Tedski, as the official Arizona blogger to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, filmed video profiles of the members of Arizona’s delegation and posted them on his blog, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion. Here are some of the videos of Arizona’s young delegates.

Adam Lopez Falk

Kate Widland



Ruben Gallego



Tedski is in the process of getting all the videos online, so if you are interested in seeing the interviews with Arizona delegates head over to Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.

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I was pretty much off the grid last week in Denver during the convention, and since Sarah, Mike, and others have authored some excellent coverage on the convention, I am going to stick to this single post with an overview of my thoughts and experiences.

CNN iReport of Isaac Robinson

Outside of Forest Room 5 on the Saturday before convention Jose Williams AKA Mr. Man, a CNN iReporter, interview YDA Labor Caucus Chair and Political Director for the Michigan Teamsters Isaac Robinson. I was enlisted to actually film the interview, which is now available online.

Crystal Strait and Francisco Domenech Re-elected

At the YDA National Committee meeting, which actually ran ahead of schedule, DNC Woman Crystal Strait of CA and DNC Man Francisco Domenech of PR were re-elected unanimously.

Interview with Moby

At the DoSomething/Flashbooth party at Jet I had the chance to ask Moby a couple of questions about the election. Unfortunately, I was without video camera so I don’t have live footage. The interview went something like this:

Bondelli: Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions Moby.

Moby: No problem.

Bondelli: What are your thoughts on the involvement of youth in this election?

Moby: It is amazing and inspiring.

Bondelli: What role do you think musicians can play in engaging voters?

Moby: Well I think that depends on the genre of music and their audience. Different things will work better for certain musicians. It is up to the artist to find out what works with their audience.

Bondelli: Thank you for your time.

I Get Quoted in the NY Times

Shortly after my interview with Moby I was approached by Julie Bosman, style reporter for the New York Times, for an interview. I ended up being quoted in an article about Denver’s Convention night life being lackluster. Here is my quote:

“The one thing that Democrats have learned is that if anyone can lose an election, it’s the Democrats,” said Kevin Bondelli, the owner of a design and consulting firm in Arizona. “In the last eight years, we’ve become a lot more respectful of the Republican political machine.”

Youth Orgs and Great Marketing

Mike has a lot of full posts about the marketing campaigns done by Rock the Vote and Trick or Vote, but I just wanted to add my thoughts in general. I was really impressed with how these organizations took advantage of the Convention and used it to make Democrats aware of both young voters and their organizations.

Trick or Vote, in my opinion, did the best job of this. Throughout the week people in Halloween costumes were attending events, hanging around the convention center, and talking to attendees all over the place. The Trick or Vote party did exactly what organization parties should do: combine a bunch of people meeting and drinking with an actually sell of your organization. Once they showed their excellent videos at the party, everybody was sold.

Youth Seen but Not Heard

Mike wrote an excellent piece about this, so once again I will offer my additional thoughts.

This is the impression I get from older establishment Democrats within the party. They think it is great that young people are showing up to the polls in huge numbers for Democrats. They like to see the young energetic faces at their events. They do not want to have to share power, influence, access, or even speaking time with them.

This is going to continue unless something is done about it. The youth of this party have reinvigorated it, and there should be some reflection of that within the actual party. I am going to address what I think needs to be done in an upcoming post.

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36 hours from now we will begin our drive to Denver for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. There has been a lot to do to get ready, so posting has been slow, but I will be providing convention coverage as often as possible on here and on Future Majority.

I have received a lot of great comments and emails from people that were able to use some of the tips and tutorials I wrote in their own organizations, and I’m glad they have been useful to you all.

Maintaining this blog, writing and developing posts and tutorials, and traveling to events to cover involves a lot of time and money. If this blog has been useful to you please consider making a donation through Paypal to help with these costs. Every little bit helps.

Also, if anybody or their organization is interested in sponsoring this blog, please send an email to kbondelli@gmail.com with the subject line “Blog Sponsorship” with your name and/or the name of your organization for more info.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Denver. Thank you all.

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Please feel free to share this information with as many individuals as you can. The only way we can be successful in getting young people as delegates to the National Convention is if we help them to know the process.

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Over the last few days I have been asked why I am fighting to reinstate the purged young Obama delegate candidates when a good percentage of the allowed candidates are youth. If the only issue at hand were Arizona’s youth representation goal (though it does not look like it will be reached), such an effort might not be necessary, but the youth representation goal is not the only issue.

