Local Stories by Local People
updated: Jan 20, 2009, 12:00 AM

In the Martin Luther King Room, Obamania permeated local elections for delegates to the California Democratic Party State Convention
by David Pritchett, news correspondent and Dem Party Central Committee Member

Under the words "I Have a Dream" atop the Santa Barbara Eastside Library wall, enthusiasm and momentum for political change were manifest again during a vote of all interested Democrats held last week on Sunday (11 January 2009). Following a flurry of email campaigning the prior days, 175 Democrats residing in the 35th California Assembly District showed up and voted to elect the 6 men and 6 women to be the delegates from this area of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

These delegates will join about 3000 others who have voting status and "all rights and privileges" during the upcoming California Democratic Party State Convention, to be held 24-26 April 2009, in Sacramento. The future of the California Democratic Party will be shaped during this convention through numerous caucus meetings and when these delegates elect a new State Party Chair to replace retiring icon Art Torres, who has held the position since 1996.

The 2009 California State Convention also should feature more Democratic candidates for Governor than a burro can shake a stick at. The Governor-wannabes should be hosting late-night "receptions" with creative themes, such as the fave last year when homeboy Jack O'Connell filled a crowded room with March Madness basketball chotchkies, ice cream sundaes, and flowing Zinfadel.

During the 2008 State Convention held last year in San Jose, heady politics ruled with the ubiquitous Leno-Migden show, as well with the many national Superdelegates attending, who were all getting the hard sell from former President Bill Clinton, as Edhat news described then.

During the local delegate election held on 11th January, a slate of candidates --compiled and promoted by local Democratic uuber-activist and email Zen Mistress Barbie Deutsch-- swept the vote, as listed below. A few highly accomplished candidates from Ventura County --including power-Dems Katherine Holland and David Atkins-- made their stirring campaign speeches, but the hometown advantage let the Santa Barbarians seize the day.

The procedure that bright Sunday afternoon was for the voters to show up and register by 1400 hrs., and then either vote (with a paper trail, of course) and leave, or stay to hear a one-minute speech by the approximate 26 candidates chasing the 12, equally-gendered delegate spots.

Definitely not with Attention-Deficit Disorder, the ADDs (Assembly District Delegates) elected on 11th January were these: for the men, the 6 in this order of votes received were Tim Allison, Marshall Getto, Robert Potter, Wally Siewart, Dick Ellison, and Charles Clouse; for the women, these 6 in vote order were Michelle Williams, Jane Ellison, Barbie Deutsch, Kristen Aguanno, Caroline Vance, and Cassandra Engeman.

Biographies of these winning delegates are noted at the end of this news note.

State politics reporter Timm Herdt wrote up a short report at his Ventura County Star politics blogsite, which seems to be the only other newsy account of these new delegates.

As evidence of how the Obama movement has inspired new political engagement, 10 of these 12 elected ADDs are first-timers to the State Convention, and 4 of the 12 are UCSB students.

Out of the 175 voters participating in the ADD election, 60 stayed in the Library meeting room to see the one-minute pitches from the candidates, with 20 of the viewers from Ventura County. Veterans o

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David Pritchett reports Martin Luther King Room Obamania permeated elections delegates State Democratic Party Convention