Labor Day at Kiwanis Park in Tempe...

[Warning: lots of links ahead. It's tedious, but I just know that I would hear about it if I left anyone out. :) ]

...with Harry, Janet, Ed, Jim, Terry, Rano and more.

Oh, and did I mention the Arizona AFL - CIO and its hundreds of union workers and their families enjoying the festivities in the Ruben Romero Corporate Ramada at Kiwanis Park in Tempe?

On the parts of both Arizona's working families and the politicians paying homage to them, the turnout was great.

A long list of local elected officials and candidates trekked to the park for session of hot dogs, ice cream and stumping: incumbent Congressman Ed Pastor (CD4), congressional candidates Harry Mitchell (CD5) and John Thrasher (CD2) [Yes, he's "Mr. Jackie"], legislative candidates Meg Burton-Cahill, Angie Crouse, and Ed Ableser (all LD17), Glenn Ray (LD22), Jim Larson (LD6), Steve Poe (LD9), Debra Boehlke (LD4), Sue Dolphin (LD4 write in candidate), Sheri Van Horsen (LD9), Jackie Thrasher (LD10) [Yes, she's "Mrs. John"], Chad Campbell (LD14) and Shawn Hutchinson, a candidate for Peoria City Council. No website, but an AZCentral.com article about the race that mentions him is here.

Of course, many candidates for state-wide office made an appearance also. Governor Napolitano received the strongest ovation of all the candidates, and was easily the most popular in the post-speech meet and greet. In addition to the governor, Attorney General Terry Goddard, Rano Singh (candidate for Treasurer) [both of whom spoke before I arrived with the Mitchell campaign and volunteers], Israel Torres (Secretary of State) and Jim Pederson (U.S. Senate) gave short speeches.

Of all of the speeches, it was Israel Torres' that most electrified the crowd; a feat all the more notable because it came near the end of the picnic when most of the crowd was starting to feel the effects of the heat, humidity, and food.

With the exception of the aforementioned speech from Israel, all of the speeches were short (something that was rewarded by the crowd - the shorter the speech, the longer the applause. The candidates caught on quickly to that, lol) and even more importantly, to the point.

For the workers and their families, today was not just about food, family and entertainment (though those things were very important.)

Today was about soldarity and celebration. Solidarity with their brothers and sisters from the union, and celebration of achievements of the labor movement.

For the politicians, today was not about long, wonky, policy initiatives and position statements.

Today was about preaching to and energizing the choir.

From Ed Pastor's "if you get off your can, we can" through Harry Mitchell's reminder that Labor Day isn't just "a day of rest, but a day of action" to Israel Torres' call to "turn the state Blue from the top of the ticket down to the bottom", today was about harnessing grassroots support to help Democratic candidates carry the day in November.

Oh yeah, and in a shocking surprise, expressing strong support for raising the minimum wage.

OK, so maybe not much of a shock there. :)

All in all, Rebekah Friend, the president of the Arizona AFL-CIO, and the rest of the organizers did an awesome job in putting together the event. The combination of good food, good times with friends and family, good political theater, and great weather made for a nearly perfect way for the union rank-and-file to spend the day, and gave the campaigns that appeared a chance to reach out to a part of their base that is both active and organized.

Note: there were many other union representatives and officials who spoke and did a lot of work helping to bring off this picnic, but my note-taking skills did not allow me to keep up with the names. My apologies to them, and also to any candidates that I missed above.

Good night!