LA Quarterly Wrap-Up: Party By The Beach

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

We had another stellar turnout for our Q3 Quarterly in Santa Monica, with close to 100 people coming out to meet and greet.  Thanks to everyone that made it down; and all props have to go to Jesse Rubin and Lucas O'Connor for coming up from San Diego for the event; that's some dedication right there, and now I'll have to return the favor.  And they had plenty of friends to hang out with.  Let me see if I can name them all...

We had LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl out, and he thundered forth with a big speech about his work getting an Out of Iraq Resolution through the LA City Council (after being bottled up in committee, it should finally happen in October).  Congressional candidates Russ Warner and Ron Shepston met and mingled, talking to each other about where they're going to room in Washington when they both get elected next year.  Of course, the SoCal Calitics team was there (Hekebolos, Shayera, even Andrew from the Liberal OC), along with national bloggers Todd Beeton from MyDD, Kossacks thereisnospoon and BruinKid and vernonlee and Major Danby, and the inimitable Digby.  The LA for Edwards people told me that they're starting to see more interest in their meetups.  The West LA Democratic Club was out in force, as were our Drinking Liberally regulars.  And Marcy Winograd showed up with some PDA members and told us about a public hearing on yet another proposed LNG terminal off the SoCal coast (there weren't a lot of people at the meeting, apparently; time to raise public awareness on this one). 

But I was happiest to see Tim Goodrich and two other members of Iraq Veterans Against the War in atendance, handing out bumper stickers and relating their experiences to the crowd.  Tim, by the way, told me that he's running for Torrance City Council, which is fantastic.  These are just the kind of nonpartisan seats that the progressive movement needs to start paying attention to, building from the ground up.

No pics because I was busy drinking.