Youth leaders were assured by the Obama campaign that young delegate candidates would not be purged barring specific concerns about an individual candidate. With that assurance, youth leaders, myself included, encouraged many of the young activists that had been crucial to Obama garnering 59% of the 18-29 vote to run for delegate. We passed on that assurance to these potential candidates, they filed their candidacy papers, and they looked toward the delegate election with excitement and anticipation. Candidate trainings were held, candidacy groups were formed on social networks, and state committee voters were contacted.

Then two weeks before the election they had been preparing for, a majority of them were told, in a vague and cryptic email, that they in fact would not be allowed the opportunity to run. No specific reasons were conveyed to them about why they could not run, and confusion set in, wondering why those assurances that emboldened them to run had dissipated.

When a campaign makes assurances that are then reneged, they run the risk of causing young activists to be wary of any future pledges or promises that are made. It is important that the very few commitments made to youth are actually kept.

These young candidates put themselves out there to run only to be rejected, not knowing why they were struck while others are allowed to run. If they knew how the campaign made their selections, they could possibly learn what to do differently to improve their chances. Even then, however, young activists may feel unappreciated, or guilty because the campaign does not think they put in enough effort to just have the opportunity to run for delegate. But this is not the most harmful consequence. These activists are smart, and they have started to think about the situation. They realize that with the large number of candidates for delegate the campaign did not look at their name and say “these are the reasons this person should be purged.” They were not choosing who to purge, but who they were going to allow to run. If they were specifically choosing who can run, the people that are allowed to run must be individually known to them. Then it hits them: the people that are accepted are most likely to be personal friends of the decision-makers or political favors. No matter how much effort they put into the campaign, they are not insiders, the establishment, or members of the exclusive club. They never had a chance, especially if they were working in rural areas that prevent them from getting buddy-buddy with those insiders. Next time, they won’t even bother trying.

How can we convince young activists to run for delegate in four years when this happens? Can we assure them that this year they will be allowed to run? Of course not. They know better than to trust that assurance. They have already felt the rejection that comes after getting their hopes up of running for delegate. It won’t be easy to get them take that risk again.

Disclaimer: Although I was one of the candidates that was purged, I am not asking for my personal reinstatement nor will I run if reinstated in order to prevent this effort from being dismissed as being a personal fight for my candidacy.

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On behalf of the Young Voter PAC, we applaud the California Democratic Party, young leaders and the Obama campaign for standing up for the youth vote.

While we understand the political reality that the Obama campaign made earlier this week to cut some potential delegates off of the list in California, we along with the California Party and young leaders voiced our concerns to the campaign in hopes they would change their mind and allow all potential delegates to run as delegates to the National Convention at elections taking place this Sunday in California.

Young people, in particular, are energized this election cycle doubling and tripling their turnout numbers in the primary elections and caucuses.

“Any action to try and squelch young peoples’ enthusiasm and most importantly the drive to not just be voters and volunteers but leaders within the Party is a critical next step for young people.  For too long young people have not felt welcome or seen the Party structure as a place for change,” said Jane Fleming Kleeb, Young Voter PAC Director.

In the Obama campaign’s official statement on the delegate issue in California, they reminded potential delegates of both their desire for a unified National Convention and for patience this Sunday at the caucus locations, “we are confident that delegates elected from this pool will reflect the Senator’s commitment to a diverse and unified delegation at the National Convention. An overwhelming number of supporters have signed up to run for delegate, so there will likely be lines and tight space at the caucus locations. We ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation.”

“Young people continue to show they are not apathetic, that they are engaged at all levels of our Party,” said Jason Rae, a young Superdelegate from Wisconsin.  “We are looking forward to the continued trend of young people helping Democrats win up and down the ticket this November.”

The Young Voter PAC hopes the Obama campaign’s encouraging decision will translate to all other states and that the Clinton campaign will follow this decision as well so that all potential delegates will have the opportunity to run as Delegates to the National Convention in Denver, Colorado this summer.

Amber Goodwin, a Young Voter PAC volunteer, potential delegate and Texas Young Democrats activist stated, “This incident reminds us of the power of the youth vote and the power of having young committed staff inside the Party and leading youth groups that understand the value of the youth vote and that won’t stop until their power is recognized and appreciated.”

The Young Voter PAC is based on a simple idea; politics is better off with more young people involved.  We are dedicated to helping Democrats win with the youth vote through candidate endorsements, on-the-ground support, training, strategy, media, and money.  The youth vote (18-35 year olds) has emerged as a critical base of support for electoral success.  We work on a national and local level to help guide candidates, State Parties and allied organizations in their youth voting plans so they can secure this bloc of voters and build long-term infrastructures in their communities and states. www.youngvoterpac.org.

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