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I had the opportunity to attend SD45s Chili & Chat event this evening. The feature was of course the 3 varieties of chili, to go with the 3 speakers which included former State Auditor Pat Anderson, House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, and then some David Strom guy (who assured us he was not a dwarf).

A very impressive turnout and an impressive event overall. Of course, being the famous celebrity (heh, no laughing!) I was seated at a reserved table….in the back of the room. I\’m sure that didn\’t mean anything. All us bloggers were seated at what was entitled Bloggers Row…despite it being a round table.

Like I said a truly impressive turnout, that surely will have raised quite a bit of valuable cash for the Senate District. But more importantly was the reaction from the people attending. It was a very informal event, where each speaker spoke his/her peace for a few minutes and that it dissolved into a Q&A session. As the crowd got a chance to talk politics with the speakers (and each other) I could see people becoming visible upset with some of the moves Democrats have made both at the state and national level. People were pissed off at the direction they felt the country was being led by the children of politics (Democrats).

Common themes were annoyance spending habits of both sides of the aisle, liberals attempts to grow the government into every corner of your lives and general apprehension that the Republicans can hold the line. On that last topic, several attendants expressed doubt that Pawlenty would have the backbone to stand up to the Democrats. I had to turn to Andy Aplikowski, whom was seated next to me, and ask if he had scripted this event, as I felt like I was watching people act out a post from his blog.

One can only hope that this annoyance with the Democrats and frustration with weak Republicans, translates into motivation to actually do something about it and hopefully they get more involved. Already I got the sense that the folk of SD 45 were a very involved district and that everyone in the room would easily volunteer their time for the right cause.

It\’s an excellent idea and I\’m tempted to see if something similiar would work in my own Senate District. Certainly we could use more money for some of the plans we have. And such events are good for keeping people involved. People need these type of \”fun\” and \”casual\” events to recharge and relax. If it\’s all business and no play, people get tired of it and burn themselves out.

It\’s always interesting attending the events for other Senate Districts…each is run so differently and it\’s amazing how each approaches the problem. But I think SD45 has the right idea and has started to reach that balance. I have no problem borrowing ideas, why reinvent the wheel after all?

Anyone that has any ideas that has worked in their senate district or ideas of things to try by all means drop a line in the comments. Our districts convention is coming up so we\’re reaching the stage at where such things will be discussed. And I\’ve consented to run for a position within the district so I should probably start putting some thought into things like this.