by Robin Kinlin 

Another Year has come to pass as well as this year's 13th Annual New Jersey State Democratic Conference held at Bally's Hotel & Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City Sept. 6th -8th. Chairman Joe Cryan and the NJ State Democratic Committee were wonderful to let us have a table to promote NJ For Democracy and DFA which soon turned into the Progressive home base for many groups, PDA, Garden State Equality and our DFA/NJ For Democracy endorsed candidates (we took the table farthest to the left of course!)

It is always like a big family reunion to get to see all our Democratic & progressive friends from all over the state, the workshops were informative and the speakers over the 3 days were fantastic.

The big guest of the conference was Sen. Hillary Clinton and I was lucky to be invited by my County Chair, Wyatt Earp, to sit at a front table and was able to be an the front of the rope line. She spoke for about 15 or so and I must say, she was very impressive. I'd imagine hanging out with Bill this long has definately helped polish her. She does not translate very well on TV at all, but in person she was very relaxed, personable and spoke very clearly & powerfully about important issues.

We heard from the entire NJ Contigent including Sen. Menendez and Sen. Lautenburg, who announced he is running for reelection

The NJ Congressional delagation all spoke and Congressman Rothman made a speech proclaiming his endorsment of Sen. Barack Obama, which was not well recieved by the Clinton supporters ( i heard a few boos) by Chairman Cryan followed with a great bit of advice...

"Whomever the Democratic nominee is.... they will be better than any of the Republicans." How true.

My table was the one shouting "Impeach!" every once in awhile, nothing like a little light pressure amoungst friends.

 More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocdfagal/

If you missed it this year, put it on your calendar for next September, as you can see by the big smiles (and the full glasses) a fantastic time was had by all and we'd love to have you join us!