CT Blue

I now know why I wasn’t really all that enthusiastic about being a delegate to the state convention this year. It was some instinct, some nagging recollection from conventions past, and some premonition about the long slog this one, with all those contested nominations, was likely to be.

I’m not complaining about the outcome. Not everyone I voted for prevailed, but, then again, I didn’t feel strongly about some of those I supported and I wasn’t strongly opposed to any of their opponents, with the exception of Joe Ganim, whose primary win, were it to happen, would be an unmitigated disaster. But I don’t think we need worry about that.

It’s just that there has to be a better way to run a convention. Lon Seidman’s electronic voting system worked fine, after an initial bug was ironed out, but the efficiencies gained by that process were more than offset by the inefficiencies introduced or retained. After the votes were processed, time was set aside for people to change their votes. I suppose the thinking was that if a given candidate was oh-so-close to the 50% mark, a few changes might put him or her over the edge, and save the need for a second ballot. Well, if you think about it for a few seconds, you will quickly realize that the chance of that happening is fairly microscopic. In the one instance where it might have worked-when Clare Kindall dropped out and signaled her support for William Tong- the vote change period was almost over, and the changes that occurred were few and not all went to Tong. The process would actually have been faster had they simply used the initial results, no changes allowed, and swiftly gone to a second ballot, stopping only to let folks like Clare let their intentions be known. I suppose the opportunity to change votes is in the rules because politicians can’t cope with a system that doesn’t have a built in opportunity for arm twisting.

In brief, the process was interminable, exemplified by the fact that Ned’s victory party, slated to start at 5:00 PM, didn’t get started until around 8:30, at the earliest, by which time I was, blessedly, on my way home, having done my duty and stuck around until the last vote, if not the last speech. I suspect Shawn Wooden spoke to a near empty hall.

I would like to pause to salute William Tong, though I didn’t vote for him. His acceptance speech was refreshingly brief, a happy change from the long platitude filled speeches (and what else could one expect?) of those that had gone before. Perhaps he realized that people were becoming exhausted, so he kept his platitude filled speech short. I wouldn’t be surprised if his brief speech convinced many of his opponent’s supporters that he really was the best choice.

All this being said, I think we will end up, after the primaries, with a pretty good slate. We here in Connecticut have an uphill battle, given Malloy’s unpopularity, but I really think the candidates we have give us a decent shot. The Republicans will be running against Malloy, and we’ll no doubt, be running against Trump, who I sincerely hope will come here to Connecticut to campaign for the Republican slate. Let’s just hope the blue wave (caveat: I’m still confident the national Democrats can erect a dike to prevent it causing any damage to the Republicans) will deposit some Democratic winners on Connecticut’s shores.