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August 23, 2008

Wabash Valley delegates fire up for Convention

By Howard Greninger and Sue Loughlin

TERRE HAUTE — Wabash Valley delegates to the Democratic National Convention are fired up about this year’s election and the prospect of Barack Obama becoming the country’s next president.

Several will fly out to Denver today for several days of convention activities culminating with Obama accepting his party’s nomination for president.

One of the 8th District delegates is John R. Gregg, former state representative.

“Democrats have not been this excited at a convention since 1992, when they nominated Bill Clinton,” Gregg said.

“I think this primary was great, particularly in Indiana,” he said. “It energized our party. We’ve now got a chance to win Indiana … All [Obama] has to do is carry the same states that [Sen. John] Kerry carried in 2004, and win Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia and he is the president.”

A special moment for Gregg will be when his son, John B., joins him on Thursday and they attend Obama’s acceptance speech at the 76,000-seat Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.

“We will sit with the Indiana delegation and see history made as the first African-American is nominated for president,” Gregg said. His son is a junior at North Knox High School.

Democratic Party conventions are nothing new for Gregg, who served as a national party delegate in 1992 and 1996, each for former President Clinton, and in 2000, for former vice president Al Gore.

This time, Gregg is a pledged delegate for Sen. Hillary Clinton. He served as one of her eight honorary campaign co-chairmen in Indiana. He heads to Denver as a “public leader elected official delegate” representing the 8th Congressional District.

Gregg served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1986 to 2002 and was House Speaker from 1996 to 2002.

Gregg, who lives in Sandborn, is an attorney in a Vincennes law firm. He said he doesn’t expect any surprises with Clinton’s name coming up before the party convention.

“They will put her name on the ballot, so the question is do we actually vote for her. If it goes to a vote, I vote for her. What I imagine will happen is they will run [the ballot] up to New York, and when it is time for her to vote, she will withdraw her name and ask all of her delegates to go for Barack Obama,” Gregg said.

“It is a foregone conclusion, Obama has the number of delegates to win,” Gregg said.

Bionca Gambill, who is the Linton Township trustee in Vigo County, introduced Obama at a presidential campaign visit in April in Terre Haute North Vigo High School. Gambill has been a state party delegate, but this will be her first time serving as a national party delegate. She is pledged to Obama as a delegate for the 8th Congressional District.

“I was not a slated delegate, I had to campaign for it,” said Gambill, who leaves for Denver today.

“I see the convention as bringing everything to fruition, letting the first viable female candidate be nominated from the floor on the first ballot, letting her delegates vote for her, which brings it all to a complete closure. It is a great way to unite the party,” Gambill said.

More than 1,000 delegates will volunteer at 30 community project sites around Denver on Wednesday as part of a “Delegate Service Day.” The Indiana delegation, along with delegates from Guam and seven other states, will sort and package food for Meals on Wheels.

“We will box up canned goods,” said Gambill, who also plans to attend group events on Tuesday that celebrate the 88th anniversary of U.S. women attaining the right to vote.

She wants to be part of all the convention action. “I want to be out there educating myself to see how I can be more effective in making my candidate become elected,” Gambill said.

For Lynn Hamilton, Sullivan County Democratic Party chairwoman, it will be her first time to attend a national party convention.

“I’m so excited I can’t hardly stand it,” said the 59-year-old, who is a hairdresser. “It’s such a history-making time.”

She is pledged as a Hillary Clinton delegate, although she anticipates Clinton will release her delegates to support Obama.

Hamilton has been the Sullivan Democratic Party chairwoman for 31⁄2 years.

She was elected as an 8th Congressional District national delegate during the state Democratic convention. In the 8th District, four delegates are pledged to Clinton and two to Obama.

In the primary, Hamilton voted for Clinton, but she is ready to get behind Obama, she said. “Unity is a big thing for me.”

This year’s election is an important one for her and her family. Her son lost his job at Pfizer, although he has since found other employment. Her husband worked at a coal mine that closed. “This economy has hit my family very hard. There has to be a change,” she said.

Hamilton also is concerned that if Republican John McCain becomes the country’s next president, the war in Iraq will continue for an undetermined time.

Terre Haute attorney Bill Smock, 61, also is an 8th District national delegate pledged to Clinton. He had to run for the position at the state convention.

“I anticipate she’ll release her delegates and ask them to back Obama so it looks like a unified party,” he said.

Negotiations are probably under way as to how and when this will happen, he said. The national Democratic Party doesn’t want anything to happen that would show a split in the party.

This will be Smock’s first time to attend a Democratic national convention. He was a political science major in college and is interested in presidential politics.

Also, he enjoys Colorado and his son lives in Denver.

It’s an important election with major ramifications for the future of the country, he said. Obama and McCain “are at opposite ends of the political spectrum on a number of issues,” he said.

For one thing, the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court could be profoundly affected by the new president. Some of the justices are likely to retire in the next few years.

If McCain is elected and has an opportunity to appoint Supreme Court justices, “It could change the social fabric of America on important social issues,” Smock said.

The court currently is viewed as moving toward the conservative end of the spectrum, he said.

The person elected president can have a dramatic impact on the course of events for the United States, he said. If Al Gore had defeated George Bush in 2000, it’s doubtful the United States would have gone to war in Iraq — a war that has cost thousands of American lives and affected millions of citizens, Smock said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.

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