Democratic National Convention

My mother, Pearl, always gave great advice in life. "Always wait a half hour after eating at the beach before you go swimming." "Finish your food. Children are starving in Europe [or alternatively, China, when I noticed that children were fat in France]." And she warned me to clean up after myself when visiting someone's house. And she gives good advice to this day.
 
Obviously, however, this is not something Bill or Hillary Clinton followed. It seems they both left their crumpled up pre-speech "To Do" lists on the podium at the Democratic National Convention. Fortunately, because of my wide spread connections in the world of politics, I knew the staffers who cleaned up, and they forwarded to me the actual notes themselves, warts and all.

Check back next week to view my Convention Sketchpads from the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

DENVER -- Former Assembly candidate Cid Wilson, who ran and aborted a primary campaign against District 37 Assembly members Gordon Johnson and Valerie Vainieri-Huttle, said today that he may run again.

“The answer is that I’m exploring all my options, and I very much believe that regardless of what I decide to do, I’m going to be an active leader in Bergen County, because I’ve always cared about the issues affecting Bergen County,” he said.  “I’m giving it a very strong look, and I am leaning towards running.”

Jersey City Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis met one of his idols tonight.    

Among the familiar faces milling about the crowd in the Massachusetts delegation, seated just behind New Jersey, was a former presidential candidate and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who almost exactly 20 years ago took the podium himself.

Matsikoudis greeted him in Greek. 

“It was the first election that really grabbed me and got me hooked on politics.  I was inspired for a couple reasons – one it was the first time I paid attention to the issues, and I just found him to be on the smart side of the issues,” said Matsikoudis, 37.  “And of course as a Greek American, I was also moved by his candidacy.”

So Bon Jovi didn’t open for Barack Obama. Bruce Springsteen didn’t cap it off. The delegates didn’t exactly have prime seats. But for all the lack of recognition New Jersey’s delegates felt at this week’s convention, those interviewed by PolitickerNJ tonight felt that Obama was speaking directly to them.

There were so many tears on Mile High Stadium’s temporary floor that it was practically a slipping hazard.

U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, who was arguably the face of Obama’s New Jersey campaign, said the speech was outstanding.

“He presented a clear and eloquent case for why this country so desperately needs change and why he is supremely capable by his experience, his judgment and his temperament to lead this country to a new day,” he said.

United States Rep. Frank Pallone, who was one of Rep. Rob Andrews’s harshest critics during his primary run, today introduced him at the Democratic delegation’s breakfast today as the “great congressman from South Jersey.”

Pallone said that he appreciated the way Andrews handled the aftermath of the primary against Frank Lautenberg, reaching out to mend relations as soon as the primary was over.

DENVER -- State Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham still hasn’t made a decision about whether she’ll run for mayor of Jersey City.  And that’s as much as she’ll say on the subject.

“I don’t know yet,” she said.  “I’d rather not answer any of the stuff relating to that right now.”

Although Cunningham is staying in the same hotel as incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy, both said that they had not discussed anything about the mayor’s race during their time at the convention or, for that matter, ever (whether people close to them are talking about it is a different matter). 

A New Jersey Congressman says that former White House advisor Karl Rove is going to hell: Getty Images Photo
DENVER -- Speaking in front of the New Jersey delegation this morning, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) said that former White House official Karl Rove – for years President Bush’s closest advisor – is going to hell.

Pascrell said that the last eight years have been full of squandered opportunities and missteps, both domestically and internationally, and pinned the blame squarely on the Bush Administration.

“We might have missed the last eight years because folks did not tell us the truth,” he said. “Dante’s Inferno laid out very specifically the very levels receding into hell. And the hottest place is reserved for those who distort the truth, who manipulate our minds, or who attempt to do it, anyway. So I don’t think Bush and Cheney will be at the hottest point in the inferno, but I sure as hell know that Karl Rove will be.”

Garden State Equality Chair Steven Goldstein is a Clinton delegate from New JerseyDENVER -- With a captive audience, leadership of the LGBT advocacy organization Garden State Equality made a push this morning for legislation that would legalize gay marriage in New Jersey.

The group even opened the floor to ask for new legislative co-sponsors to the current bill. Assembly members Gordon Johnson, Joan Quigley, Pamela Lampitt and Nellie Pou all signed on, as did State Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham.

Chair Steven Goldstein lead the group’s efforts, detailing a recent poll that the group conducted on the issue and several state races and drawing their attention to Speaker Joseph Roberts’s support of gay marriage. But Goldstein made his most powerful appeal by telling a personal story.