Past meeting
San Francisco for Democracy November Meetup (2007)
(7 ratings)
Meeting Description
Organized by
- Tom Brown
Details
November: San Francisco for Democracy Federal Action presents our Presidential Primary Forum! Talk with representatives from all your favorite progressive campaigns and parties, plus maybe a few surprises, about why you should support their candidate for president in California's presidential primary on February 5, 2008.
UPDATE: The Clinton campaign has decided not to participate in our forum.
Confirmed campaigns/parties include: Sen. John Edwards, the Green Party, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Barack Obama, Rep. Ron Paul, Gov. Bill Richardson.
Ground rules:
* Campaigns will be invited to speak for 10 minutes. Campaigns have been encouraged to prepare a 5 minute presentation, but all presentations will be stopped after 6 minutes, to allow at least 4 minutes for audience questions. As a matter of fairness, all time limits will be strictly enforced.
* For the sake of time, questions will be collected in writing before and during the event, and will be chosen to reflect the overall interests of the audience as much as possible. (For example, if many attendees want to ask about the Iraq War or health care, then we will make sure those topics are addressed.)
* The order of campaign presentations will be determined by random draw, schedule permitting.
* We'll take a straw poll of attendees at the end of the event. (Note that the straw poll does not directly affect the formal endorsement by San Francisco for Democracy Federal Action, which will be done by vote of the dues-paying membership.)
Got a questions for a specific candidate or all of the candidates? Please e-mail timothyhsu@earthlink.net, and we'll try to make sure that the most frequently asked questions get addressed.
Talk About This Meeting
Who Attended
The organizer estimated that 55 people attended.
-
Alane Bowling
"Having the opportunity to hear the presidential candidates' representatives answer difficult questions was informative and helpful. Well done." -
Steph Feiring
"This meetup was great. There were a lot of people, and everyone was very involved. The speakers were also good." -
Peter Wong
"Even though a couple of candidate representatives bailed, it was good to hear from presidential candidates who had something to say even if they weren't the media-anointed front-runners. " -
Mona Cereghino
"One candidate was allowed to pack the meeting with his supporters. He is a Republican. Even though you boast a bi-partisan organization, the majority of your members are Democrats. It made the straw vote inaccurate. If this is allowed to happen on your website venue, your endorsement will not be reflective of your dependable membership. It's easy to join, easy to get on the website."
Tom Brown
"In response to Mona's comments, everybody should know that only dues paying members of San Francisco for Democracy will be able to participate in the endorsement vote which will take place later this month. Members will need to enter their e-mail address for the on-line Demo Choice poll and those e-mail addresses must match up with the ones on file. No one will be able to vote twice and the results will be tabulated according to ranked choice voting rules. I for one appreciated hearing from all the different campaigns, but was disappointed that the invited speaker from the Green Party did not show up. But overall, it was an informative and lively event. "