Lucy and Ethel's Great Political Adventure

Sunday afternoon myself and Lynne from Left in Lowell went to the Westborough DTC/MW and Alliance Dems annual holiday party. What a shindig! I'm not a fixture on the party circuit by any means, but I have been to enough functions to know the basics:

1. Sign-in so the hosts have an idea of who attended. There is usually a gauntlet of campaign staffers trying to add you to their mailing/announcements lists too.

2. Grab a name tag. Fill it out l-e-g-i-b-l-y. Very important.

3. Find the drinks. I tend to stick to water and lots of it. Hold it in your left hand so you can shake hands with your right.

And... you're ready to mingle.

First stop, naturally was to say hello to the hostess with the mostess, Kate Donaghue. She's awesome to host this gigantic party in her home. Kate will be facilitating a break-out session at the BlogLeft conference next weekend, so I wanted to be sure to introduce her to Lynne.

There were so many people there, I honestly lost track. I'll just run them off here in no particular order.

Tom Reilly stopped by for a quick visit. And when I say quick, I mean seriously quick. Lynne and I happened to be close to the door when he arrived, so he shook our hands as he went by (did I mention quickly?) and off he went. He did a quick lap around the house and was g-o-n-e... like *poof* I think I saw maybe four people wearing Reilly buttons. There were a lot of folks there with Deval Patrick stickers or buttons on, so maybe that was a factor. (maybe?) :-)

While Lynne and I were standing in the kitchen thinking, "Hey, was that Tom Reilly?" we noticed fellow blogero and all around good guy Michael Forbes Wilcox I'll have more to say about him further down this post.

We had a great conversation with Deval Patrick Campaign Manager, John Walsh. John talked about how he likes the blogs, particularly Blue Mass Group (and really, who doesn't like BMG?), but doesn't have a lot of time to read them. By this point, Michael Forbes came over to join us and we had a very lively discussion about blogs, the upcoming BlogLeft conference and how blogs have been covering issues, candidates and the special elections with more depth than our local newspapers.

After that it was candidates, candidates, candidates.

We spoke to Lt. Governor candidate Sam Kelley about blogs. He does read them, so he is aware that some bloggers and commenters are not exactly confident of his chances of getting on the primary ballot. He is a very nice guy to talk to. His campaign blog is one of the best out there of the LG candidates. Very nicely done with lots of mulitmedia stuff and a blog. Good job.

Next up was Lt. Governor candidate Andrea Silbert. I am supporting Andrea so I was glad to talk a bit about why I am supporting her and to introduce her to Lynne. Lynne asked some very good pointed questions of Andrea that I'm sure she'll cover on her blog Left in Lowell.

I saw Lt. Governor candidate Deborah Goldberg, but we didn't get a chance to speak with her. She wasn't at the party very long.

To round out the Lt. Governor candidates, we spoke with Worcester Mayor Tim Murray. The Honorable Mayor will be stopping by the BlogLeft conference next Saturday, so we took the opportunity to talk to him about the conference. He is looking forward to stopping by and meeting more bloggers.

We said hello to Middlesex DA candidate Jarrett Barrios. Lynne told Jarrett that she had written about his campaign on his blog and told him that the only knock she had on him (and it's not really a knock) is that he is the only person she knows who talks more and faster than she does. We had a good laugh about that.

Next up was Middlesex DA candidate Mike Festa. Lynne told Mike that she was interested in interviewing him for her blog and Mike said, "Hey, why not now?" So they proceded to have at it. Mike Festa is a very interesting politician. He comes across as a very regular guy. He's not shy about his accomplishments, but he doesn't speak in that bullet-point language that some politicians do. He also is known to say mild curses when he really gets going, and that just adds to his regular guy-ness. I think Lynne was surprised. I'm interested to see what she has to say about this encounter on her blog.

While we were talking to Mike Festa, there was a buzz brewing in the background. The energy in the room was noticibly heightened. I knew who it was even before I saw him walk through the door, it was Deval Patrick. There was already a lot of folks in the room, but when Deval Patrick walked in that number easily doubled. Deval made his way over to say hello to Mike Festa. Manly hugs ensued. Deval stopped for a moment and I was able to say hello and introduce him to Lynne. In my introduction I mentioned that Lynne blogged at Left in Lowell.com and Deval said that he "loved that blog." ( I was so psyched for Lynne!) Deval was swooped off into a crowd of supporters and Lynne and I continued our conversation with Mike Festa. We tried to track Deval down a bit later, but we caught up with him just as he was headed off to yet another fundraiser.

We had been standing and talking for hours and by now we were both spent. Time to head home. It was a fantastic party and I had a great time. We didn't spill our drinks on anyone, so it's all good. I'm glad that Lynne was able to come along. I'm looking forward to reading her thoughts on the whole thing on her blog.


Note: Yeah, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, I am futzing around with my margins. I have a lot of thoughts and it's hard sometimes for them to fit neatly in the usual space given by Blogger. I'm going to see if this helps before I attempt the expandable post summaries hack. Thanks for your patience.