Yavapai Democrats County News

Congrats to all! We won bigger than ever!

Nikki Basque from Prescott Valley as an alternate Clinton Delegate	Greg Kaighn from Prescott as a Clinton Delegate	Dawn Knight from Prescott as a Clinton Delegate

42 PCs carpooled in a dozen cars to Flagstaff on Saturday to vote for our CD1 delegates to the National Convention in Denver in August and we all thank you! Yavapai County was extremely well represented by our candidates' super speeches and our PCs' overwhelming participation. Big thanks to our Prescott HQ managers (Irene McDonald-Joan Cornell-Fran Chadwick) and to our Precinct Leadership Committee members (Esy Fields in Cottonwood-Pat George in Camp Verde-Phyllis Martinec in Sedona) for organizing the carpooling. Although 8 counties participated, Yavapai won 3 of the 5 delegate positions plus 1 alternate delegate position. It all was so very exciting!

Here is a special note from Angela in Sedona:
Dear Friends!
I just wanted to thank you again for your support yesterday. For those of you who did manage to make it to the meeting, it was a fun and exciting (though tiring) day. But it was an impressive turn-out for Sedona, the Verde Valley and Prescott! Without your help we would not have made it! Dawn Knight, Greg Kaighn and myself will be part of the Arizona Delegation to Denver in August (I being the one Obama female delegate). Angela

National Democratic Convention Delegates from CD1 (8 counties) -

And the winning DELEGATES are:

• Angela LeFevre -- Obama -- Yavapai 1st Vice-Chair
• Christoper Clark -- Obama -- Navajo County Attorney
• Dawn Knight -- Clinton -- Yavapai 2nd Vice-Chair
• Greg Kaighn -- Clinton -- Yavapai Voter Integrity Chair
• Jack Jackson -- Clinton -- Navajo County former State Rep
• Nikki Basque -- Alternate Clinton -- Yavapai Hispanic Committee

This meeting was held to choose the 5 delegates allocated to CD1 who would be a part of the total Arizona contingency to go to the National Convention to be held in August in Denver. This number of delegates is based on the number of registered Democrats in that congressional district.

All PCs (Precinct Committee Persons) in CD1 were eligible to attend this meeting. CD1 has, in fact, around 500 PCs, most of them from Coconino and Yavapai Counties.

The delegates had to be committed to one of our two candidates standing for the party’s nomination – Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton. The February 5th Primary results basically dictated how the delegates would be split up – Obama or Clinton. Because Clinton won a slight majority in CD1, she was allocated 3 delegates (and 1 alternate) to Obama’s 2 delegates. According to DNC rules, there has to be a 50/50 split between male and females. So, the 100 plus PCs who attended this meeting were charged with the responsibility of electing one female Obama Delegate, one male Obama Delegate, two male Clinton Delegates and one female Clinton Delegate.

In addition, one Clinton female alternate would be chosen.

The “fun” began at 9.00 am at Cline Library at the NAU campus in Flagstaff, when registration began.

Sedona had shown a strong preference for Obama at the Primary, but was sporting two candidates – Angela LeFevre for the Obama female and Carolyn Gonzales for the Clinton female. Unfortunately, Carolyn could not make the trip, and was missed .

The Sedona PC contingency was strong in both voice and numbers! Most of the pcs were backing Angela. Infact DORR’s Board, on the suggestion of Birgit Lowenstein, had endorsed Angela’s candidature. Dusty Chrisman and Phyllis Martinec showed some wonderful artistic talents that they had kept secret and sported some very colorful campaign signs!

The men went first, and each candidate (for both Clinton and Obama) spoke to the audience of PCs and delegates. Obama’s contingency sat on the left of the auditorium, Clinton’s on the right – and a few confused folk sat in the middle.

There were many candidates but fewer speeches, as not everyone showed. Each candidate was allowed 3 minutes. Then the voting began. A majority of 50% plus 1 was required to win…and it took two rounds for the Obama delegates to choose their man. Finally, Greg Kaign (Yavapai County) and Jack Jackson (Navajo County) were chosen as the two Clinton delegates, and Christopher Clark (Navajo County) was chosen as the Obama delegate.

After a break for lunch, the meeting resumed with the election of the women.

Again there were many candidates, but only 8 (four Obama and four Clinton) actually showed and gave speeches. Sedona had its moment of “glory” when Angela gave it her all and delivered her “We Can” speech. There was very, very tough competition from the local favorite, Diane Lenz, but the DORR candidate squeezed through! Angela finally won (after two rounds of voting) by three votes! It was exciting!

Dawn Knight, also from Yavapai County, was elected as the Clinton female delegate, and Nikki Basque, again from Yavapai County, was elected as the alternate.

Thanks go to ALL the PCs in Sedona who helped organize car pools, called to get support – and everyone who came. A special note of thanks go to the Ellen Simon and Jean Capalbo who could not make the meeting, but nevertheless made a special trip to Flagstaff just to register. This enabled them to get a proxy and thus have their vote count!

It was a fun day.

Note from Angela: I promise to be a great delegate, to represent you so you will be proud of me! With Marv Stalcup’s help, I will set up a daily log which will be linked to our web-site so you can get the inside scoop of the convention on a daily basis! Thank you all!

ARE YOU THE CANDIDATE?
2008 State of the County Party
Arizona Democratic Party Fall 2007 Meeting