My memories of the convention

What with everything else I’ve felt a need to post (in part caused by the power outage at my house on Sunday), I haven’t had a chance to post about my experience at Saturday’s convention.

Truth be told, I was on my feet most of Saturday (work prevented me from getting down on Friday).  I can’t say I remember much of the opening speeches, instead using the time to say hi to Shaun Kenney, Chris Green, Lynn Mitchell, Greg Letiecq, and Ron from Isophorone (I have since forgotten his last name - real smooth, huh?).  Leslie Carbone found me, and I got to meet Anne Taezsch for the first time.

I also bumped into an old college buddy, MIke Katchmark.  We were in the back of the hall, reminiscing about William and Mary and talking about Chesapeake politics.

Then it happened - a roar from the crowd that was so loud I nearly jumped back.

Mike and I looked toward the crowd, and saw a slew of Marshall signs up in the air.

I resolved immediately to move somewhere else in the room to get a better gauge of the crowd (the 10th and 11th Districts were in the back of the hall, so I figured my proximity to the delegates from Marshall’s home base may have had something to do with it).  So I went to the left side of the hall (1st, 6th, and 9th) to get a better idea.

Gilmore’s crew went up first; the crowd reaction was what I had normally heard at the usual applause or cheer spots in the morning speeches.

Then Pat McSweeney was introduced for Marshall, and my ears started ringing again.  Ken Cuccinelli actually decided to join in the “GO BOB GO” for a few minutes rather than start his speech.  It was that loud.  Marshall’s speech had one unforgettable moment: the crowd cheered him when he paused to take a breath.  It was obvious to anyone in the room that Marshall had more delegates on the floor.

This is, of course, not the same thing as votes - and I don’t consider that a bad thing.  Weighted voting makes sure that Richmond and its suburbs can’t outweigh Northern Virginia just because it’s an hour from NoVa to Richmond - same deal, with more obvious concerns - for either of those regions versus Southwest VA.

The point I was trying to make was this - Marshall owned the hall, and he knew it.

During the voting, we all went back and forth to bloggers’ row and the counting stations, swapping rumors and numbers (that’s when I saw Jason, JR, and Krystle).  I’ll say this: the entire process was generating Frederick voters by the bushel.  The 1st District had to redo their entire count because they weren’t told the rounding decimal.  Even worse, votes for Bob Berry weren’t counted, but no one told the delegates until after they voted.  Truth be told, the whole thing had a Keystone Kops feel to it.  The best feeling was after the 11th District numbers were read, and we actually thought was had won - although that was largely because I though Marshall had 200 more votes than he actually had in the 7th.  Once the actual 7th numbers were read, the result was clear - a 66 vote loss.  Ouch.

I did manage to concentrate somewhat on Gilmore’s speech, and he did the right thing by focusing on the tax issue.  Sun Tzu advises attacking an opponent’s strength, and Gilmore is right to go after Warner on that - especially since Warner’s supposed “strength” on this is imaginary.  It wasn’t until after I came home that I saw Warner had recruited His Lordship John Chichester for his first ad - if I’d known that on the floor, I’d have been much more sanguine about Gilmore’s chances.

During the voting for Chairman (Shaun tried hard - in his subtle way - to talk me out of Frederick, but Rob Wittman’sspeech for Hager sealed the deal for Jeff), Brandon Bell found me.  My first thought was, “I had no idea he was that short” (sorry, Brandon).

The most fun I had during the vote for Chairman was when Jim Bowden told us the 1st District had gone for Hager (he assumed the northern part of the district was Hager country).  I was able to inform him that Frederick swept Spotsy and Stafford, and he was much happier about the fate of the 1st (in fact, the DC exurbs pushed the 1st narrowly into Frederick’s camp).

We never saw the actual numbers; Hager conceded.  That should give an idea of what the grass-roots thought of recent RPV performance (although the real target - Ed Gillespie - was already long gone).

I stayed long enough to see the platform adopted (with my resolution for an end to biofuel subsidies), meet Kurt Michael and Soctt Sayre, and say a bunch of good-byes.  Catherine Marshall was her usual fantastic self, and seeing her just before I left made me feel the loss more than when it actually happened.  It was the first time I was so well-known by a campaign’s inner circle - me, a verbose, egotistical wisecracker from New Jersey.

All in all, it was a lot of fun, tremendous highs and one painful low.  I look forward to next year’s shindig.