Sunday, February 19, 2006

''Party faithful eagerly await visit by Dean'' AND Karenna Gore Schiff, Too!

"LACEY — College students will get an opportunity to talk with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean when he visits Lacey on Monday for the annual state Democratic Party Crab Feed.

Saint Martin’s University Democratic Donkey Club and College Democrats of America are hosts for the event in the college’s Student Union Building.

The event is aimed at college-age Democrats, although the public is invited, said Damien La Vera, spokesman with the Democratic National Committee.

“We are ecstatic about it,” said Democratic Donkey Club President Crystal Saili, a Saint Martin’s senior. “We know he didn’t want a podium, so I think it’ll be more of a conversation. He wants us to get pumped up for politics.”

The political community at Saint Martin’s sees getting the national figure as a coup, said Saili, a community services major.

“Even one of the Republicans asked if they could do anything,” she said. “They didn’t believe we got Howard Dean.”

Dean, the former governor of Vermont, rose to national prominence as he campaigned to become the Democratic nominee for the 2004 presidential race. A vocal critic of the war in Iraq since 2003, Dean gathered grassroots support, although Sen. John Kerry eventually won the nomination.

The following year, Dean was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, where he has emphasized fundraising and campaigning for all 50 state parties.

“It’s pretty cool that the national organization is investing in the next generation of the party,” said Andrew Austin, president of the College Democrats of Washington.

While some young Democrats had planned to attend the Crab Feed, a training and strategy opportunity for the state party, more showed interest when they heard Dean would address the students, said Austin, a senior global studies and religion major at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.

Austin said he expected attendance from young Democrats at PLU, the University of Washington and Washington State University as well as recent graduates.

“A large part of his presidential campaign was ... to energize the grass roots,” Washington State Democrats spokesman Viet Shelton said. “So he’s excited to talk to the young people.”

Gov. Chris Gregoire, five Democratic congressmen and others also are scheduled to appear."-from today's story in The Olympian.

EVENT #2: Pam Eakes passes along a note about another political tourist coming our way:

"Karenna Gore Schiff¹s first book, "Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America", is out and she will be in Seattle this Monday, February 20th at Elliott Bay Bookstore.

Her new book profiles nine courageous trail-blazing women who put themselves on the line to combat racism, cruelty to children, pollution, disease, bigotry, poverty, and to challenge the limits put on women as public leaders. Behind some of the most important political movements in 20th century America were some of the most outstanding women in our history - Ida B.Wells, Mother Jones, Alice Hamilton, Frances Perkins, Virginia Durr, Septima Clark, Dolores Huerta, Helen Rodriguez-Trias, and Gretchen Buchenholz.

If their names don¹t ring a bell, you are not alone. Even though their work changed the course of the last century, they remain out of the mainstream of important historical figures and Karenna hopes to change that. She tells their personal stories, often filled with trauma and loss, and how each of them recognized injustices, embraced marginalized groups and pushed for reform.

Karenna would love to see you there on Monday night! Hope to see you!

Monday, February 20th @ 6:00PM in Seattle's Elliott Bay Bookstore."

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