What Happens When Jaxon Appears on a Webcast

How did this happen?

Our Washington Democrats Executive Director Jaxon Ravens is a very persuasive fellow. This year, he did a live webcast of his How to Become A National Delegate session from the Annual Crab Feed and Grassroots Workshop...which I did not attend because it was far away in Lacey, and I had to be at the airport early the next morning to go to Austin to see Keara. But I did watch the webcast. It was later made into a more polished video production you can see here. Too late now! Better watch it by early 2016 if you want to make a run.

Jaxon made it seem like a possibility. I checked with a few of my favorite Democrats. They all said go for it. So, on the first filing day in April, in the throes of planning the precinct caucuses, I filed the Declaration of Candidacy for a National Delegate position. It wasn't much of a problem getting elected delegate to the County Convention and LD14 Sub Caucus. Then we elected 5 delegates and 2 alternates, a full slate for the Congressional District Caucus, which was held Sunday. Both of our alternates were seated due to absences elsewhere, which was very good for me - 2 more votes!

Now what? I spent Mother's Day creating a flyer and mailing labels for 125 delegates plus alternates. The next day, copies and stamps, folding and sealing, and all the letters were out by 3 pm. Next up was to make a postcard sized handout for the Caucus, and prepare a 2 minute speech. Do you know how little you can say in two minutes? My God, I talk too much. So I recalled Jaxon's advice to keep it focused, and tell people how you are different from the other candidates, so I hit on geography (only candidate from the new kids on the block) and Obama's win by 21 votes in 2008 in our 60-40 red county. County Republicans are still pissed about that.

The five minute speech went down to 3, then 2. I went to bed  early Saturday night...good thing, I woke up at 5 with new thoughts running through my head. I got up a half hour later and rewrote it. Our carpool to Vancouver was full of great conversation, and before I knew it, it was SHOWTIME. We walked into the school through a gauntlet of candidates. Hmmm, I guess I should be here, huh? So I passed out paper to delegates coming in, then made the rounds of tables. So far so good. Then we did our speeches. So far so good. Then the vote and announcements...Woman 1, Man 1, Woman 2, Man 2, no surprises so far in my opinion...then the big surprise....Woman 3 was ME!!!!