Chris Redfern Meets A Blogger

I don’t sleep well in hotels and last night was no exception. The failure of my room’s Internet connection to obey my commands didn‘t help matters, even after the Roomlinx techies claimed that they reset the “gateway.” Then, I managed to write this entry but it wouldn’t load. So I tried responding to email, but I kept getting “Cannot Find Server” error messages after I‘d write the response and hit Send. Not to mention, earlier in the evening, the waiter for the writer’s group I met in Columbus (for the KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s small schools Storyteller project) brought my cheesecake with strawberry syrup on it.

Talk about a bad night.

However, I’m a mom and so, despite my lack of ZZZZZZZZZZs, I woke up this morning before my pre-programmed wake-up call, demanded of myself while I showered that I not forget my cellphone when I left the room, and then, as I left for the morning, proceeded to forget my cellphone, upon the discovery of which I told the cabdriver, who didn’t seem to know where he was going anyway, to head back to the hotel.

I won’t go into how it turns out that my cellphone isn’t even working, but I didn’t actually learn about that until I was driving 65 on 71North and tried to slam some sense into the phone because I needed to call my husband to tell him to leave his office, go home and open the locked door for our thirteen year old who, although aware of how to open the door to the house, might, nevertheless, get flustered.

Enabler, they name is Jill.

I’m exhausted just from starting this story, and I haven’t even gotten the main character to the Ohio Democratic Party headquarters in Columbus yet. I need a nap bad.

I arrive, and the sun isn’t up yet. Or it’s up, but you can’t really tell because it’s cloudy and windy and some form of precipitation seems to be in the air but not as snow or rain. I see few people and fewer cars. Windblown papers scatter into spaces along the sidewalk, nestle into bushes and into the crux of stairways that lead into the office buildings along this part of East State Street in downtown Columbus.

The Ohio Democratic Party headquarters reside in a simple structure on a street lined with similarly simple structures. I skipped art history in college, but I’m guessing it’s from the 60s or so. A wall designed in cinderblock frames the entryway on one side, but otherwise, there is little architectural distinction that I could see.

Only one room appeared to be occupied at 7:30am this morning, but I pressed the buzzer and a friendly older than me gentleman welcomed me in. No one else had yet arrived, but he offered me a coffee (which I declined) and I settled myself in one of the four or so chairs that lined the indoor waiting area.

The surroundings reminded me of an older school board building: a floor covering of beige, pebble-designed linoleum squares, a floating staircase a la the Brady Bunch house, and wood paneling like you might find in a homey basement rec room. Frames with different pictures and items lined the walls and a case, all lit by either large flourescent ceiling fixtures or early-style recessed lighting with grates over the bulbs like I recall having in my own 1970s bedroom.

Sometime just before 8am, the friendly gentleman who ushered me into the building led me upstairs to the Chairman’s office.

Now, I have to say, I’m really not one who finds titles and all impressive. I act very deferential - that’s my training and I think it’s appropriate. But I get all fumbly when it comes to having to call people Your Honor or Chair etc. It’s not intended to be insulting, but I haven’t had enough therapy to understand why it might bother me to use such phrases.

I suspect it has something to do with knowing that everyone puts their socks and shoes on the same way - socks first, then shoes. Everyone. So I don’t get easily thrown by people’s titles. I respect the positions and the accomplishment, but I’m not so overly humbled that I can’t ask the questions I want to in order to learn what I’m interested in learning.

And I also just have a hard time calling someone Chair. (Again, nothing personal. I do believe that I did not call the Chairman “Chair” even once, mostly because I was afraid that I would’ve been like Mary Tyler Moore at the funeral for Chuckles the Clown, you know - when they’re all trying to keep themselves from laughing because they don’t want to be disrespectful? It was early, I was tired, and I kept thinking about the word chair meaning an object to sit on. Awful, I know. But, like a terrible commercial jingle or Kelly Clarkson song, I couldn’t get this thought out of my head and I wasn’t sure that I could suppress a smirk if one began to rise up through my neck as I said, “Nice to meet you, Chair.” Or would it be, “Your Chair”? “Your Chairness?” Ugh. SEE WHAT I MEAN!?)

(Ok - I’m really digressing here but seeing as how I write like I talk, I had this exact same problem with Very Right Reverends. I’m Jewish. I didn’t grow up with Right Reverends. And I still am very uncomfortable with the phrase. NOT out of disrespect, just out of discomfort. So really, I apologize for my silliness here. I guess I’m also just thinking, if the Democratic party represents the people, I don’t know - to elevate someone to a Chair - it doesn’t seem plebeian enough or something.)

But enough of my idiosyncrisies.

The Ohio Democratic Party Chairman, Chris Redfern, and I spoke for a little less than one hour, probably closer to 45 minutes. This meeting arose because of this blog entry in which I lamented that I’d be unable to attend the Meet the Bloggers in Columbus next month with Redfern. But, I noted, I’d be in Columbus and I wondered aloud in my writing whether Redfern “could fit me in for an MTB warmup.” Todd Rensi, who works for the party, invited me to meet Redfern, I called and we set it up.

