By Jason Felton

Democrats from across the state descended on Detroit on Sunday, February 21st for the Democratic State Convention. Dallas Dean, Gary Timmer and I represented Newaygo County at the gathering in Cobo Hall.

My day started at 6:00am when I woke up at my friend’s house in Ann Arbor and prepared to leave (Dallas started before 4:00am in Grant!). I had never been to Detroit before so I was a little concerned about driving in, but traffic was light and the weather was clear so I arrived with little difficulty before 8:00am.

I met Dallas after registering and we attended the party rules training. This meeting was very informative as to the structure of the party in Michigan. I was also able to meet with some other new county chairs, Rosemary Anger of Barry County and John Strachan of Eaton County.

After the rules training I wandered over to the Justice Caucus. There they elected new officers for their caucus and celebrated the victory of newly elected State Supreme Court Judge Diane Hathaway. We also received visits from potential gubernatorial candidates Alma Wheeler Smith and John Freeman. State Senators Gretchen Whitmer and Michael Prusi also stopped by to talk about the importance of the state senate elections coming up in 2010.

About an hour into the Justice Caucus I decided to sneak out and see how the Progressive Caucus was coming along. This was their first meeting and it was a little more raucous than the other meetings I attended that day. Many people there took the floor to give their views on how to elect progressive democrats to office. While there we listened to a fantastic speech by potential Secretary of State candidate Jocelyn Benson on early voting and no-reason absentee voting. She is a very dynamic speaker and I look forward to learning more about her in the coming months.

At 1:00pm the 2nd Congressional District Caucus met to elect new officers. I met up again with Dallas here and also said hello to Gary Timmer of Newaygo. Dallas was elected permanent chair for the purpose of the Convention and brought the meeting to order. We finished the business of the Caucus quickly by approving the slate of new officers that the nominating committee had presented. Mary Robling will serve as the new chair for the District Committee. A full listing of officers can be found at westmichigandemocrat.com. Newaygo County will be well-represented on the Committee by Buck and Barb Geno, Dallas, Charlie Benham, Constance Dukes and I. Buck Geno and Constance Dukes will also be representing the District on the State Central Committee.

During our caucus we were visited by Pam Faris, wife of Lieutenant Governor John Cherry, who advocated for her husband’s gubernatorial bid. We were also visited by Speaker of the Michigan House Andy Dillon (who’s rumored to be running for governor), Michael Prusi and Jocelyn Benson.

Finally at 3:00pm the official business of the Convention started. State Senator Buzz Thomas was elected chair and began a tribute to John Dingell, who recently became the longest serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Each member of Michigan’s Democratic congressional delegation gave a short tribute, including Senators Levin and Stabenow.

After the tribute we proceeded to the official business of the Convention, the election of the Chair and two Vice-Chairs for the Michigan Democratic Party. Mark Brewer ran for election again and was unopposed so we elected him and his two vice-chairs, Tina Abbott and Lupe Ramos-Montigny, by unanimous ballot. After this we listened to even more speeches! I honestly don’t recall everyone that we heard from but the list included Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel, Andy Dillon and Senator Carl Levin (again).

The longest speech of the day was made by Lieutenant Governor John Cherry. He praised the volunteers who had worked on the Obama campaign and defended the stimulus plan. You can read more about the speech at westmichiganrising.com. People sometimes knock his speaking skills but I found him to be an engaging and passionate speaker.

Finally the Convention was adjourned and I went back to my friend’s apartment in Ann Arbor. I recommend that everyone attend a Convention at least once! I had a great time and I was glad to meet the candidates that we’ll be hearing from (and hopefully seeing in Newaygo County!) in the future.