By all accounts, Richmond County’s 2nd Annual Morrison-Deane-Goodman Democratic Dinner & Rally held on November 8th was a resounding success!
In 2006 the Richmond County Democratic Party hosted its first dinner and rally with this moniker and more than 500 people attended at the Hamlet Fairgrounds. Since this year – 2007 – is not an election year, we did not expect that same size crowd but were very pleased with the approximately 200+ Democrats who packed the patriotic-festooned American Legion Post 49 clubhouse in Hamlet.
And though the evening ran a little long due to the sheer number of candidates who attended, the 200+ attendees enjoyed an infusion of Democratic Party mainstays:
►A focus on education, better jobs, health care, fiscal responsibility, and ethics;
►A love of public service (including for our men and women who serve in the Armed Forces); and,
►Lots of Democratic blue (as opposed to Republican red?) meat and inspirational oratory.
Lighting the fuse for the rally was the re-election announcement and campaign fundraising reception for State Representative Melanie Wade Goodwin. Joining in the early festivities at the historic Hamlet Train Depot were Speaker Joe Hackney; Insurance Commissioner Jim Long; State Representatives Tricia Cotham, Pryor Gibson, Garland Pierce, and Doug Yongue; State Senators Walter Dalton (candidate for Lt. Governor), Bill Purcell and Janet Cowell (candidate for Treasurer); former State Senate Majority Leader Richard Conder; Congressional candidate Larry Kissell; Hampton Dellinger, former chief legal counsel for Gov. Easley and candidate for Lt. Governor; Zeb Smathers, son of Mayor Pat Smathers and candidate for Lt. Governor; Dan Besse, Lt. Governor candidate; Michael Weisel, a candidate for State Treasurer; Eddie Davis, NCAE President and candidate for Superintendent for Public Instruction; NC Democratic Party chairman Jerry Meek; countless other Statewide and regional candidates, local officials and supporters; and, of course, yours truly, the lesser half and immediate predecessor to Melanie in the legislature.
We were also especially pleased with the strong contingency of Cumberland County Democrats who carpooled together and attended both events. (Kudos to Roberta Waddle and Reva McNair for making the arrangements!)
See below a small sampling of photographs snapped throughout the evening.
Very soon I plan to have video of several of the candidates uploaded for your pleasure.
My plan is to highlight in separate blog postings most of the Statewide candidates and special guests who attended and spoke, as well as a summary of what House Speaker Joe Hackney shared with the assembled crowd. Expect to see the initial entries starting this week!
I encourage attendees and – most importantly – visiting candidates to share their feedback via the comments section here on the blog, BlueNC, or any other blog where this subject is cross-posted.
Meanwhile, do enjoy the local newspaper coverage about the event. Here’s the link: http://www.yourdailyjournal.com/articles/2007/11/09/news/news03.txt
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3 comments:
Wow, sorry I missed this. The video was great!
Due to a couple of inquiries, please note that Wayne's World will be posting individual entries about each of the candidates who visited Richmond County for last Thursday's rally and dinner.
This feature was already mentioned in the initial summary posting, but several folks did not pick up on it so I wanted to emphasize this separately as a comment.
Each entry will feature a photo, candidate bio, a summary of what the candidate said during the dinner and rally, a link to the campaign website, etc. Each posting will be sent to subscribers to Wayne's World and others.
Candidates are encouraged to provide me any additional info that they'd wish to be included. It will be used at my discretion and in a manner that gives no candidate in attendance any major advantage over another.
Also, I encourage supporters of each candidate to make comments to the individual postings if so inclined.
Thanks to all!
Though she was unable to attend the Morrison-Deane-Goodman Dinner due to a prior commitment, the fiance of Beth Wood did attend and speak at the dinner rally. And a fine job he did! I will be publishing an individual blog entry on Beth's campaign in the near future. ... In the meanwhile, her photo has been added to my December 21, 2007 post.
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