I've always thought that one of the best ways to see a politician in action is to watch him at a gathering of 30 to 40 people. You get to watch them give their stump speech and also get to see how they work the crowd. It's especially interesting in these sized crowds because people get a little more time with the candidate which ultimately means that he/she will have to speak about a variety of issues and show at least some in depth knowledge on the topics. I was therefore glad I had the opportunity to attend a meet and greet put on by the Jon Bowerbank for LG campaign last night in Herndon.
details and video below the flip
Not only was Bowerbank there, but so were Creigh Deeds, Judy Feder, and Chap Petersen (who essentially came straight from FedEx Field where he was in the stands for the great Redskins game yesterday). In other words, the people who attended the gathering were definitely in for a treat.
In addition to what we thought of the presidential race, the hot topic of conversation seemed to be Terry McAullife and whether or not he'll be running for governor. The feeling I got was that most people think he'd be a very interesting addition to the race because he's personable. A few people pointed to the very warm reception that he received at the State Central Committee meeting as an example of how excited people were about his potential candidacy. Others pointed to the fact that he's known for his ability to raise a lot of money. Since there's no donation limit in Virginia, his fundraising connections could go a long ways in making up the edge that Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds have gained from being on the ground in Virginia for quite some time now. As Vivian Paige pointed out in a post yesterday, however, Terry's still only saying that he "is interested" in the possibility.
When it came time for the speeches, the overall theme from the elected officials and candidates was that the change we all want to see happen will only come as a result of some long and short term goals. The short term goals are electing Obama president and electing people like Judy Feder to Congress so that we have a federal government that will actually work on behalf of the American public. Once that's accomplished we can turn our eyes to 2009 and ensuring that we elect leaders who will look out for the best interests of Virginians in the state government. What I really liked about the message was that although it was a partisan crowd made up of people from Northern Virginia, there was a feeling that we need to bring people of both parties and from all across our great Commonwealth together in order to help restore the public's faith in government.
I didn't take notes during Jon Bowerbank's speech so I'm working of my memory for some of the highlights. What I really liked was that he understands that the economy isn't doing to well right now. Although his speech touched on a variety of topics, some of the things I thought worth mentioning were that he believes we need to invest in more infrastructure (Virginia is already a great place to live and improving our infrastructure will make it an even more attractive place for people and bring more high paying jobs), clean energy (in Virginia we have many opportunities and we need to work on a way to produce energy while ensuring that our environment is protected), education (continuing to ensure our school systems are among the best in the country, making sure teachers can afford to live in the area they're teaching in, and addressing the skyrocketing costs of higher education), and how he has a lot of executive experience.
As the event was winding down, I convinced Jon to give a brief little video statement about the event. Since I was taking the video with my still camera that only holds so much video the statement had to be short and sweet but I think it gives you a little glimpse into what happened at the event. As you can tell from the background noise, the group was so energetic about the message Bowerbank delivered both during his speech and individual conversations that the event was still going strong after several hours.