Yesterday was the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, DC, and here in Anchorage there was the Anchorage Rally to Restore Sanity on the Cuddy Quad at UAA.
But it was also Saturday, & I have a story to finish up, so I did what I do on Saturdays: I headed downtown to my favorite writing venue, Side Street Espresso.
Deb & George at Side Street had already told me last week that Side Street would be open a bit later than usual this Saturday because they were a participating business in the Anchorage Downtown Partnership’s Trick or Treat Street, which was set up as a way for kids to come downtown with their folks & trick or treat in a safe & fun way.
But it wasn’t until I got there in the morning that George told me U.S. Senate candidate Scott McAdams would be bringing his family, too. And also some media.
It would be a distraction, while it lasted, from writing, but I was glad for the opportunity to say hello again to Scott McAdams, who I had shaken hands with briefly at the Alaska Pride Conference earlier in the month. At the time, I told him he had my support — in fact it was his speech at the Pride Conference that convinced me — and that I’d be writing a blog post about my support. And so I did. And now I could tell him that I’d also already voted for him.
I believe that Scott & family arrived directly after attending the Anchorage Rally to Restore Sanity.
The media started setting him up for interviews in fairly short order.
In fact, after he arrived, the only table free at Side Street during was the big one right next to the window; but the media there — a national crew from ABC News and another from Fox — were worried about backlighting. I get that — I take a lot of photos, and hate backlighting — so I offered to switch tables, and ended up being right behind the cameras as Scott McAdams sat for two back-to-back interviews.
He was interviewed first by ABC News.
There’s Tom Begich — another Side Street regular — just behind him.
I also had a good view of some of the trick-or-treat action along G Street —
As many adults as kids were in costume.
A few dogs, too.
And the occasional dragon in a stroller.
Here’s Heather Handyside, Scott McAdams’ aide. She was just as gracious as he was.
Catching a quick sip of coffee between interviews.
His second interview was with Fox News. I think this was a national news crew, too.
Just before heading out the door, the entire family posed for a photo opp. I was in the wrong place to get a really good view…
… but earlier, prior to the interviews, I did get a couple of shots of what Scott himself later dubbed “the McAdams McTreaters.”
You can find another photo of the McAdams McTreaters on the McAdams McTwitPic account.
The cameras followed the McAdams family out onto G Street…
… and a half hour or so later, after the family trick or treated up in the direction of 5th Avenue, they reappeared again, talking with voters along the way.
Happy Halloween, Scott McAdams & family. I hope us Alaskans will be seeing a lot more of you.
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For photos of the Anchorage Rally to Restore Sanity, where Scott appeared prior to arriving on Trick or Treat Street, see The Mudflats, Floridana Alaskiana v4.0, and John Aronno’s Facebook album.
Scott looks bored and bothered. If he cannot handle the race without getting tired, how is he going to have stamina forD.C.
I wouldn’t say he was either bored or bothered yesterday. Looked to me like he was fighting a cold & was possibly exhausted from a demanding campaign schedule. But he was engaged & did a great job with both interviews, not to mention being great off camera — very appreciative when I traded tables with him so he wouldn’t be backlit for the TV cameras & even helped me move my coat & other stuff over. He’s a gracious man. I like him a lot.
Thank you for the nice comments. And for letting us totally take over!
It was great having you there! Hope you’ll stop by there some other Saturday when you don’t have a busy campaign to run!
Best wishes on November 2.
This is a nice post. I like it. But I’ve gotta say this; it’s really starting to build up.
This is one more event that we, the unwashed public, didn’t know about.
We’ve had a full schedule for two weeks of public and private events with restricted attendance or smaller venues or no publicity about the event at all.
Frankly, I’m tired of reading smug blog entries about things I would have gone to, but didn’t know about. Even with hours each day reading these same blogs and the news websites.
National news camera crews staying in hotels knew to be there, but not the local public? Ouch. Not a good way to generate positive good will. With people who will be voting tomorrow.
Suggestion for next time – Alaska bloggers coordinate with each other and have some kind of simple single page with events posted as they come up. You guys are the ones in the know about events being planned. Share it, will ya?
Now. Are there events TODAY, tonight and tomorrow morning that progressive voters might want to know about?
Sorry, cg, but “knowing about this event in advance” is not how I happened to be there at all. First of all, I’m not a fulltime political blogger — I write politics only now and then, which I happen to be doing now because of this election. My writing’s more important to me. If I had wanted to go to an event where I might have seen Scott McAdams on Saturday, I would have gone to the Anchorage Rally to Restore Sanity — but I didn’t, because I wanted to write. So I went to Side Street, where I’ve gone writing every Saturday for years, going all the way back to 1994. George & Deb, the proprietors of Side Street, told me last week that this week they’d be open later than usual because they were participating in the downtown business association’s “Trick or Treat Street” event. What that meant to me is I could write there even longer than usual, instead of having to move to another venue as I do when they close at their normal time of 3:00. I don’t know when George learned that Scott McAdams would be bringing his family to Side Street, but I didn’t know until about quarter to twelve that day because he gave me a heads-up. And as I was writing on paper that day, and so didn’t have my laptop, I couldn’t even tweet about it to anyone.
So, please rethink your casting of my post as a “smug blog entry” about an event I knew about in advance and should have told everyone about. Because I didn’t know about it in advance. It was just a lucky break for me.
Though one which makes sense since Side Street is a very progressive-friendly place, where I’ve occasionally seen people like Tony Knowles & Eric Croft come for a cup of coffee. And once, on the day that everyone was waiting for the results of the Alaska Senate ethics investigation of Troopergate, some Palin supporters ordered a huge order of coffee from them and then stiffed them when they realized they were in an establishment run by liberals. But mainly George & Deb are just hardworking good people it’s been my pleasure to know and call my friends for the past 16 years.
I don’t know about events today/tonight/tomorrow. As I said, I only blog politics here & there. Check the Mudflats, check Scott McAdams site, get on their maillists. My Monday nights are about hanging out with my friend watching DVDs and talking.
Edited to add: My best guess about how the news crews knew to be there is because they wanted to interview Scott, contacted his campaign, & someone with his campaign suggested Side Street during the Trick or Treat event as a good place to do it, & then they cleared it with George & Deb… probably just an hour or so before George told me about it.
And, I just read my email & found one about a final fundraising event for Scott McAdams tonight, November 1st from 6:00-7:30pm at the Carpenters Hall at 4th Ave & Denali Street, Downtown.