81 Hoosier delegates attend convention, hope for break in Republican tradition

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Across the Charles River, in the Boston suburb of Cambridge, the Indiana delegation for the Democratic National Convention is tucked away by itself in a hotel. The sun has only been up for a few hours, and everyone is waiting patiently for its breakfast.\n"And don't you turn down any free food," Ohio County delegate Laverne Hayes said to everyone at her table, with all the compassionate sternness of a grandmother. "The free food is the best part."\nBoston is Hayes' third convention, and even though it's not over yet, she likes this one the best.\n"Everyone is just more enthused," she said. "And this town -- this town is just so very friendly."\nTheir breakfast comes -- it's a fancy, small block of quiche -- and Hayes and her friend, delegate Jeanette Hackman from Jackson County who is at her third convention as well, eat it meticulously, while the blocks fall apart for the men at the table.\nOne of the delegates remarked that they enjoyed Al Gore's speech Monday night, and delegate Arnold Scott from Carmel, Ind., just laughed.\n"You're going to say what everyone else has said," Scott bellows through his laughter, in a deep voice. "Where was that Al Gore in 2000?" \nThe Indiana delegate selection plan provides that the delegates and their alternatives are allocated proportionally based on the results of the Indiana presidential primary. \nIndiana district-level delegates are then elected after the state primary at district caucuses during the Indiana state Democratic convention. The district-level delegates will choose elected official delegates, a pledged party leader, at-large delegates and alternatives at the convention.\nRep. Baron Hill, the 9th District Indiana Democratic congressman, is one of those elected official delegates, and spoke to the district-level delegates at their breakfast.\n"Democracy is all about the big argument," Hill said. "It's about the great argument and whose idea prevails. It can get ugly, but it sure is a lot better than the way some people solves things in this world."\nHill told the delegates John Kerry must be the next president because Indiana and America can't tolerate another four years of President Bush.\n"I know Indiana is a conservative state, and it hasn't elected a Democrat president since 1964," Hill said. "(Kerry) probably can't win in Indiana, but we can make in-roads." \nAfter Hill left, Arnold Scott didn't seem to agree eagerly.\n"I don't know how Indiana will turn out in November. The people in Indiana have the same views as all Americans. They want the same things other Americans want," said Scott, a member of Veterans for Kerry with a little pin on his tie. "I travel throughout Indiana and I get people coming up to me and saying, 'I'm a Republican, but I am not voting for this administration."\nIn spite of the free food and drinks and the convention floor party, the delegates don't have it perfect. They're on a rigorous schedule.\nMike Imbler, a delegate from Greentown, Ind., said delegates have a lot of responsibility at the convention.\n"We're responsible for setting the tone," Imbler said. "These conventions are like revivals for Christians. They're a celebration. And we have to tell our constituents what we hear and see."\nThe delegates attend their respective caucus meetings, as well -- such as the Women's, Black or Veteran's Democratic Caucus.\nBut after their meetings, the mingling is back on.\nLater that night, the delegates again gathered for a pre-party party -- the "Tastes of New England," it said on the door -- with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres served before they load into their buses and head toward the FleetCenter, the site of the convention. \nA maitre d' in a tuxedo floats around the room with seafood biscuits and little meats on crackers. The delegates and their guests are mingling with democratic candidates for state offices and elected state officials -- including Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson.\nThey talk about anything and everything, including the media, whose members outnumber the delegates by a six-to-one ratio. They all share a contact high of nostalgia when someone mentions Bill Clinton's Monday night speech. The bar is open and once again serving drinks for free, but everyone is so excited and loud that it's not precisely clear who has been drinking and who hasn't.\nThe party was meant to be held on a terrace, off the third floor of the hotel, but it was promptly moved inside. Although the least menacing white, puffy clouds anyone has ever seen lined the blue skies above Massachusetts that day, someone told someone who told the party's organizer it might rain. Everything can change when under the pressure a convention spreads across its guests and organizers.\nWhen the party is over, and the delegates are climbing onto their buses, one of them laments that the party was held inside instead of outside in the beautiful weather.\nBut she said she knows, like everything else she's seen at the convention this week, no one wants to take even the slightest chance on anything that may go wrong.\n-- Contact Opinion Editor Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.