I arrived at a crowded hall when Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi appeared. No entourage, he just walked in and starts working the room. Garamendi is tall and looks fit. He does not look to be 64 years old.
Garamendi was the first on to speak. He is quite the policy wonk. Of course, that befits his years of experience in Washington and Sacramento. He is polished and thoughtful. You can tell he always wanted to be governor.
The next person to speak was State Senator Mark DeSaulnier. I have watched Desaulnier grow over the years from bar keeper to Mayor, to County Supervisor, to State Assemblyman to State Senator. Wow, what a career. And to top it off, he held his own against the Lieutenant Governor. He was head to head with Garamendi when they talked legislation. Desaulnier would be a great Congressman.
Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan could not make it as she was supposedly at a previously scheduled meeting in Sacramento. Instead, she had her son speak for her.
The next three candidates were interesting. There was some dapper young lawyer fellow who was extremely long winded.
Then there was Adriel Hampton of Dublin, a San Francisco Attorney’s Office investigator. Hampton made the case that he is part of a new generation of progressive pols who are ready to take over from the old bulls.
The most compelling speaker who could have an interesting future was Anthony Woods. Woods is a graduate of the military academy at West Point. Black and gay, Woods is a veteran of Iraq War II as a US Army officer, he led soldiers in combat. He also has a Masters Degree from the prestigious Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. I don’t think he has a chance of winning now but down the road this fellow could be an interesting candidate.
The main message for the evening is that each of the candidates wants to go to Washington to help out President Obama. All in all it was a very civilized event and entertaining. It is amazing the wealth of riches in terms of opportunities for elected office and quality candidates the Democrats are able to field.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I too was at the TriValley meeting and asked about the Afghanastan (as distinct from Iraq War) and whether the candidates would vote for the budget allocations, having noted that they will really have only a simple choice in the new job in a few months to either vote yes or not. DeSaulnier, after a few feisty comments say emphatically that he would vote for the budget items along with Woods, and Bothwell; Buchanan’s Representative did not answer at all (I think he was accidentally skipped), Adriel Hampton said he would not vote for the funding, Garemendi went on a tanget about needing more Peace Corps type stuff but never clearly answered the question. It was clear who was the professional politician amongst the group, though that is not that attractive to me.
The meeting was quite open and there was a fairly diverse group present including non-Democrats who were nevertheless welcomed and blended it.
By the way the dapper young lawyer fellow… was not that young as he was from the Vietnam war military days, and he (Bothwell) was not a formal candidate he was simply there saying he was ‘thinking’ of running.
I noticed this story about the forum as well:
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2009/05/19/hampton-and-garamendi-shine-in-ca-10-candidates-forum/
(Mr. post to the Lt. Governor on Facebook) – Mr. Garamendi, Please click on the attached link. I noticed in this story, you spoke to a group on May 18th. When an audience member asked you what you thought of legislation proposed by Ron Paul – calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve (H.R.1207) – your response was:
Garamendi: “I won’t comment on a bill I haven’t read, but I’ll read it and get back to you.”
On May 11th, you spoke at Las Positas College and I personally asked you about H.R.1207. You gave me the exact same response. In fact you said that you would get back to me, and never did. As mentioned in the article, the bill is only one page.
If we can’t expect you to read a popular one page bill (that has 175 co-sponsors) in over a week’s time…. What are we to expect of you if you were elected to Congress? After all, we are not talking about a 1,000 page Stimulas Package here.
I would like to know your position on H.R.1207! Do you support it?
By the way, I reside in Congressional District 10. – Walter Stanley
Renegade, I gots to know, who was the
“dapper young lawyer fellow who was extremely long winded.”