So there I was this morning.

Redfern looks younger than his numerical age (which I thought was the same as mine but, apparently, is a couple of years less). He speaks with a quiet but firm voice, enunciating with specificity and making eye contact often. I tried to be mindful and not interrupt but I’m not very good at that. Luckily, he was very capable of talking so that I would be deterred long enough from interrupting so that he could finish what he had to say.

He was dressed in a suit and tie that almost but not quite seemed to big for his slight though not short in stature physique and I never really thought about how young he was until I started to think about the enormity of Ohio in the political world. Then, his being chairman at this point in his life seemed like it might be a big deal. But, not liking to admit that anything is much of a big deal, I’ll not speculate until I feel more comfortable in my knowledge about Ohio politics.

I never did ask the precise question I formulated in that blog entry (how does the party feel about bloggers who identify themselves as Democrats, but not necessarily as working with, for or along the lines of the party machine). But we spoke about many topics, including blogs, bloggers and blogging.

If he were in a position akin to that of a media placement advisor for a corporation, but doing so for a politician, what percentage of a budget did he think blogs would get?

Zero. Unequivocally.

Did he think Paul Hackett or Howard Dean would say the same?

No direct answer, but we talked about how Hackett’s juggernaut experience in the Ohio 2nd race and Dean’s fundraising successes aren’t really parallel to the question I asked, but do represent the burgeoning use of a media that Redfern agreed was in its infancy and as such, not really a known quantity yet.

He stated at least a couple of times his belief that in 4-6-8 years, the story re: blogs may very well be entirely different.

Now, the question I’ve had that really brought the ODP into my radar screen was raised by William Beutler in a Blogometer post that suggested that state parties were going to have to grapple with the extent to which blogs steer conversation to base issues, when the party might prefer the discussion - for the voter’s sake - to be more about getting a person of the respective party into office (also referred to as electibility).

Redfern and I discussed this at length and from a few different angles. Redfern seems to be fine with blogs discussing base issues or electibility. And I couldn’t get him to tell me directly which criteria I should give more weight (which is really what I wanted but ultimately, I think it was wise of him to not tell me).

However, we talked about must-haves when it comes to positions on certain issues and how, if someone holds a position with which you don’t agree, that disagreement might still be mitigated by agreement on other beliefs, not to mention the dislike of an opponent’s beliefs and possible victory if you don’t support someone who, although not 100% of what you want, would still be preferable to the opponent.

I mentioned my preference that the ODP not endorse anyone before the primary but Redfern indicated that that wasn’t likely to prevail because, he said, candidates ask to be endorsed and then the party - through a committee - must decide whether or not to endorse that candidate. I found that interesting because it was not how I thought it happened.

All in all, we talked about a lot of philisophical voter-oriented issues, I realized that I’m not a typical voter, but Redfern said that that’s because I’m an engaged voter and that is what makes me atypical.

My inner idealist finds that sad, but probably true.

So, all in all, heady stuff, although still no definitive answer to my Tastes Great versus Less Filling dilemma, which is really kind of a variation on the same theme of whether we should be discussing base issues versus electibility.

I guess some times, no matter how good you are at asking questions and getting people to sit down with you and answer them, there are some things you just have to figure out for yourself.

PS: Don’t forget about the Meet the Bloggers fundraiser Thursday night, 1/26 at Pearl of the Orient in Rocky River! Read more here.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:16 am January 26th, 2006 in Politics

Comments

5 Responses to “Chris Redfern Meets A Blogger”

1 Ohio 2nd on January 26th, 2006 2:29 pm

Jill, Very interesting.

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2 dirtgirl on January 26th, 2006 5:29 pm

that’s ridiculous! the party shouldn’t endorse in primaries! in most states, this goes without saying. i hate to think it leaves the ODP open to charges of influence and favoritism.
3 Lisa Renee on January 26th, 2006 10:20 pm

Good job Jill!

I only wish Sherrod’s bunch would have done the same for those of us who wanted to meet him.

I wish I could say his feeling on blogs surprised me but I’ve ran into that here in Lucas County with the Party Traditionalists from both Democrats and Republicans.
4 E-Communications Play Role in 2008 Campaign, 6% contribute online | Writes Like She Talks on July 2nd, 2008 8:45 am

[…] me remind you of something Ohio Democratic Party Chair Chris Redfern said to my in early 2006: …we spoke about many topics, including blogs, bloggers and […]
5 E-Communications Play Role in 2008 Campaign, 6% contribute online | c3i on July 2nd, 2008 11:37 am

[…] me remind you of something Ohio Democratic Party Chair Chris Redfern said to my in early 2006: …we spoke about many topics, including blogs, bloggers and […]