CONVENTION NOTEBOOK FINALE

More tales from the Democratic Convention
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 1, 2004

BOSTON _ Pundits and critics have complained that last week’s Democratic convention was a scripted production without a trace of spontaneity or real drama.

Indeed, Wednesday morning at the New Mexico delegation breakfast, John Pound -- a Santa Fe lawyer who headed John Kerry’s state campaign during the New Mexico Presidential Caucus season -- discussed plans for a t.v. moment that would take only a few seconds later that night -- the ritual roll call vote, when all the state delegations official cast their votes for Kerry.

At the convention, Pound was one of two New Mexicans who, during the floor sessions, was stationed in “The Tank,” a room that in Pound’s words, was in “the bowels” of the FleetCenter. His job was where his job was to keep an eye on how the delegation looked on television. He had to make sure the delegates held up the right sign at the right time, etc.

As far as Wednesday night’s roll call was concerned, New Mexico’s Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who was the head of the delegation, would do the talking for the delegation. The question, Pound said, was who would get to gather around the lieutenant governor when she cast the vote.

“It’s a human tendency to want to get up by the New Mexico banner to be on television,” Pound told the delegates. But he said delegation leaders were deciding on which people would get to surround Denish for that moment. He said the decision would be made on factors including ethnicity, gender and other factors, the goal being to reflect the state’s diversity.

Stand-off on Canal Street
But early Thursday evening there was a potential outburst of drama and spontaneity outside of the convention hall that few wanted to take place -- a confrontation between police and protesters.

Earlier in a week a Boston police officer walking through the so-called “Free Speech Zone,” a stark fenced-off area near the FleetCenter, told a reporter while the protests had been low-key up to that point, large numbers of “anarchists” to come to town on the last day of the convention.

“We’re calling Thursday `D-Day,” the officer said.

Indeed, Thursday saw a large influx of anti-war protesters. A few hundred marched up Canal Street to the barricades on Causeway Street near the convention center. Someone burned an double-sided effigy of Kerry and George W. Bush and police responded quickly.

Hundreds of black-clad, helmeted riot police, with chest and shin pads and ominous night sticks formed rows and pushed the protesters back a few yards. And there they stood for the next hour or so in a tense stand-off.

On the other side of the fence on Causeway Street, out of the view of the protesters -- but right in from of the media pavilion next to the convention hall -- another battalion of riot police gathered in rows. Reporters watched from the outside stairway as the officers prepared to replace their fellows on the front line.

But despite the obvious tension, on Canal Street, at the line where police stood almost nose to nose with the demonstrators, it didn’t seem that anyone really wanted violence.

A few yards back from the front line, a man with a bullhorn congratulated the demonstrators for standing up to the police and not backing down.

But none of the protesters were baiting the cops. And though the officers looked grim and Darth Vaderish in their black uniforms and helmets, beneath their visors were worried expressions of men who looked like they’d rather be almost anywhere else.

Things had gotten calm enough that reporter Amy Goodman of the left-wing radio and television show Democracy Now! was able to sit on the ground right up on the front line to tape interviews with demonstrators as police loomed above just a couple of feet away.

As protesters began drifting away, one Boston cop watching the action from about a block away on Canal Street agreed that the storm had apparently passed -- at least for Boston. In fact, according to press reports, the day ended with no serious injuries and only three protest-related arrests.

However he added ominously, “This wasn’t `D-Day.’ You know when `D-Day’ is? August 29, that’s when `D-Day’ is.”

August 29 is the day before the Republican National Convention starts in New York City. Far more protesters are expected there.

Amy, What You Gonna Do?
A few hours after the stand-off, gadfly Goodman had a confrontation with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.


She caught Richardson immediately after he had been on a panel discussion on Larry King Live to talk about Kerry’s acceptance speech.

Though Richardson normally is eager to appear on national media, this time apparently he wasn’t.

Here’s a transcript of the brief encounter, cut short by the governor, posted on the Democracy Now! website:

Goodman: Governor Richardson,-- is Kerry’s foreign policy an escalation? He’s talking about more troops in Iraq and talking about the Sharon policy. I'm Amy Goodman with Democracy Now! Radio and Television.

Richardson: No. Senator Kerry is an internationalist. He wants to operate our foreign policy with our alliances, with our allies, and not go it alone.

Goodman: But he's talking about, he's talking about more proof —
Richardson: I'm sorry. Please get that out of my way.

Assumedly the “that” Richardson referred to was Goodman’s microphone.

Salsa as Security Threat
My only bad encounter with authority at the convention was Thursday afternoon when convention security confiscated my jar of Bill Richardson salsa at the X-ray machine in front of the FleetCenter.

The New Mexico delegation was giving away the promotional salsa -- actually it’s Garduno’s restaurant salsa with a promotional label -- at its daily breakfast meetings and at the convention itself.

