State Dinner Roundup Part I

I put this post off yesterday because I wanted to avoid attacking too much. Oh, well.

The Party put on a terrific State Dinner. Today, the DDN reports that the event raised well over $750,000, the most ever (Yeehaw, looks like we can finally buy them segways for our canvasers we've been dreaming about!) But seriously, the dinner was nice. I arrived around 6:30pm on Saturday to throngs of folks picking up their tickets at the Celeste center. After I was whisked through the media area, and the state troopers inspected my laptop, I found my way to the blogger table

This year's response to the event was more restrained than in the past. Back in '06 the party refused to comp bloggers into the event, so Russell approached the Obama camp and they offered to purchase a table for 8 bloggers. This year, Obama-less and lacking inter-party conflict regarding our status, only 3 bloggers turned out (myself, Pho, and YellowdogSammy).

Prior to the start of the dinner, I made my way around the Celeste center getting some background for some other things going on throughout the state. At about 7:15 the shenanigans got started for the night with video montages of our electeds introducing themselves prior to them taking the stage to hand out the nights goodies:

Volunteers of the Year Award - Norma Welling, Jan Roller, Peggie Wilkinson & Reggie Bostic
Young Dem of the Year - Jay Goyal (Youngest Indian-American in Office)
County Chair of the Year - Ruby Gilliam
County Chair of the Year - Dennis Lieberman
Myrl Shoemaker Award - Bill Mason
Getrude W. Donahey Award - Barbara Sykes
Democrats of the Year - Sherrod Brown, Ted Strickland

I found it interesting that the Chris Redfern's once-rival, and former Montgomery County Democratic Party Chair, Dennis Lieberman was selected as one of the two "Chair['s] of the Year". Coming from Montgomery County, I've heard plenty of complaints about Dennis. Sure, Lieberman was a phenomenal chair in the mid to late 90's, but over time his drive disintegrated. Last year there was even a near crisis when Dennis disrespected labor over a brouhaha involving one of the Dem seats on the Board of Elections. Add that to Dennis' increasing unwillingness to expand his vision beyond safe Democrat races in the Dayton area, and you have a chairman that placed the party into a state of stagnation. However, Chris Redfern for the past year has attempted to patch up feelings in Montgomery County, and with Dennis, over the state chair race. Judging from Dennis' slick grin towards Chris as he walked off stage (I've got it on video, hopefully I'll get around to posting it) I'd wager that this award was more Chris' way of making amens than anything else.

Also, the Party let Senator Boccieri lead the Pledge of Allegiance and introduce the Chorus for the "National Anthem." Letting Boccieri stand up in front of the 4,000 assembled Democrats was a smart move on behalf of the party. Boccieri's running for Congress and he needs to establish his credentials statewide since his Congressional race against Ralphie Regula will be race worthy of statewide interest. However, it was disappointing that the party didn't work in opportunities for Steve Driehaus, Bill O'Neill, the OH-15 candidates, and Vic Wuslin. Those folks could use some love from ODP too...and I hope the party invests resources into their races.

As the night geared up to the main event, Chair Redfern made one comment that I'm sure the Governor gave him hell about later...Introducing Strickland, Chris stated "this isn't on my script...but Ted Strickland would make an extraordinary Vice President!" When Ted took the stage he encouraged folks interested in the state chairman position to speak with him later.

And then there was Hillary....