Division and jealousy, said one prominent Syracuse Democrat, will long be forgotten by the time the convention is called to order on Aug. 25. Before the Central New York delegation heads to Denver, the primary fight of this past spring will be put to rest and unity will be the word, according to Syracuse Common Council President Bea Gonzalez. She ran as a Clinton delegate in the Feb. 5 primary and will now be attending the convention as an Obama delegate.
Clinton, who outpolled Obama in New York by nearly 300,000 votes, has turned her delegates over to Obama. “Hillary released all of us on that Saturday {June 14} when she gave up the race,” said Gonzalez. “The next week I received an e-mail thanking me for my participation and urging me to support Sen. Obama. Then on July 17 there was a conference call with all New York state delegates. At that time the New York state coordinator, Jennifer Koch, came on and said we were all Obama delegates. The New York state Democratic Party is now working seamlessly with the Obama campaign.”
The only Obama delegate selected in the primary from the Syracuse area is Lisa Daly. Elected Clinton delegates include Francine Turner of Skaneateles and Ken Brynien, a psychologist who is president of the Public Employees Federation, the union representing workers at SUNY Upstate. Mayor Matt Driscoll will be attending as an alternate delegate for Clinton, and Alliance Network head Walt Dixie will be in Denver as a guest of the Obama campaign.
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For all the talk of party division, Gonzalez paints a picture of victors and vanquished joining hands in common cause—almost. “I was preparing myself for this {Obama’s triumph} for a long time, since Super Tuesday,” said Gonzalez. “The healing process is harder for some. People that have worked really hard on {Clinton’s} behalf are having a hard time.”
Will Clinton have her name placed in nomination? “I think so. But I don’t know.” Should she be on the ticket? “It would be historic for her to be the vice president, but I think she would be more effective as a senator from New York,” said Gonzalez. “I think I’m in the minority on that.” The healing process also includes helping to retire Clinton’s campaign debt. “I get e-mails every week from the Clinton campaign, and I get e-mails every week from the Obama campaign about that.”
Daly and Gonzalez both agree that there is little that separates the two candidates on the issues. “I liked her universal health care more than Obama’s,” noted Gonzalez. “His plan would cover all the kids but leave some adults out. Now that Obama has clinched the nomination, he has been repositioning himself for the general campaign. Things that were off-limits such as offshore drilling are now part of the conversation. Some people say he’s changing his mind, I think he’s just becoming more pragmatic.”
Daly is one of the new breed of activists who comprise much of the Obama grass-roots network. A graduate of Jamesville-DeWitt High School with a doctorate from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship, the 36-year-old Internet consultant was barely active in John Kerry’s failed campaign four years ago. But when Obama announced last year he was running, she was among the first to sign up online to volunteer.
“On the issues,” said Daly, “Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton are very close together. I just feel that there is a style of leadership that is important. He strikes a tone that is a change for the better. I think he has an unusual talent for mobilizing the skills of people, and he can move the country in a more civil direction.”
Daly agreed with Gonzalez that local Democratic activists are now rallying behind Obama. “At our first meetings after she dropped out, we saw a big influx of supporters of Sen. Clinton.”
Many people may not realize that delegates are asked to pay their own way to the convention. Daly is holding a fund-raising barbecue in Thornden Park, between Beech Street and Comstock Avenue, on Saturday, Aug. 16, 6:30 p.m. She’s planning to charge $20 per person and, as of a week before the event, 38 people had signed up. With airfare, hotel rooms and such, the cost to attend could go as high as $2,000, Daly noted.
This year the party has asked delegates to go green by purchasing carbon credits. Gonzalez was instructed to go to a Web site where she was given the option to buy credits to offset the impact of her air travel, rental car and other greenhouse gas-producing activities. State delegations that participate in the effort to produce a “Green Convention” will be rewarded with preferential seating in the Convention Hall. Gonzalez’s carbon offsets cost $12. Still, she wonders, “All of us flying from around the country to Denver isn’t very green, is it?”
Dixie, like Daly an early Obama supporter, will leave Syracuse on Aug. 24 and will be receiving his credentials through the Obama team. “We have no issues per se against Hillary, but we’ve got to do a different type of politics to make sure the new generation has an opportunity to lead,” he said. “We weighed the pros and cons of the candidates, and the Alliance Network decided to endorse Obama. The Alliance has always been independent of any candidate, but the change message for us was significant. We also want to diversify the party, to bring in new blood.”
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Bea Gonzalez: Will be attending the Democratic National Convention after switching her allegiance (and vote) from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO
Dixie added that Democrats who stay in Syracuse will be gathering at Eastwood’s Palace Theatre, 2834 James St., on Aug. 28 to watch Obama accept the nomination of his party on the big screen.
There are a few perks that come with going to a nominating convention, said Gonzalez, including entertainment from a big supporter of two-time presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. “I was invited to the Willie Nelson concert at Mile High Stadium on Monday night,” said Gonzalez, who is planning to attend.
Just days after the Democratic gathering, the Republican National Convention will be held in Minneapolis Sept. 1 through 4.
—Ed Griffin-Nolan
