kucinich's speech, Dawnelle Keys (from the documentary Sicko) moved the crowd with a brief speech about her daughter, who had died after she was taken to the local hospital but could not get timely treatment for her condition because Kaiser, the Keys' "health care" carrier, forced the child to go to Kaiser. The audience was moved by her presentation about the problems with the health care system and the dangers of capping medical malpractice damages. John Edwards is among those who favors capping medical malpractice damages, a policy known to increase the probabilities of under-treatment and mistreatment of patients. Kucinich, who supports single-payer, not-for-profit, universal health care, picked up where she left off on the health care issue and continued on into a speech that evoked numerous standing ovations.
Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who has come out in favor of lowering the voting age. The National Youth Rights Association would like to see him introduce legislation between now and the election to lower the voting age. NYRA members who were present were hoping to have a change to get a question in at the event. Dennis has to rush to the airport and answers to the question NYRA members wanted asked will have to wait for another time.
Copyright ©2007 by the Creative Youth News Team.
Home