OUT & ABOUT: Dems’ Convention Begins With A Bang (For Me)

BY DENISE CLAY/ Here’s what I learned on Tuesday, the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

I learned it might have been in my best interest to save up for a rental car because transportation has occasionally been a problem, especially if you have to run from one venue to the other due to seriously pouring rain. I’ve also learned a breakfast is not just a breakfast if politics are involved.

Yes, I’m here in Charlotte, for the DNC. It’s a nice city that I’m sure has a really walkable downtown (or Uptown as they call it) when it’s not barricaded on all sides and teeming with Secret Service and representatives from police departments from, literally, all over the country. But since it is, and also since it seems to want to rain every five minutes, you have to dodge things to get out of the rain.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve been to Carolinafest, which is where I met and interviewed former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich; I’ve been to a Pennsylvania Delegates breakfast that featured a visit from DNC Chair Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz; and I’ve been to the We The Women luncheon, which was thrown by Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz and heralds a new effort on the part of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to recruit (and raise money for) female candidates.

MONTCO Chairman Josh Shapiro meets up with attorney Judy Rubin at Penna. Delegation party at Democrat National Convention in Charlotte. Photo by Bonnie Squires

Several female Democratic candidates made their way down to North Carolina to get in front of party leaders. One of them was Attorney General candidate Kathleen Kane. Kane, who would become the first female Attorney General should she win, decided to run because she felt it was time for the job to become apolitical. “I do love being a prosecutor and I know how important it is to bring justice,” she said. “Prosecutors are the last line of defense. I also wanted to run because I think that politics is playing too much of a role in the office of the Attorney General. It is by law an independent agency and it is imperative that it remain that way and I am an independent prosecutor.”

Kane says she has ideas on ways to stop crime that involve educating seniors to look for signs of elder abuse or potential scams that tend to victimize the elderly, educating kids to find better ways to utilize their time, and ways to prevent certain types of crime.

But if you’re Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and your largest city, Philadelphia, has become the City of Brotherly Love and Put the Damned Gun Down, what will you do to help? One thing, Kane says, is to close the so-called “Florida Loophole”, which allows people from places with more stringent gun laws to come to the state and shop for weapons. She also believes if a gun is lost or stolen, it should be reported to police.

But most importantly, she thinks people should feel comfortable and safe enough to provide the kind of testimony that gets and keeps criminals off of the streets. “We need some more money for the witness-protection program,” she said. “You have a terrible problem in Philadelphia of witnesses being afraid to step forward and crimes can’t be prosecuted without the witnesses.”

I’ll be doing other interviews with members of the Pennsylvania Delegation and I’ll start sharing them with you starting next week.

   Send article as PDF