We are now back, weary to the bone, from the 2010 Connecticut Democratic Convention, a convention that will surely go down in history because-well, because it just will, that’s why.
I am still somewhat piqued at the fact that I did not have access to wireless at the convention hall. I could have pecked stuff onto my Iphone, but I confess to having no patience for that.
So, everything that happened is now old news, so I’ll confine myself to some pictures and a little inside baseball stuff.
This picture of Blumenthal is a bit grainy, as it was taken Friday night with a wide angle lens on my little Lumix, and it’s severely cropped.
I brought my Canon with a telephone lens today, so the pictures from today should be better.
One suggestion for Blumenthal, something he might consider incorporating into his speeches, should the necessity arise: “The New York Times isn’t going to choose the next Senator from Connecticut, the people of Connecticut are going to decide that for themselves” or something along those lines. I’m convinced the Times has every intention of taking his scalp, if they can get it.
We Grotonites lucked out. We had front row seats, consequently I was able to get fairly close to the podium and could get some good shots of the eventual nominees, only one of which I actually voted for. They will be depicted in the order of their coming, starting with State Treasurer and fellow HPHS alumni, Denise Nappier.
Dan Malloy and his running mate.
Unfortunately, I missed George Jepsen.
Now we come to the most inexplicable event of the day, at least from my point of view. Maybe someone with a better appreciation for political strategy can help me out. Right about the time balloting started for Secretary of State, a rumor swept the hall (or at least made it’s way to our backwater) that Jonathan Harris had cut a deal with Gerry Garcia. Harris had, purportedly, agreed to pad Garcia’s vote count with his own delegates on the first ballot, thereby assuring Garcia would get to the primary, in return for which Garcia would drop out of the second ballot and throw all his delegates (Harris transfers and non-Harris transfers) to Harris, thereby giving Harris the endorsement. After the first ballot, Denise Merrill had, if memory serves, about 45% of the vote, Harris about 30%, and Garcia 25%. Garcia did, in fact, withdraw from the second ballot, urging all his supporters to back Harris as the second best candidate, as a result of which we see here the endorsed nominee:
Just to be clear, this is not Jonathan Harris. Here’s what I can’t understand. Why would Harris want to guarantee that there would be a three way primary? It appears to this weak minded individual that he stands to lose more votes to Garcia than Merrill. In any event, if the purported deal was made, it appears to have backfired on Harris. It happens that I voted for Garcia on the first ballot. Like, as it turned out, a great number of Garcia’s delegates, I wasn’t about to take orders from anyone about how I should vote on the second ballot, and switched to Merrill as did quite a few others, apparently.
There are, however, some people who are more than willing to take orders. The lock step voting of some towns, New Haven in particular, was, to me, appalling. That delegation unanimously turned on a dime on this vote, and voted unanimously on all other votes. It was heartening to see that these mass conversions weren’t enough to give the endorsement to Harris. It appears that the politicians are the last people to learn that the days of back room deals are pretty much over. The whole episode soured me on Garcia to the point where I’m now pretty certain I’ll vote for Merrill in the primary.
Anyway, if anyone can explain the logic of this deal to me, I’d love to hear it. If true, it was a great deal for Garcia, but what was in it for Harris?
The only first ballot vote I cast for a winner was for Kevin Lembo, who managed to please pretty much everyone by getting more that 50% of the vote in a four person race, thereby avoiding a second ballot. We got out of the place fairly early, hours before the Republicans finished.
So, here are my predictions, for what they’re worth. Lembo and Merrill win their primaries. As to the top of the ticket, in November we’ll be pulling for the Lamont-Wyman ticket.
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