A delegate had given me a jar at breakfast and I’d stuffed it in my laptop case. I hadn’t thought of any possible problems in getting it through security. After all, the night before comic/commentator Mo Rocca had shown a jar of the salsa during a segment on Larry King Live.

But when the security X-ray machine at the media entrance spotted the jar in my case, an officer told me that I couldn’t take it in. They had nothing against hot sauce or even Richardson. It was the glass jar that concerned them.

He put the salsa on the ground under the machine -- along with seven or eight other jars of Richardson’s salsa.

I went back to retrieve my jar when leaving FleetCenter after Kerry’s speech. However, an officer told me that all the salsa had been emptied and thrown away.

RICHARDSON'S CONVENTION SPEECH

I'm back to Santa Fe. Home to the sopapilla!

For reasons only known to The New Mexican's web staff, my story on the lukewarm reaction to Gov. Bill Richardson's convention piece didn't appear on the paper's free web site today. So I'll post it here:

(But before we get to that, here's the link to my story earlier this week on the Dems' anti-Ralph Nader effort)

Here's the speech article:

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 30, 2004

BOSTON — As part of the buildup to Thursday’s address by John Kerry, Gov. Bill Richardson took his turn as a speech giver on Wednesday.

But some New Mexicans who heard his speech at the Democratic National Convention said it wasn’t in the same league as those delivered by some of the heavy hitters who took the podium this week.

Some thought Richardson’s speech Wednesday might have suffered because it came so soon after the Rev. Al Sharpton’s stemwinder, which electrified the FleetCenter.

In his speech, which started out in Spanish, Richardson talked about his background as a former congressman representing Northern New Mexico and a cabinet member in the Clinton administration. He then spoke about why he thinks it’s important to elect John Kerry as president.

Most New Mexico delegates interviewed Thursday said they thought the governor did “pretty good,” or said, “It went OK.”

One even said, “He’s a good orator.” But some delegates qualified their assessments by saying it was hard to hear Richardson’s speech because of all the talking and commotion on the floor.

Notably, there was little talking and commotion when Sharpton or Illinois senatorial candidate Barack Obama spoke.

One delegate said she thought Richardson’s speech was aimed more at the television audience than the people in the convention hall.

Other New Mexicans who heard the speech were more critical.
“It was mediocre at best,” said one Democrat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I thought it sucked,” said a delegate. “But I thought Ted Kennedy’s speech and (Richard) Gephardt’s speech sucked too.”

Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley defended his boss’s convention address.

Alluding to Sharpton and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, Shipley said, “It was a night of great speeches. The governor’s speech fit in quite well.”

Richardson’s speech wasn’t broadcast on any commercial television networks, though PBS and CSPAN carried it, gubernatorial spokesman Billy Sparks said.

Sparks said Richardson wasn’t disappointed by the speech’s limited exposure. Richardson had been interviewed on a couple of cable news shows shortly before the speech, he said.

Though Richardson’s speech didn’t make it onto CNN, his face made it onto Larry King Live — on a jar of salsa.

Comic/commentator Mo Rocca showed a jar of the promotional hot sauce that the New Mexico delegation has been giving away in Boston.

“This is much better than the Barbara Mikulski pico de gallo,” Rocca quipped, referring to a U.S. senator from Maryland.

CONVENTION NOTEBOOK DAY 4

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 30, 2004

BOSTON _ The trip to Boston was more than a political convention for one New Mexico delegate. Glorieta Nieto of santa Fe announced at Thursday’s delegation breakfast that this weekend she will marry her 14-year partner Jo Kenny.

Massachusetts, thanks to a state Supreme Court decision, is the only state where gay marriage is legal.

The delegation cheered the announcement and several members came up to the couple to express congratulations.

“This is very gratifying,” Nieto said. “Four years ago it made our delegation very uncomfortable whenever I tried to discuss gay marriage,” she told a reporter.

Nieto is a member of the Democratic National Committee and is vice chairwoman of the convention’s Gay and Lesbian Caucus.

Nieto and Kenny will be married Saturday by a justice of the peace at a Boston bed and breakfast called Newberry Guest House.

Singing for Lyndon

There has been a strangely diverse array of music at the convention. Acts who have appeared on stage include country titan Willie Nelson, gospel/soul great Mavis Staples, hip hopsters The Black Eyed Peas, ‘80s farm-belt rock John Cougar Mellencamp and folkies Peter, Paul and Mary.

But perhaps the strangest music heard around the convention was that of a group of young people devoted to political extremist and perrenial candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

A group of 30-40 LaRouche-ites marched through the second level of the Sheraton Boston Thursday morning as Democrats were scurrying between meetings and caucuses. The LaRouche bunch carried banners for their man, passed out copies of LaRouche’s “A Real Democratic Platform for Nov. 2004, all while singing a spooky sounding but moving multi-harmony song. One member said the melody was that of a Mozart piece, but the lyrics were written for the cause:

“Dubious is the convention/If LaRouche you fail to mention ... As long as you deny as truth/that this economy is doomed/You lie/We die ...”

