dem-ver and st. paul the republican

Add comment August 25th, 2008

for years, the register star has opted out of sending a reporter to cover the national conventions that “choose” our presidential candidates.

but that doesn’t mean there isn’t SOME local connection.

thanks to technology, political editor chuck sweeny will be catching up with delegates from the rock river valley this week in denver and next week in the twin cities.

right now, the democrats have the stage, and we have a rockford native there who will write later this week. jackie borchart, a graduate student at the university of missouri, interned at the register star in 2005 and 2006; she’s there on an internship for the washington center to learn about journalism and the political process.

see her work at the denver post’s youth blog now. she’ll write something for us later in the week.

she did share this via e-mail.

Tonight it looks like I will have access to the hall — to hear Nancy Pelosi, Jimmy Carter and Michelle Obama, as well as several Illinois pols: Lisa Madigan, Dan Hynes and Alexi Giannoulis.

I went to the Illinois delegation breakfast this morning and ran into Sunil Puri and Freeport Mayor George Gualrapp. I’m going to go a little earlier tomorrow to see if I can get some words from them and the others about tonight’s festivities.

and……. this morning, i talked to mike hakanson of gambino realtors, who’s going to st. paul. he was with me in the rockford 40 under 40 group and said he’d be happy to dispatch.

one thing he mentioned: it’s interesting this year that the two candidates for president seem to be so far apart on the issues, whereas in the 1990s, it was a competition to be as close to the middle as possible.