The way to Victory

This is the first in a series of guest posts from occasional contributor and steady friend (and friend of the blog) Jerry Gettinger concerning the Democratic National Convention taking place in Charlotte in September.  Jerry won a spot in Arizona's delegation to the convention earlier this year.


The delegates elected to represent the Democrats of CD5.  Jerry is fourth from the left.

He has submitted the first piece in the series.  This one is on the genesis of his run for a delegate spot.

More will follow.

From Jerry:

A few months ago, my wife Ruth, who is as apolitical as you can get, was reading her email. An announcement from the State Democratic headquarters asking for applications for State Committee persons who would be interested in an appointment as a delegate to the national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Up until then, I hadn't thought about it. However, at my wife's urging, I began thinking. (That may sound bad, but I tend to leave the thinking part to my wife). This time, I decided to look into the matter on my own. The editor of Random Musings has been kind enough to allow me to tickle my ego by writing a travelogue detailing my experience. If all works, I will be writing in a Random (get the pun?) time frame inviting you to share. Anything in particular you would like to hear about, let me know.

Here is what I found out in order to be a delegate to the Democratic Party convention this year: First of all, the purpose of a convention is to nominate a candidate to be president and a vice president. that is what the Party officers want you to think. But...there is also the matter of having fun. And a convention is fun. anyone who has attended one comes back with the same description..."wow, did I have fun".

However, you have to get there. So I looked around and found the page that explained what I needed to do to become a delegate. In order to be a delegate one has to be a Democrat. That is a registered Democrat on the state of Arizona.  In order to become eligible, I had to submit a statement of candidacy.

What does it mean to become a delegate? Quite simply it means you can vote to nominate the Party's candidates to be president and vice president along with any other business relating to the state. That said. I was curious as to how many and what determines the number of delegates from each state.  Each state has a number of delegates according to the number of registered Democrats in that state.

   Part of my statement of candidacy was if I were to be elected a delegate, for whom would I vote. So there I was, telling everyone that if you elect me a delegate, I will vote for OBAMA. I'll tell you why that makes a difference in my next epistle.

 

For now, adios and hasta la vista, baby