Friday Mat-Su Democrats July Egan Dinner

Usually, July Matanuska-Susitna Area Democrats Egan Dinners aren't very crowded. I think they've sometimes been cancelled in the past. The middle of summer, and all that. But like every other event involving this growing group of activist Democrats over the past two years, it was big, it was fun, and we got down to business.

A lot of things happened, but I was multi-tasking - almost with a vengeance. Our President, Kevin Brown, had asked me to give a talk on how to write effective "letters to the editor." So, I did that, and also invited Linda Kellen, Dennis Zaki and Shannyn Moore out, to talk about their attendance or probable attendance at the upcoming Democratic Party Convention in Denver. Writing Raven, from Alaska Real, who will be blogging in Denver with Linda, couldn't make it to the dinner.

But Linda and I were also blogging at firedoglake, hosting the last day of their three-day TedFest! event, where commenters at that blog could submit poems about Sen. Ted Stevens, to be judged in a contest.

Here's one part of an e-mail of thanks to the folks at firedoglake that I sent out after Judy and I got home late this evening:

The last evening of the contest was delayed an hour. The post went up exactly when I was supposed to, as Secretary of the Mat-Su Area Democrats, help convene our monthly dinner and organizational meeting. There were over 60 people there. Several young Obama organizers, Mark Begich organizers, Diane Benson (AK-AL) organizers and Ethan Berkowitz (AK-AL) organizers - along with local candidates for our state legislature.

Linda and I were able to start helping the session along at the fdl poem post. I asked fdl commenters to write new poems I could read to the meeting when I gave my talk. They did.

My talk to the dinner/meeting was supposed to be about “letters to the editor.” I did that, slowly changing the subject to Linda’s upcoming trip to the Democratic National Convention, as Alaska’s chosen blogger. Dennis Zaki was there too. His electronic Journal, Alaska Report, gets tens of thousands of hits per day. He’s going to the Convention.

We were able to not only talk to the audience about how Democrats approach new media differently from the GOP, we were able to demonstrate it, even reading new poems about Ted as some came in.

Then my third guest in the new media talk walked in. She is Shannyn Moore, who was recently fired from the Anchorage AM progressive talk station for being, you guessed it - too progressive.

She had quietly left the scene in the two weeks since she was fired. Everyone in Southcentral Alaska who loved her show had been wondering when she would resurface. Here she was, announcing she’s back on the air, on two top Anchorage stations, KFQD and KWHL (where they're also pumping Static Cycle - the band my son now plays in), and subbing in a primo slot - and probably - going to the Democratic Convention. Shannyn has been handling the KUDO departure and transition with a lot of class.

There they were - the Alaska contingent for either convention (Dennis is covering both) from the press. All progressive. All electronic savvy. All excited. All bloggers. All this, while we continued to blog TedFest at firedoglake. We are SO different from Republicans, folks.

They excited the crowd, too, which included more young people than we’ve seen at these meetings until recently.

image - Shannyn Moore, Dennis Zaki, Phil Munger