The final report from Damian Sedney’s tremendous delegate candidate forum effort…

(And don’t miss the national delegate candidate statement page… 25 candidates listed so far…)

Obama DNC Delegate Candidate’s Forum in Manchester was Outstanding!

The third and final Vermont Obama delegate candidate’s forum was held in Manchester last night and it was a marvelous demonstration of grassroots democracy in action! Almost 30 people attended, including 10 District-level delegate candidates! It was the most well attended forum of the three held across the state in the last week! The other two forums were attended by about 25 people/each.

We even had some Clinton-pledged Town Delegates that attended as well last night!

Each candidate spoke briefly (about 30 seconds) about themselves and explained why they should be one of the 6 Delegates selected Saturday at the VDP convention. A question and answer session followed – with each candidate answering two questions from the audience.

The final phase of the forum included discussions and an exchange of views by the candidates and audience members that focused on criteria to use while choosing 6 Delegate candidates from a field of more than 100 in Barre! The role and responsibilities of VDP Delegates with regard to fidelity to the Obama nominating process in Denver was also deliberated. A need for communication with Town Delegates remaining in Vermont during the DNC was also articulated.

Uniquely, several of the candidates mentioned that they planned to use “geographic diversity” as one of their standards for evaluating and voting for the 6 Delegates in Barre on Saturday. Also mentioned as additional criteria being pondered for evaluation/selection of the 3 female and 3 male delegates in Barre this Saturday included:

• Time and effort spent on the primary campaign as a “foot soldier” for the Obama campaign
• Youth and new faces and ideas in the campaign
• Age, experience and political connections (pre- “baby-boomers”) – those that rebuilt the VDP party in the 60’s and 70’s
• Reflect the range of Democratic voters in VT such as the “average Vermonter” – following Obama’s new “big tent” strategy of inclusion
• Ensuring that Vermont continues to build upon our role and stature as a politically progressive state with regards to increasing participation by traditionally discriminated groups and underrepresented segments of our population

I personally want to thank everyone for participating and taking so much time to attend these forums. In the course of the last 3 weeks I have spoken with about 200 Town Delegates and District –level delegate candidates across the state about these delegate forums. I have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement I’ve received. 99% of the people I spoke with were strongly in favor of holding these delegate forums. All of those in favor mentioned how sorely this effort was needed, in the midst of this new political paradigm and threshold that we find ourselves this year. Only two people that I spoke with were not in favor of holding these Delegate Forums, one from Montpelier and another from Burlington.

Best of luck to everyone on Saturday in Barre! It might seem like all Presidential political campaigns are the same. This is not true this year – we are on the threshold of Change – brought about by the millions of American’s that have become involved in this campaign!

As a courtesy to the Delegate candidates that showed Obama-like conviction and took time from their busy schedules last night to attend the Vermont Obama-pledged Delegate Forum in Manchester, I will list their names.

Delegate Candidates attending the Manchester forum

Sherry Merrick from Thetford

Cirri Nottage from Hartford

Phyllis Tarbell from Pawlet

Jill Michaels from Strafford

Jerome Skapof from Manchester

Michael Cohen from Manchester

Sean Gresh from Bennington

Rolf Sternberg from Shaftsbury

Wayne Granquist from Weston

Robert Williamson from Woodstock