The Family That Politicks Together, Frolics Together

Ohio delegates Janet and Terry Carson dance at a party for the Ohio convention delegates. Photo by Mark T. Osler

After a full day of convention meetings, speeches and parties, Ohio delegate Terry Carson still has a few more things to do.

He has to rub the high-heel-wearied feet of his party boss—who also happens to be his wife, Janet Carson. And he has to post photos documenting their day to geaugadems.org. That’s the website of their home-county Democratic party, which Janet chairs.

The Carsons’ first convention experience is truly a family affair. Terry and Janet, both delegates for Hillary Clinton, watched her Tuesday speech while flanking their daughter, April.

April, now 32, is a Washington lawyer with the liberal nonprofit Alliance for Justice. But she remembers being a little girl asleep in the backseat of the family car while her parents stuffed mailboxes with political fliers.

"No mailboxes! Paper sleeves," interjects her mother, who, always a stickler for following postal rules, is referring to the plastic newspaper-delivery tubes that proliferate outside cities.

As conventioneers file out of the Pepsi Center late one night, the threesome scrounge for leftover signs to use at rallies back home, reminisce about their decades of political organizing and plan exactly which bash to attend that night. Their first choice is shut down by the fire marshal because it’s already too crowded. So they head to a Grand Hyatt penthouse with a big band, dance to Frank Sinatra's "My Way," then proceed to their hotel for a party with fellow Ohioans.

"It's so great just to be in a room with so many Democrats," says Janet Carson, 58.

The Carsons have checked out a few parties this week. At Sunday’s kickoff concert April had to clue them in on the big-name artists they were listening to, including Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Sugarland. But Terry Carson, 57, was moved by something a little less musical during that party—an emotional appeal on behalf of the environment by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Carson says he's been a bit taken aback to see so many receptions, meals and other events paid for by corporate America. "That's one thing that makes me antsy—that all the corporations are sponsoring parts of the convention," he says. "It seems like not the Democratic way."

Despite the freebies, delegates eat plenty of costs. Rooms at the Ohio delegation’s hotel, the Curtis, cost $335 a night with a five-night minimum. The Curtis is a boutique hotel with a playful kiddie theme—conference rooms with names like "Duck, Duck Goose" and tic-tac-toe notepads lying around.

Though perhaps a bit cheesy, the Curtis is only a few blocks from many of the parties and meetings. It's also only a half-mile from the Pepsi Center, but the shuttle ride and security maze can take anywhere from a half-hour to nearly two. Carson finds fun even on the long commute as he watches the camaraderie and diversity of his fellow delegates, all along for the same ride.

Tamara Lytle was the chief Washington correspondent for the Orlando Sentinel from 1997 to 2008.