Convention Wrap Up

Still coming down from what was a great convention for JB Van Hollen, the one statewide campaign I am working on.

Owen, Kevin, Sean, Joey and Jenna have their takes posted, and Wispolitics offered more specifics than any newspaper or broadcast outlet.

Check out their convention blog.

Overall, while the convention was more interesting than I expected, I wish the convention had more meaning. I'd like to see the state party cancel the odd year conventions and give the even year conventions more significance. Obviously I have a reason to think this way this year, but I wish the endorsement process was more prominent, better thought out and better cultivated. The state party should do a better job of publicizing the platform and resolutions in the weeks before the convention, and the reports from elected officials should be moved to Sunday morning.

(Frankly, what would make the conventions really interesting and elections in Wisconsin more competitive would be to move the Primary up from September to June, but incumbents of both parties are hell bent to prevent that from ever happening.)

Mark Green had a better convention than I anticipated, and weathered the Tommy media buzz admirably.

Jean Hundertmark was a positive ball of energy as always and Paul Ryan and Jim Sensenbrenner were on fire as well.

There were some duds of course. Congressman Petri shouldn't be allowed to do more than the Pledge of Allegiance and our 'slate' of US Senate candidates is downright pathetic. Yet overall, it was a good convention, and as I said, a great one for JB.