This was AFP's first "Defending the American Dream" summit ... and it was a smashing success! They had twice as many people as they expected -- close to 2,000 fiscal conservatives traveled from 35 states around the country to participate in workshops and listen to Republican Presidential candidates. The Mayflower Hotel was packed and the AFP staff worked overtime to accommodate everyone. It was, I am sure, a monumental task that required smoothing out some last-minute glitches but they pulled it off in a grand way ending with a huge elegant buffet Friday night.
Seven Republican Presidential candidates attended. Thought AFP invited the Democrat candidates, none accepted ... perhaps something to do with AFP's goal of lowering taxes and holding the line on spending?
Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Sam Brownback, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, John McCain ... seven candidates which offered a rare opportunity to hear from so many in a venue other than a debate.
Lots of folks attended from the Sixth District: State Senator Mark Obenshain, Delegate Chris Saxman and Delegate Ben Cline. Sixth District Chairman Fred Anderson, State Central Committee members Kathy Terry and Trixie Averill, Virginia College Republican President Jarrett Ray from JMU, Augusta Middle River Magisterial Chairman Barb Tillett, Kim Wiseman and her mom, Kelly Keech, Rockingham Chairman Mike Meredith, VFRW Representative Suzanne Curran, Tara Huffman, David Huffman, and Christy Huffman.
Many other familiar faces were seen: Attorney General Bob McDonnell, Mike Reynold, Jacob Parrish, Fifth District Chairman Jim Rich, Congressman Tom Davis, Paul Harris, Jim Parmalee, Kevin Bolling, Jeb Wilkinson, Tucker Martin, Whitney Duff, State Central members Patsy Drain and Juanita Ballinger, and I know there are more that I'm forgetting.
It was great to see so many of our College Republicans in attendance. I met Samantha, CR State Secretary, who attends Mary Washington but is from Charlottesville. She and I discovered we were both at the Win the War rally in Charlottesville in June to counter Cindy Sheehan.
And I reconnected with Duane Sand from North Dakota. More about him later.
The North Carolina delegation wore pig hats to demonstrate "no more pork." The Texas delegation wore white cowboy hats. Sitting across the aisle from one another, they were a hoot as the "pigs" went up against the "Hook 'em horns."
The Virginia delegation wore "Virginia (heart) is for AFP" stickers. Wisconsin wore cheesehead hats. Georgia waved miniature state flags.
The music was loud and patriotic and rallied the delegates.
Tim Phillips, President of AFP, was losing his voice by Friday night's closing session. I'm sure those folks are ready for a good night's sleep. They can rest knowing they were a success.
Heading home to Staunton ... more to come....
No comments:
Post a Comment