Day One

Convention Fun: Minnesota and Nebraska

My feet hurt. I don't have a voice left. It hurts to hold my head up. And have a I mentioned HOW MUCH FUN I'm having at the Convention in Denver?! A retired Army nurse practitioner and Dallas AM radio talk show host manning the door at the Nebraska Delegate Luncheon inviting us in because we were wearing similar dresses; Minnesota delegates getting excited about our new website, Votimus, while changing her shoes in the upscale lobby of the Grand Hyatt; salsa dancing with a local, Denver jewelry maker who's really from Texas (everyone's from Texas!); and lots of old friends.

I am too tired to know for sure, but I am pretty positive that people will be weighing in on whether Michelle Obama's speech was good, whether she talked about the things she "should" talk about, how she looked, etc. So I think I'll skip all that and go straight to Minnesota. And Nebraska.

Minnesota did you say? Who cares about Minnesota? And Nebraska? Really?

Well, a whole of people living in Minnesota are pretty excited about a candidate named Ashwin Madia. He came out of nowhere to win the Minnesota primary. I met a delegate at the Democratic Convention today who was really excited about this race and this candidate. She said that he could do great things and that it was really terrific to see him beat a much more well known candidate who had been a state senator. Madia will face Erik Paulsen in the fall - maybe he can turn this red seat to blue.

And in Nebraska, a newcomer named Scott Kleeb is running for the Senate. He beat a Republican-turned Democrat in the primary and garnered a lot of attention and excitement in the process. He raised money like crazy, in small donations. And Kleeb told me today that he is even leading in the polls! Well, he said he's winning in lots of the state's polls, but not yet in the Omaha area. But Kleeb is confident, as every candidate must be, that he will win this area too, and turn the tide. Of course, statewide Rasmussen has Kleeb back 26 points still, but Kleeb has been steadily gaining, growing his share of the polled vote from 28% to 34%. It's unlikely that this will be Democratic turnover, but Kleeb is putting up the good fight - and with a great attitude!