A little over a month ago I received a call from the DC for Dean campaign, asking if I would be willing to serve as precinct captain for precincts 9 and 10 of Ward 3 (basically upper northwest DC, surrounding American University). As I had made it a goal this year of helping boot Bush from office, and I'm a Dean supporter, I had no problem saying yes. So far our activities have been mainly canvassing, but on Tuesday night I found myself at the St. Columba's Episcopal Church for the meeting of the Ward 3 Democrats.

Now, I've been a Democrat for a long time, but until this year never gotten active in politics, either with my time or money. I really had no idea what to expect, but I'm a registered Democrat and they couldn't very well tell me not to attend. As I stood in line talking with a woman whose kids supported Dean, but herself a Kerry supporter, I realized that the reason most people don't get involved in their local party activities is because they are confusing, boring, and time-consuming.

The reason I was at the Ward 3 meeting was for the election of a delegate to the "state" roll--basically, the person who would be going to the convention as the District's representative following the primary/caucus held here. However, some people were confused, because the night's meeting also was an introduction to the four candidates still on the ballot for the DC primary, so some people had thought they were showing up to vote/caucus for Dean, and had to be informed that that was for a later meeting.

The two people who ran for the delegate spot weren't quite night and day, but did differ remarkably. One, an older man who had previously been the executive director for the committee, had his own machine, if the other people at my table were an indication--the woman across from me said that "[he] had called her and given her instructions as to what to do tonight." His opponent was a two-year resident of the district, a fresh-faced part-time AU college student who had previously worked in Ted Kennedy's office and as a precinct captain for Kathy Patterson. Unfortunately, I don't know which one won, as I had to leave before it was announced.

However, I did stick around long enough to hear Carol Moseley Braun speak to the assembled Democrats. If I wasn't already such a Dean supporter, I might have had to support her in our primary, because her experience, her knowledge, and her vision for our country was a stirring indictment against Bush and his policy of division. The suprise in her speech was when she talked about how she was defeated when she re-ran from the Senate, a race I only vaguely recalled as having something to do with some financial irregularity on her part. It seems that she was Karl Rove's first victim, as he had been paid $800,000 by her opponent's campaign. She was cleared of the scandal, but not before she lost her seat, but enough that when Clinton appointed her as, in her words, "Ambassador to Paradise" (New Zealand and Samoa), the Senate confirmed her 98 to 2 (and one of those 2 was Jesse Helms, and we know about his belief on African-American women).

Braun doesn't have a chance at the nomination, unfortunately, and some say that she should have run for the Senate once again. In her words, that would have been to go backwards: she had already been there, she had done that. I think it a long shot that Dean would consider her as a running mate, although it would be a bold move and be reflective of the diversity and appeal of his campaign. My hope is that she can obtain a position in Dean's cabinet, as a woman of her intelligence and honesty is sorely needed, and it would be a shame to lose her skills to her family farm, which is where she had expected to spend the rest of her life before September 11.

Supposedly, Rev. Al Sharpton also was there to speak, but I had to leave (having not had anything to eat, and feeling somewhat less than myself due to a cold I picked up during my business trip to Chicago last week). Maybe next time.