Salt Lake County Democratic Convention: Megan and Volunteers Unite!

Every morning, Brian and I wake up to satellite radio music; it's been techno for the last couple of weeks (and it doesn't really work as a energizer). Last night, before we went to bed, Brian set it to the disco station and I complained that disco sucked. Right then and there, the gay police should have taken away my card. Fortunately, I made up for it this morning. When 4:30am arrived, the disco music came on and our room was transformed to Studio 54. Instead of usually covering my ears or turning the music off, I immediately got up and started dancing in bed--I could not resist the energetic beats of Thelma Houston's Don't Leave Me This Way.

Brian, on the other hand, could resist the salacious energy at 4:30am. When I finally got him in the shower, he said, "I F****** hate you and I F****** hate Megan and I've never doing this again." Yes, strong words for my tired and not so enthusiastic boyfriend, but I knew he'd come around later that morning. Brian is a generally happy person, but not at 4:30 in the morning.

We got to Highland High School around 5:30am and met Adam Bass. He had been working hard since about 4am putting up signage. While I can be easily annoyed by Adam, I can't say that Adam doesn't work hard. Brian and helped put up signage and the process went much quicker. By 6:45am, this is what the school looked like.

The front entrance of Highland High School in Salt Lake City.

Will Carlson, Brian Nicholls, and Adam Bass in front of Highland High School.

We waited outside the school for the doors to open so we could started decorating the inside of the school. When Nichole Adams, the current chair of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party, arrived, I gave her a hard time about the "Kerry/Edwards" sticker still on the bumper of her car. Her response? "F*** you." I laughed.

When the doors opened, we started decorating every available space. The pillars, walls, stairwells, and hallways of the school were going to have blue "Megan!" signs on them. By this time (7:30am), Will Carlson, Scott Lowe, Anne Louser and her boyfriend Paul had all arrived to help. Within minutes, the whole school looked like Megan was "running for student body president," a statement that one of her opponents Charles Kimball said when he walked in.

Scott Lowe, Will Carlson, and my boyfriend who was cutting tape with his teeth.

Anne's boyfriend Paul and Anne Louser.

When all the other campaigns started to arrive, they were amazed at what Megan had done. I had a great time making sure everyone knew Megan's name. All morning, I was running around doing what Adam told me to and escorting Megan from caucus to caucus. She did a great job talking about how she was going to change the county party to be more effective at electing Democrats.

The Stonewall Democrat caucus is usually the largest caucus at convention. When I introduced Joe Crockett, who was running for county party vice-chair, to them (and not gay Chris Fergeson, who I really don't like), there were about 50 people in the room. When Megan spoke, the number had increased to about 60.

I think Megan did the best job in the Stonewall caucus and I'll never forget what she said in that room. First, she said it was great to have the Stonewall caucus as the largest. Next, she talked about how she works so hard for the gays because they get treated badly. This is where she started tearing up...and half the room started forming tears, including myself. She said that many of her friends were gay, that Brian and I were like fathers to Mckenna, and that we deserve certain rights that we aren't able to have. Yeah, it was really emotional. When she finished, she walked out of the room and I went to give her a big hug. She's so awesome.

After talking to all the caucuses, there was a little time before the speeches started. Megan took a break and her "helpers" stood outside the auditorium handing out signs and fortune cookies. Here's a picture of the candidate with some of her strongest supporters:

Brian, Megan, and Scott outside the auditorium.

Finally, the speeches started for those running for county positions. I was really disappointed that Ross Romero introduced Chris Ferguson but wouldn't endorse Megan. I can understand why (Chris' opponent didn't matter to Ross), but still. I don't like Chris and seeing someone I really respect and look up to endorse Chris made me mad.

Lisa Allcott was the first county party chair candidate to speak. She kept using this line: "We will be the Republican's worst nightmare." She wanted the audience to say it with her and made hand motions to encourage the audience to do it, but we didn't. Her message was a negative one and didn't resonate well with us.

Charles Kimball went next. His speech was really just a stream-of-consciousness with ideas that didn't connect to one another. They were all good ideas, but his execution wasn't good. There were times where applause was supposed to occur and he paused for it, but no claps manifested.
Megan was last (and I was so glad at that fact!). Senators Paula Julander and Ed Maybe introduced her. Senator Julander gave a list of all the great qualities Megan has and Senator Mayne had a funny anecdote about Megan asking this verbose man to keep it to 30 seconds. He commented that anyone who was willing to tell him to basically shut-up was worthy of being county party chair. Megan was very strong in her speaking style and was very persuasive about where Salt Lake county Democrats need to go. All of her applause lines got enthusiastic responses from the audience (I led all of the claps so people would know when to do it). Her message was well received and she got people excited. I had earlier handed out "Megan!" signs and a few people waved them in the audience. It was a fantastic speech and Megan nailed it.

The voting started and there was a buzz in the air. As I was walking to vote, people told me that they were undecided until Megan spoke and they were going to vote for Megan. After I voted, I stood by the doors with Brian and Scott telling people to stay because there could be a second ballot if a candidate didn't get 60%. To get people to stay, Lisa Allcott was serving hot dogs and Megan was handing out cake. We were so hungry that we let the "enemy" feed us.

Scott, Skyler, Me, Anne, and Brian eating the best hotdogs ever.

After awhile, we heard there was going to be a second ballot. Megan had gotten 58% of the vote and was expected to win the second round where only a majority was needed. After the second ballot, she won the election and I caught this picture of her and Senator Julander.

Megan and Paula celebrating.

We were all excited that Megan won. I was especially glad because she deserved to win--she has fantastic ideas of what the Democratic party needs to do in Salt Lake County to succeed. We all stayed and cleaned up. I was also glad because the campaign she ran in November lost; Megan needed and deserved a win. Here's a picture of Megan and her fantastic volunteers (basically her supportive friends and family).

Megan and her minions.

After convention, we went to the Fiddler's elbow to celebrate the victory. Brian was really bloated since he hadn't eaten anything since 4:45am and it was now about 1:15pm. We left there and went home. I dropped him off and went to Aunt Wendy's to mow the lawn and help her garden. By the end of the night, I was very tired and had an easy time falling asleep. While it was a celebratory day, I also saw Josh Moon and he told me that he and Jed had broken up. When he told me, I said, "Are you kidding?" about 3 times. I am really sad as I go to bed.