Convention Fun, part one

The Kickoff Party

Well, there might not be a better time for political junkies (with the exception of election day itself) than the weeks of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. It does get so much better, though, when it's happening in your city and even your neighborhood. That is my life right now. I thought I'd give you at least a little piece of what's been going on here at the convention, over several posts, so you can better play armchair political quarterback at home.

First off, let me say that I don't have credentials. This is true for everyone who isn't a delegate (there are 4,300+), reporter or state-based blogger, Colorado politician/non-profit director or head of a major union/democratic donor. This means that only about 7,000 people are really "in the know" here, with thousands more volunteering. I am not one of them. My stories prove that you don't have to be in order to have a great time here.

Almost everyone thinks that the convention starts Monday. Oh no no no. The convention really has three different start points: one for Coloradans (Saturday afternoon), on for the media (Saturday night) and one for the delegates and convention-goers (Monday morning). Saturday consists of two big parties; one is put on by a local law firm which also serves as the head counsel for the Convention Committee and a local polling outfit. We called it the RBI/Isaacson party. I say we because I got to go. My boss, Carol, who I effusively praise whenever I get the chance, was invited to this event, and two of our friends at RBI, Toral and Niki, came by on Friday afternoon to pick some stuff up from us. They casually mentioned the party, and I was handed an invitation and told to RSVP. I'm thinking there is no way I can do that the night before the party, but I call anyway because as any of you reading this know, I have no scruples when it comes to politics. Well, they say that it's fine, and that I should be there between 5 and 8 at this martini bar called the Corner Office. Done and done. Then they ask me if I'm bringing a date. Without thinking I say "yes", we end our conversation, and then I realize I don't actually have a date. So I call up Ash Merscher and ask her to be my fake-date arm candy for the evening, she says yes, and we're on our way.

After getting lost and trying to navigate Denver streets with their new configurations (read: half of them are closed), we get to the party. Now, I'm ready to be disappointed. I figure any party I can get invited to can't be all that posh. Wrong. Ash and I walk in and get our nametags (mine is printed, funny story about that later) and our 3 free tickets for drinks, good for martinis. Naturally, we go to the bar. This place is posh though. There's a spread with sushi and creme brulee spoons (which I ate all night), there are about 150 people in suits and cocktail dresses...it's a good party. As I walk in the Lt. Gov. of CO, Barb O'Brien, is heading out, and Ash and I soon see Governor Ritter, John Hickenlooper (Denver's mayor, and a brewmaster at Wynkoop brewery), Rep. Diana DeGette, a bunch of superdelegates, and the like. We only briefly say anything to a few of them, because we're both in a bit of shock that we're here at all. So we drink, and talk with Niki, Toral and Kevin (who graduated with us at CC), wander around and whatnot.

Come about 7, everyone is getting a little more friendly, and some of the important people are leaving for the media party, the other major event that night over at Elitch Gardens. Diana DeGette, my representative and a CC grad, is surveying the room (this is while Ash is getting a drink) and I walk past. She cranes her neck to try and see what my nametag says, so I slow down so that she can. She nods, and whispers to her neighbor while pointing at me as I walk past. This happens in about 6 seconds, but it was pretty sweet to have my Congresswoman whispering something about me. What was it? IDK. Could've been that she hated my tie. I doubt it, since I'm always well put together, but you never know (especially since she was wearing this awful floral print mumu-esque top...what can you do?)

So as the night is winding down at the bar, Ash and I introduce ourselves to two of Niki's friends, who just got their master's at DU. We decide after talking to go for drinks, and after meandering around the bar for a bit, Niki and I get pulled aside by a partner at RBI, Rick, who offers us two press passes to the media party. Keep in mind that these were impossible to get before this week unless you really know someone. But it's 8:30, the event is ending at 10, and we want to hang out in LoDo. Toral, meanwhile, is drunk, so we hand off the tickets to her and her boyfriend, tell them that they owe us, and send them on their way. They're thrilled, and so are we. We head into the town to keep the night going, and wind up at Willie G's at 16th and Lawrence, one of my favorite places in Denver. We're dressed well, so they are very nice, and give us a great table with a great waiter named Dave. We drink some more, order some food, and talk politics. It was awesome, as always. Niki and I chatted about SAFE and polling, then we all talked about what convention parties we were going to try and sneak into and how we'd do it.

After two hours or so, everyone's sobering up and the night is getting away from us, so we pack it in. Niki takes Ash back to her place at DU and I make my way home. It was a great way to start the convention.

I'm leaving tons of stuff out (Ash and I getting hit on by lawyers at the bar, meeting the chairman of Britian's Liberal Democrats party, you get the idea), but overall, you get the picture.

So that was Day 1. Days 2, 3, and 4 (which were all fun, but not as crazy) are coming soon. You'll be able to hear all about running into senators, a guy Ash thought was named "Wolf Blitzen", protestors getting pepper-sprayed in front of me, the Fred Phelps brigade, and of course, Scott, Mike and me trying to sneak into one of the biggest parties at the convention (unsuccessfully).

Time to head back downtown for more coverage. Make sure you watch Hillary tonight!

