Demand Progress’s efforts to secure Internet freedom language in the Republican platform were successful: Anybody abiding by the new platform would’ve opposed SOPA and CISPA — the privacy obliterating cyber-security bill that passed the House a few months ago, but is dead (at least for now) in the Senate. Now it’s the Democrats’ turn. You can read more about our work on this front over here. (Yep, that’s a link to Fox News.)
I’ll be spending a lot of time at the Progressive Central hub, sponsored by Progressive Democrats of American, The Nation, and others. There’s an impressive series of speakers and panels which you can watch live here.
The line-up includes the likes of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Michael Dukakis, and several of our progressive champions in Congress, like John Conyers and Raul Grijalva, who’ll be speaking to critical issues that aren’t likely to get much play on the main stage: Wall Street run amok, the narrow concentration of wealth in America, corporate control of government, and more.
I’m speaking on this panel tomorrow morning:
]]>10:15 to 11:10 Guided Discussion: We the People, Not We the Corporations—Ending Corporate Rule.
John Nichols—Moderator
Steve Cobble—Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)
David Cobb—Move to Amend
David Segal—Demand Progress
CHARLOTTE, NC — The Democratic National Convention kicked off this morning with a press conference previewing the week and repeatedly stressing two key messages: that the convention is the most open and accessible in history, and that a key Obama campaign theme will be “rebuilding America from the middle class out.”
The 50-minute presser featured DNCC Chair Steve Kerrigan, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, Convention Chair Los Angeles Mayor Antionio Villaraigosa, DNC Secretary Alice Germond, and Obama for America Press Secretary Ben LaBolt.
The main news from the session was that the draft platform will be distributed to all delegates when they arrive in the hall tomorrow, and that Georgia Rep. John Lewis has been selected as Sergeant-at-arms for the proceedings.
“It’s been incredible to see the ground energy for this convention and this President,” said Foxx, who expressed pride that Charlotte was hosting its first major political convention in 150 years, and while he predicted a close race, he expressed optimism about Obama carrying the state again in 2012. “The people of North Carolina understand that this President has had their back.”
Just as the convention four years ago in Denver helped the campaign focus the energy of its 25,000 local volunteers, Villaraigosa said that Charlotte would do the same for North Carolina. “This is the start of a new way to engage in the political process,” he said, promising a “working convention,” that would engage and energize volunteers and participants as well as laying out a vision and articulating a path forward.
And the people doing that work on the delegate side represent a true cross-section of America, said Germond, noting that among the 5,556 delegates and 407 alternates — 50% of them women– there were increases in African-American, Latino, and youth representation, with a record 644 young delegates, including 285 students. “In many cases, this is their very first convention,” she said. “We will learn from them.”
In the Q&A, LaBolt responded to a question about the significance of today’s Gallup results which found Romney’s convention speech last week produced only a marginal bump. “Most Americans who tuned in were looking for answers,” he said, “but the Romney convention speech didn’t address their questions.” He promised that President Obama’s speech — which he said is still being fine-tuned — would “lay out the pillars for rebuilding the economy from the middle class out.”
]]>Anne Connor, whom we profiled, received more overall votes than former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino, who took out an ad in the ProJo (though he did spell the president’s name wrong in it). She even got more votes than him in his hometown of Providence – and she lives in suburban Barrington.
Conservative, anti-union Democrat Doug Gablinske received the fewest votes in CD1
In CD2, the three progressive members of the General Assembly – Josh Miller, Frank Ferri and Teresa Tanzi netted nearly 1,000 more overall votes than the three Weiner candidates, an affluent family from East Greenwich known for being political insiders and regulars at the party convention.
For a complete list of results, click here.
The winners are below, including total number of votes they garnered and percentage.
UPDATE: RI Future Publisher Emeritus Matt Jerzyk writes that our delegate results isn’t accurate because Democratic rules for the representing candidates at the convention employ a sort of affirmative action in which the top 5 men and top 6 women from each district are chosen. As such, these are the results according to Jerzyk:
The top 5 men and top 6 women in each CD are elected – not just the top 11. That would mean the following won yesterday:
CD-1
CD-2
CD1
Myrth YORK | 2831 | 10.4% | |
Julie E. MEYERS | 2153 | 7.9% | |
Anne W. CONNOR | 2061 | 7.6% | |
Joseph R. PAOLINO, JR. | 1986 | 7.3% | |
Onna A. MONIZ-JOHN | 1880 | 6.9% | |
Mary A. GASBARRO | 1833 | 6.7% | |
June S. SPEAKMAN | 1776 | 6.5% | |
Brett P. SMILEY | 1763 | 6.5% | |
Rebecca Kim MEARS | 1694 | 6.2% | |
Tom CODERRE | 1640 | 6.0% | |
Gerald Pedro CARVALHO | 1369 | 5.0% |
CD2
Joshua MILLER | 1313 | 7.8% | |
Patrick T. FOGARTY | 1272 | 7.6% | |
Teresa TANZI | 1233 | 7.3% | |
Frank G. FERRI | 1137 | 6.8% | |
Elaine PRIOR | 1131 | 6.7% | |
Michael A. SOLOMON | 1109 | 6.6% | |
L. Susan WEINER | 1033 | 6.1% | |
Mark S. WEINER | 1007 | 6.0% | |
Thomas J. IZZO | 990 | 5.9% | |
Ryan Patrick KELLEY | 986 | 5.9% | |
Elisa M. POLLARD | 972 | 5.8% |