LIVE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 4/29/06 4:49PM

I went to the California Democratic Convention last year as a delegate, and it was duller than a John Kerry tax policy speech. This year, however, the excitement is palpable. Candidates jockey for their party's endorsement using every trick available to them. I received several phone calls a day last week from volunteers and tape recorders, but at the convention the gloves come off. Armies of volunteers are dispatched to whip delegates into camps, and when that doesn't work loopholes are exploited.

There is one tried and true marketing technique that works everywhere, and politics is no exception. Cute girls. At the two conventions Controller Steve Westly wins the award for bringing the most young ladies to hold signs, distribute pins, and solicit signatures. The Joe Dunn girls last year actually gave out green Mardi Gras beads (Senator Dunn's Irish. Get it?) which caught the attention, but didn't get me to his hospitality suite.

Ahh, but Dunn proved the smartest. He didn't even know what he was going to run for, but he knew how to gain supporters. Of all of the superficial means of gaining support, Dunn's was the most effective. FREE BEER. Green, of course.

But this year the stakes are higher. We have an actual election in a month, and the party's endorsement can put somebody over the top. When canvassers go to the door in a primary race, often the question they hear about their candidate is, "is he a Democrat?"

And if the answer is, "yes, and he's the only candidate with the endorsement of the Democratic Party," well, that's all a lot of people need to know. People who vote in the Democratic primary, that is.

There are about 1,800 of us delegates, and the statewide candidates who lose still gain name recognition and face time with the opinion leaders of the party. That should come in handy in future races. The more they stay on our consciousness, the better off they are.

--Side note here, Steve Westly just walked by to the high pitched hoots of the Westly girls taking a break in the Starbucks line--

Another candidate who brought a gaggle of hard core supporters is Marcy Winograd, a peacenik from the Westside who's challenging war-hawk Democratic incumbent Jane Harman. Harman won handily in the local caucus, but Winograd is taking advantage of a little used rule to force a floor vote tomorrow.

This could be the highlight of the whole weekend. She forced a second caucus meeting here that started about ten minutes ago. Assuming she can't overturn the decision there, she'll have about a 5 hour window to get 300 signatures from delegates to send it to the floor tomorrow. Then we all get to vote on whether the party endorsement goes to Winograd or Harman.

A lot of people I know are nice and pissed off at a lot of other people I know and have been hollering for a rule change. Should be fun.

I'm going up to the caucus now and then I need to vote by 7:00. I'll let you know who I chose.