Thanks for coming...Now go away

So, I attended my first meeting of the Alameda County Democratic Steering Committee tonight. It was an interesting first. Not having ever been to one of these things I didn't really have any idea what to expect. I guess I kind of figured it'd be 10 people sitting around a meeting room talking about the future of state politics. Boy was I wrong.

It was election night for new committee members and there must have been about 100 people in attendance. On our way in, a gentleman stopped and asked if we were from the 16th, we told him we were from the 15th, so he kept looking. After my wife and I had found a seat, the chair of our AD came by to introduce herself...well, if you want to call it that. It was more of a "Who Are you?", "Why are you here?", "What have you done?" "What are you doing here again?" "You know about the Dem Clubs right?", "This meeting is for elected officials...but the public is welcome." My wife and I both got the impression that we were less than welcome. It was really kind of odd. Though it was nice to meet the alternative for Rep. Tauscher, who just happened to be one of my ex city council members. It was nice to talk to somebody from my town. I also ran into an old friend from Scouts which was kind of cool and just for some real randomness I got a kick out of seeing the prosecutor from the last jury selection I went through. I don't know why, I guess I just thought it was cool that he was there, and good to know that one of the DA's is an active Dem.

John Burton, who is running for Chair of the California Democratic Party got up and spoke and took questions regarding his run. I was impressed with what he had to say about getting into the red areas of California and giving them more support. When asked what kind of candidates he would support, his answer was "Democratic Ones," which I kind of liked. This 2/3rds rule is killing us and since it's not going away anytime soon, we simply need to get more Dems into office. I'd certainly prefer them to be progressives candidates, but at the end of the day if in a certain district the choice is between a moderate dem and a conservative republican. The choice is pretty obvious to me. I hope what he says is true about being able to raise the cash this party needs to build a solid Dem majority. I'm less convinced he has any clue how to retain the youthful enthusiasm that Obama inspired by using the internet. We shall see. It's looking pretty likely he's going to be the guy.

I have to say that overall I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and activism, but aside from the chilly reception, one thing near the end of the night really kind of irked me.

Much of the meeting had been spent making reference to Obama supporters and retaining their support in the party. Keeping the youth involved in party politics was a big theme of the night it seemed. Yet after all of the elections were over for the night and the they had their list of new officers, when one of the members asked whose responsibility it was going to be update the website, she was just kind of blown off. She even pressed the matter once again and was basically shut down. It could have just been that the meeting had gone long and everybody was pressed for time, but it seemed odd to me that they didnt have a dedicated person in charge of that. I guess the person that runs the website is going on vacation, but the page hasn't been updated since the election. Perhaps there is more of a back story. It was only my first meeting after all. I just fear that if this is the approach they take with their own website and internet activism in general, that they really just don't get what made the Obama campaign work.

It'll be interesting to see the difference between this meeting which was busy with elections and the next which I imagine will be a little more normal. In any case, I'll be back next month.