On Grant Writing, Campaign Finance Violations and "Right-Wing Research"

So day 3 of the fellowship has come and almost gone. It's just after 5:30, which means I have been at COFPI for 9 hours (less the 15 minutes I took for lunch today...yes, 15 minutes) and I still have a  little more research to do before I walk home for the night. Despite the longer hours than I was expecting (45/week looks like my upcoming yearly average), I am still so excited about everything we're doing and the work I've been given, which I'm simply not qualified to do, methinks. 

This morning I went to the America Votes headquarters, which is serving as a technological headquarters for a group COFPI is involved with. It's called the (c) 3 Roundtable, and consists of 30 501(c)3 nonprofit groups here in Denver. Essentially, it makes it easier for the leaders of these groups to organize their outreach and action strategies for particular initiatives and laws while also acting as a data-sharing service, so that we can all access one another's research and publications. Today all we did was set up our GoogleGroup, which lets us share all our documents and create a master calendar. Small steps toward getting organized, but it's a start. 

I got to the office and was told that I had one project: get on the phone with the Secretary of State (who recently won a primary election for Congress, like, last Tuesday), or someone high up in his organization. Seems as though ultra-conservative groups are already pulling out the stops against SAFE, and someone with the campaign had received a mailer soliciting donations from one of these groups, Colorado At Its Best. As an aside, I love how these groups name themselves...apparently, Colorado is at its best when we don't fund education. Hmmm. 

Problem was, this group isn't registered as an issue organization in Colorado, which means it can't send out mailers asking for funding. My job all of this morning and a lot of the afternoon was to research its chairperson, Dennis (big ol' douchebag), and then draft an email to the SAFE lawyers so that they could decide whether or not we are going to sue CAIB for violating campaign finance laws (as I learned today it's specifically Article 6 of Amendment 28 to the Colorado Constitution that they were violating. Again, I digress). 

So after encouraging the lawyers to give us the greenlight for a complaint, Carol gave me yet another task that I feel grossly unqualified for (almost all of my tasks, actually. I do love Carol. More on that later). It seems as though the Gill Foundation, is giving out grants to Colorado-based nonprofits to do outreach and civic engagement. Conveniently, my job is outreach and civic engagement. So I drafted a $20,000 grant proposal today to the Gill Foundation, telling them just why COFPI  should get money to mobilize voters. Grant writing is a special kind of writing. Really, it involves a good amount of bullshitting with just enough substantive political proposals so that you don't sound like you are completely full of it. I think my time at Colorado College trained me well to find that delicate balance. 

Before I get back to the last bit of work I have before leaving tonight, let's go back to Carol. So Carol Hedges is downright awesome. Her office is right across the hall from mine, and she always makes fun of me when I know something I'm not supposed to. Funny story: First day, 10:30 am, Carol and Kathy (the director of COFPI) were curious whether cigarettes were taxed on Indian reservations in Colorado. I chimed in and told them no, but that New York state had recently started a tax like that, and they kind of just looked at me. Carol told me to leave, and to come back when I had something I didn't know about. Kathy just laughed. Between telling me stories about tons of really powerful people or using the F word in staff meetings, I think Carol and I will have a good time working together this year. 

Well that's all for now. I have work to do before I head out into Capitol Hill for a night on the town. Denver microbrews, here I come.

I used to think blogs were pretentious

and I still do. But Zach and Jessica cajoled me into starting one, so here I am. 

After flying back from New Haven on Wednesday, because my flight was delayed 2 days out of JFK, I moved to Denver on Saturday (in a downpour) and started my fellowship today. I work for the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, which is a think tank and policy center that looks at the ways in which financial policies and politics in Colorado affect at-risk populations, along with low- and middle-income families. Sounds really boring, right? 

Totally wrong. After running downtown this morning to get a city parking pass (so that I don't have to move my car every 2 hours...weird Denver parking laws) I walked to work. I live two blocks away from my building, which needless to say kicks ass. The entire organization started work in a new office building today, called Sherman Plaza. All 13 of us are moving into new offices, including all of the returning policy analysts. I thought I would be given a cubicle or small desk in some sort of restored kitchenette for an office space, but I have my own office, complete with desk and closeable door. I'm living large. 

I thought my job would be data analysis, public relations and some publishing. Wow, I was wrong. Turns out there is a new law being sponsored by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the State Treasurer. Andrew and Cary (I'm supposed to call them by their first names, since they are friends of CFPI...I feel like I'm at CC again) are basically proposing to fundamentally rewrite tax policy in Colorado by creating a new mechanism to fund education programs. It's called "SAFE-Savings Account for Education" and would put hundreds of millions into Colorado's education system. It's in response to a law we have in CO called TABOR, or the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, that indexes spending in CO to the rate of inflation, and makes it impossible for elected leaders to pass tax increases without having the people of the state vote for them. Needless to say, lots of these tax increases don't pass. 

Well, turns out SAFE is a really good idea. And I'm apparently going to be coordinating grassroots outreach for the campaign. My first day, and I've been told that I need to create an overarching strategy for getting voters to the polls. It's a $5 million campaign, and I'm right in the thick of it. This is heaven. 

Beyond that, I'll be publishing some materials on tax policy (which I won't post here...don't worry, I do want you to still read this thing). But for the next 3 months, 75% of my job will involve me trying to get Amendment 20, as we think it'll be titled, to pass the ballot. It would dramatically alter Colorado policy and, in the words of my boss, signal the "death knell" for TABOR initiatives around the country. 

Should be a fun run up until November. 94 days until the election.