The group marched out of the hotel, stopping near the entrance to sing several more songs -- including a version of “We Shall Overcome” with verses insulting John Kerry and Vice President Dick Cheney -- in front of the entrance before dispersing.

The Family That Sleeps Together

Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards made a brief but well-received appearance at the New Mexico delegation breakfast Thursday.

He got a laugh when he said his wife had promised their young children that if they behaved, they could sleep in their bed.

“That made for a long night,” Edwards said.

Edwards told a reporter that New Mexico was one of 5-10 delegations he’d spoken to that morning.

A spokesman for Attorney General Patricia Madrid -- who was Edwards’ state campaign manager for his presidential caucus campaign -- said Edwards invited Madrid and her husband Mike Messina to join the Edwards family in their box seat overlooking the convention center to watch Kerry’s acceptance speech.

MORE CONVENTION COVERAGE AT NEW MEXICAN SITE

In case you're having a hard time finding my other convention stories on The New Mexican's website, here's some quick links.

*Story about the FREE SPEECH ZONE

*Story about the MANY PARTIES for the New Mexico delegation and who's paying for it

*MY PREVIEW of the Democratic National Convention

CONVENTION NOTEBOOK DAY 3

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 29, 2004

BOSTON _ A couple of weeks ago reporters across the country received an e-mail saying “please join us” at a panel discussion called “Funny But True: Important Issues in 2004,” to be held Wednesday at The Shubert Theatre.

The advertised panelists included former Bill Clinton aide Paul Begala and actors Chevy Chase, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin. The panel would discuss “the humorous side of politics.”

However, on Wednesday, when some of the reporters who had been invited and had made the trek to Boston’s theater district were told by official-looking guys at the door that the panel discussion was not open to the press. They gave no explanation for retracting the invitation to the funny forum.

Looks like the joke was on the press.

One reporter speculated the Democrats, who are so intent about keeping a positive tone, were afraid that one of the celebrities might pull a Whoopi Goldberg and say something outlandish that the Republicans would seize upon.

The Whoopie-Cushion Vote

Just down the street from the Shubert Theatre is the “world famous” Jack’s Joke Shop, a business specializing in fake vomit, snakes that pop out of cans, magic tricks and costumes. The shop originally opened in 1922 and touts itself as “America’s Oldest Active Joke Shop.”

When a reporter walked in, the owner, Harold Bengin was on the phone with a supplier, ordering more George W. Bush masks.

In the course of a conversation with the reporter, Bengin said, “You’re from New Mexico. You’ve got a great governor. I wouldn’t have been too sad if Kerry had picked him for vice president.”

Bengin noted that Gov. Bill Richardson had been a student at Tufts University in Boston.

“I don’t know if he was into pranks when he was here, so I don’t know if he ever came in this shop,” Bengin said.

But other politicians have been in the store. “About 12 years ago John Kerry came in with his daughter. I think she made him take her here.”

Wooing Hispanics
The Democrats are very serious about the importance of the Hispanic vote in the upcoming election. Some of the parties heaviest hitters spoke Wenesday morning to the Latino Caucus.

Among the star-studded speaker list were Teresa Heinz Kerry -- who asked to be “one of you Hispanics, honorary” --, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe and former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros.

And though several pundits have commented on former Massasschusetts Gov. -- and 1988 Democratic presdential candidate -- Michael Dukakis not being invited to speak at the convention itself, Dukakis received a standing ovation from the Latino Caucus.

Also speaking was New Mexico’s attorney general, Patricia Madrid, who urged Democrats to not only work hard on getting out the vote, but to read current political books to be better informed on the issues.

Several speakers emphasized the likely closeness of the presidential race and to assume there will only be a one-vote margin.

New Mexico House Speaker Ben Lujan, who attended the session, said he expects the margin to be much wider. In this state he said he expects Kerry to carry 70-75 percent of the Hispanic vote.

“The trick is to get them to the polls,” he said.

CONVENTION NOTEBOOK DAY 2

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 28, 2004

BOSTON _ One of our swing states is missing.

Just when New Mexico Democrats are feeling good about all the attention the state’s delegation is receiving thanks to being a swing state in the close presidential contest and for Gov. Bill Richardson being the convention chairman, here comes a big ugly snub.

In the National Journal’s special Convention Daily there is a front-page story about the Sheraton Boston Hotel being host to “the Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia delegations -- all of them swing states that are crucial to a presidential victory.”

But another delegation also is staying at the Sheraton from one of those states between Texas and Arizona.

