Boston, Here We Come....

Jesse Cornett

I’ve never thought of myself as a writer, and as the idea of this blog has been developed, I have never thought of myself as a regular contributor. I did, however, enthusiastically agree to blog from the floor of the Democratic National Convention, starting next week in Boston.

My original thought was that Blue Oregon would have the very first blogger from the floor of the Convention. As it turns out, blogging from the Conventions is big news this year. At least the Democratic Convention has given press credentials to numerous bloggers, meaning that I will be among the first, but by no means the first. Next I thought I would be the first blogger from Oregon but an open call from a fellow Delegate to post on another blog suggested otherwise. So, I guess we are stuck with being the first local Oregon blog with bloggers on the floor of the Convention.

By way of background, this will be my second Convention, I also went in 2000. Prior to 2000 I had never done anything political and gave a great speech to a small group about the importance of engaging young people in the political process. I heard lots of chatter about my selection over some veteran activists, people thinking they’d never see me again after the Convention, but got elected anyhow. Boy, they were wrong (but I bet they wish they were right sometimes and just hoping that I would go away).

Late last year I decided against pursuing a delegate slot. It seemed apparent Howard Dean would be the Party’s nominee, and with his groundswell of support in Oregon, I thought I should defer to one of the people who had been working so hard for his campaign. I had personally been a supporter of U.S. Senator John Edwards’ campaign.

As some Deaniac friends of mine will recall, I was given a really hard time for my support of Edwards, who through the fall was polling about equally to Carol Mosely-Braun, much like Congressman Earl Blumenauer was given a hard time for his early December endorsement of Senator John Kerry. The Dean and Edwards’ campaigns both ended, Dean’s much earlier than most expected. After they were both out I quickly and enthusiastically began supporting Senator John Kerry and soon decided I would try to attend the Convention after all.

The rules and selection process for the choosing delegates aren’t especially challenging, but the fact the “Congressional District” Democratic Committees put on the first tier of selection and that is one of their only functions, and that it occurs once every four years, made for a long, confusing process, both for a candidate trying to figure it out in advance, and the actual process of the event.

About 12 days before the selection meeting I got the list of all the people running. I was one of 46 names running for three male delegate slots. The fact that I wanted to go to the Convention was lost for a few days while my competitive spirit kicked in. From that moment until the meeting, the only thing that I wanted was to win.

I ran a mini full-fledged campaign for my seat, though I made one potential mistake which was bringing 14 dozen Krispy Kreme Donuts to the meeting. Maybe it wasn’t a mistake that I brought the donuts however, nobody seems to ever notice (or care) that I made nearly 300 phone calls, sent out 207 letters and 115 postcards, actually stenciled 180 individual donut bags, created 160 labels with 40 separate factoids about myself for the back of the bags, or signed up 22 friends who gave up their day to come support me. Recently I was introduced at a rally with the Krispy Kreme story. I guess I did run a campaign that was somewhat similar to a class president campaign might be waged.

Now after four years of activism and a career as a political “staffer,” here I go again to another Convention (yet still not the class president).

By Jesse Cornett July 22, 2004