George:

The real news was not at the convention, but before the convention.

In 2001, the Old Guard ran the show. There were 300 delegates permitted, and only 140 actually prefiled and were elected.

Charlottesville had been permitted 20 or so, and we only had about 6.

Albemarle was similarly under-represented -- just because no one up here had a sense that the Fifth District Convention mattered. The only rules were an incomplete copy of a photocopied sample sent out by the state party for all Districts to use, with blanks still blank. No one knew what was going on, except for Carl Eggleston and some of his friends.

This fiasco -- which one state-wide candidate who was there called "an embarrassment" to the Democratic Party -- eventually resulted in an appeal on so many grounds that the State Steering Committee unanimously invalidated the results, and ordered a new vote unless some agreement was reached in the interim. An agreement was eventually reached, and it was not necessary to have a new convention, but the seeds of the Big Change had been sown. In the next few months, when new Congressional District boundaries were redrawn, some other folks from our area were added to the Fifth District. Will Harvey and Fred Hudson, who had been elected to the Seventh District Committee but who then got redistricted into the Fifth District, became automatic members of the Fifth District Committee, and that's when things began to get interesting. Over the next few years, the Charlottesville/Albemarle folks began to ask a radical question -- "Shouldn't the Fifth District Committee try to elect a Democrat to the Fifth District Congressional seat?" Then Meredith Richards announced her candidacy, and the Big Change began to take root and grow. All over the Fifth District, people saw that Meredith actually wanted the Fifth District Democratic Party to do something, and they witnessed first-hand the ways in which the Good Old Boys tried to frustrate her efforts. People in places like Nelson County and Henry County and Martinsville and Bedford started to ask the same basic question -- "What is the Fifth District Committee doing?"

The next development requires a little background to appreciate.

The annual fundraiser for the Fifth District Committee had been the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. In 2001, it was held in Martinsville. About 75 people came, and a few hundred dollars was raised. In October, 2002 -- when Meredith was running hard and could really have used the momentum from a successful event -- it was held at the Ramada Inn in Lynchburg, which isn't even in the Fifth District. We guaranteed the Ramada Inn 80 dinners; only 55 people came. Again, the event raised a few hundred dollars. After two such poor fundraisers, the Fifth District Committee treasury was in bad shape. We knew that we needed to have a big, successful dinner in 2003. Throughout the year, the leadership fought about whether to have it in an elementary school cafeteria in Bedford or a middle school cafeteria in Farmville. It didn't really matter, though, because they were looking for a big name speaker -- perhaps a presidential candidate -- and none was willing to come. Finally, in October, the J-J Dinner Committee accepted my proposal to have the dinner in November in Charlottesville. Viola Baskerville was our guest speaker. The Good Old Boys were furious; they threatened to declare it to be unauthorized. My response was to say, "Then the money raised will go to the Committee to Reform the Fifth District Committee." We were going ahead with the dinner, and they eventually authorized it. We had almost 200 people, and we raised over $3,000, with the help of a lot of good Charlottesville and Albemarle Democrats. It opened a lot of eyes around the District, as the Good Old Boys -- most of whom couldn't be bothered to come -- were exposed for what they were. I said at the time that "Chairman Mao said that 'the revolution is not a dinner party.' Chairman Mao was wrong." That J-J dinner was really a major step forward for the Big Change.

In 2004, Al Weed's candidacy continued the momentum that Meredith had started -- bringing a new energy to the Fifth District. So when it came time to reorganize the Party in 2005, there were a lot of people who were ready.

Fred Hudson went around the District over the last few months, putting together a slate of candidates for the 20 seats on the Committee who were committed to changing the way that the Fifth District Committee works. That slate included Connie Jorgenson and me from Charlottesville, and Fred Hudson, Will Harvey and Cheryl Oliver from Albemarle. Fred was so effective that we were able to file full delegations in Albemarle, Charlottesville, and many of the counties where we could count on people to vote for change. By two weeks before the convention, it was obvious that the "Blue Slate" that Fred had put together would command a majority of the delegates. One by one, the Old Guard saw the handwriting on the wall. Many of them did not even try to get elected as members of the Committee; some of them prefiled and then withdrew when they saw what was happening.

The Convention itself was anti-climactic. We had rules this time.

People had received the rules weeks ahead of time, and they followed them. Meredith Richards was named chair of the Convention, and she ably guided us through our business. Of the 156 delegates (of 180 possible) who came, 105 voted for the slate in its entirety. While the votes were being counted, there was a vote on Al Weed's anti-war resolution. This is the same resolution that has been presented to, and adopted by, other district conventions, and it will be considered at the State Central Committee meeting in June. It passed by a vote of 63-42 (many people cast their votes for the Committee spots and then left). The big issue was whether this resolution would be used to saddle out candidates with an anti-war, liberal tag. Most of the 42 voted against it for that reason. Some of those there wanted the resolution redrafted to include a specific affirmation of our support for the troops who are fighting the war, but there were no amendments to the resolution, and it passed as submitted.

We broke up at about 2:00 PM, three hours and about 100 years later than when we had started.

The new Fifth District Committee then met and elected Fred Hudson chair. Our reorganization effort will start at the June 18 meeting of the Central Committee, when the Fifth District Committee will meet also.

So -- it was a good day for the forces of good in the Fifth District.

Lloyd Snook (electronic mail, May 19, 2005)