Busy Day for N.M. Delegation

Unlike the past few days when there were plenty of parties, cruises, clambakes and other organized activities for the state’s delegation, Tuesday was relatively loose, delegates said.

Some delegates went to various caucuses and workshops. Some went to a screening of Farenheit 911, sponsored by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employess, at which filmaker Michael Moore himself spoke.

And a handful of sleepy delegates who partied too late the night before reportedly got encouragement from state Democratic Chairman John Wertheim to not miss any more delegation breakfasts.

Tuesday’s breakfast included appearances of national Democratic Chairman Terry McAullife and one of John Kerry’s Vietnam swiftboat crewmates.

Traffic, Security Fears Overblown?

For weeks before the convention, Boston locals and even some Democratic officials expressed the fear that traffic would be so congested and security would be so overbearing, movement around the city would be next to impossible.

But two days into the convention, the buzz around Boston is that neither traffic nor security seems to be that big of a deal.

A National Parks Service ranger at the Boston Commons, said Tuesday that afternoon that usually by this time there were about 400-500 pedestrains passing by the park on a normal summer weekday.

“So far I’ve counted about 40,” he said. “I think a lot of locals left town.”

“Traffic seems lighter than usual,” a shuttle van driver told reporters Monday. He said he thinks the dire predictions about clogged streets prompted many locals to take vacations this week.

Security, to be sure, is very visible -- you can’t go very far around the area surrounding the convention center without seeing local and state police, Secret Service agents and even National Guard members. A helicopter hovers around the downtown area. Several streets are blocked and the subway station at Fleet Center is closed.

Those entering the center must pass through a metal detector.

But given these facts, there doesn’t seem to be much tension over security.

“I’ve had no problems getting in and out of the center,” said Ernesto Chavez, a delegate from Albuquerque. “I thought there would be from what I’d seen on t.v.”

Wertheim said, “I think the city of Boston did a good job in planning for traffic and security.”

A police officer near the FleetCenter said that things have gone easy for police so far. “I think we only had one arrest Monday,” she said.

But she said she’ll be happier when it’s over. Officers have been working 12-hour shifts, she said.

GREETINGS FROM BOSTON

I've been lax on the blog for the past few days, I know. Teetering on exhaustion yesterday. Apparently lost a company camera. But I'm still alive.

The New Mexican published my main story today, but not the "notebook" sidebar. I'll run that below. I'll post Wednesday's in a few hours:

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 27, 2004


BOSTON -- The New Mexico delegation is headquartered at the Boston Sheraton downtown. The hotel is exploding with convention activity. Besides all the people milling about - many of them New Mexico political folk - the first thing you see when entering the lobby is a vending table. There's a whole array of $22 T-shirts -- among them one featuring John Kerry in a Paul Revere hat with the caption "The New Boston 'D' Party."

There's also a galaxy of buttons -- standard Kerry-Edwards pins at the table by the front door. But one floor up, where most of the people walking around are there for the Democratic convention, the buttons sold at another vending table take on an edgier anti-Bush tone. Some of the buttons have slogans such as "Read My Lips, No New Texans." One refers to the controversy surrounding Bush's National Guard service, "Where was George Bush May 1972 - April 1973." Another declares, "Somewhere in Texas There's a Village Missing Its Idiot."

There are Kerry-Edwards golf balls, Kerry-Edwards coffee mugs, Kerry-Edwards shot glasses and Kerry-Edwards polo shirts selling for $50.

Going to the Chapel

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish jokingly told a reporter Monday that she will soon be resigning to take up a singing career. The night before, at a party for the New Mexico delegation sponsored by Southern Pacific Railroad, a five-man doo-wop group called North Shore Acappella performed an after-dinner set. At one point the group called six women in the audience, including Denish, to perform the old Dixie Cups hit "Chapel of Love."

"My husband Herb has a beautiful tenor voice," the lieutenant governor said. "When he found out I was singing in public, he was rather disheartened."

Meanwhile, at a breakfast for the state delegation, Denish advised fellow delegates not to be disheartened by transportation problems in traffic-choked Boston.

"We're going to be waiting for several hours to get in and out of the (convention) center," she said. "It's not going to get any shorter if your string gets short."

Embedded Delegate

Normally reporters don't interview other reporters, but one new CNN reporters also happens to be a delegate from New Mexico.

Frances Williams of Las Cruces, a delegate for Wesley Clark, is one of four delegates "deputized" by CNN to give daily reports. The network issued Williams and the other three video cameras to record interviews and convention events from a delegate's perspective.

"It's like a reality show about delegates," Williams said Sunday.

Williams said CNN isn't paying her, but she's loving her new gig.

She was excited about one of her first interviews -- the celebrated sleaze/talk show ringmaster Jerry Springer, who has been cited at various convention-related events.