August 25, 2003
Dean in Seattle - a view from the trenches...
I volunteered to help with the Dean campaign today in as he made his swing through Seattle as part of the “Sleepless Summer Tour.” Here’s a few things that stuck in my head…
The volunteers were supposed to have received Dean volunteer t-shirts, but they hadn’t shown up when they needed to be there, so instead everybody received gold t-shirts and were told to put Dean stickers on them. Needless to say, that led to a little creativity…and a few timeless souvenirs. (One volunteer asked me later, “Don’t they want these t-shirts back?” I told her that she had a future family heirloom, suitable for mounting – why should she give it back? She grinned from ear to ear…and took it home.)
I was at one point given about 200 flyers to pass out to folks early in the afternoon. I focused my efforts around the Nordstrom’s at the corner of Pine and 5th Avenue, and in two and a half hours, they were all gone. Considering that I didn’t stuff them in the hands of anybody who came by me, but only gave to those who asked for one, this was pretty astounding.
I also went to his fundraiser that was held just before his evening speech at Westlake Center. In both the “$100 room” and the $500 room” (plus at the main event in Westlake Center), the campaign had made sure that an African-American political representative (in the $100 room, where I was at, we had a state senator from the Tacoma area) was there as part of the warm-up act for the crowd before Dean made his appearance. Dean also brought race more into his stump speech, noting that a) “…the most conservative Supreme Court since the Dred Scott decision” had disagreed with Bush about race and entry at the University of Michigan, b) that Bush used the word “quota” as a racially devisive word, and c) that he wanted to bring the country back together, that we were all part of this nation.
The Burlington representatives of the Dean campaign were apparently flabbergasted by the Seattle volunteers. There were lots of us around, but more importantly, lots of us were still around when it was over, helping to clean up afterward. They apparently kept talking about the folding chairs. I can personally vouch that I helped put away chairs with others as soon as we were told it was OK to do so, and that we were FAST – if it took five minutes to clear the area of folding chairs and have them stacked neatly in their carriers, I wouldn’t have been surprised. I remember clearing one corner with four people, and when I went into the next corner, the chairs were all gone. And when I did a quick look-around, I saw that ALL the chairs were gone.
Expect a little gabbing by conservative pundits over inflation of the size of the crowd that showed up at Westlake Center. Some folks were saying that around 15,000 came to hear Dean. I can’t confirm that number, because during the main event, I was part of the volunteer group that created a corridor for the media folks with cameras to run around to take still pictures of Dean from various angles. However, I heard afterward that the crowds were all the way to Nordstrom’s in the northeast direction, almost a block away, and the far south end of Westlake Center was definitely full – I could hear them from where I stood. Talking to people more likely to have a better grasp of the crowds than me, they were talking about 6,000 to 8,000 people being well within the realm of reality. One good result is that apparently the folks working for Dean in New York are now saying they intend to beat Seattle’s number…
On a personal note, I think Dean was pleasantly surprised, but definitely surprised, by the intensity and size of the crowds, both at the fundraiser and at the main event. Every once in a while you could catch the barest hint of a “Jeez…Where did all these people come from?” look on his face, but then his smile would kick in.
My two bits…