PA Political Astrology: Lancaster County Democratic Committee Goes Joe!

[tweetmeme]Well, well, well … after attending demfest via twitter hashtag, then tweeting up afterwards with one of Cocalico’s finest, I was finally able to attend Saturday’s Lancaster County Democratic Committee endorsement convention. Woot-woot! Click here for the twitter hashtag roundup: http://twubs.com/lcdc.

I got a ride with Sue (@susan1030) and a few of the Cocalico Democrats. We arrived at the Lancaster Host Resort and I checked-in on foursquare at 8:07am. (See chart cast for this time below.) It was then that I met Lancaster County Commissioner, Craig Lehman, and put my name on Joe Sestak’s petition for PA Senate. I even took one to get more signatures, so if you are a Lancaster, PA resident, are registered to vote, and haven’t yet signed a petition for Benedict Arlen DisreSpecter, come sign my petition for Joe Sestak! Then, I signed Sue Stoltzfus’s petition for PA State Committee, as well as 5 other petitions for Lancaster Committee people. I was introduced to Renee Martin at the Jack Wagner for Governor table, then I grabbed some coffee and finally got to meet Martine (@politicslovr) who was working the Lois Herr for Congress table. Lois Herr is a Capricorn, running against Libra, Joe the Pitts of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the Affordable Healthcare for America Act. After Martine and I chatted, I looked on my UberTwitter and saw that Beth Becker (@spedwybabs) had arrived and was looking for me. The funny thing was that as I told Martine that Beth was looking for me, she said, “Oh, Beth is right over there.” Beth was within 10 feet of where I was, haha! So, we got a picture together and proceeded to tweet away about how the convention was progressing.

Eventually, everyone settled into their seats as Bruce Beardsley, the Lancaster County Chairman called the meeting to order and gave the introductory remarks. We then broke out into workshop sessions, of which I attended the “Computer Sampler” with Ken Ralph, Common Ground newsletter editor. After the first session, I moseyed over to the Joe Hoeffel for PA Governor table, signed his petition, and then met Jena Grosser (@jena_grosser) who I had been following on twitter since DemFest 2010. The second breakout session I attended was “How Not To Do It Yourself,” led by Ken Ralph and Sally Lyall.

Lunch was a blast, where I met Sonya and Sandy Duncan of Columbia Borough, and sat with my committee person and district leader, Bill Sheaffer, as well as the LCDC office manager, Tracey Lynn Arriola. It was also during the lunch break that the candidates for PA Governor showed up: Dan Onorato the Aquarius came by our table first, then Jonathan Saidel the Gemini (Lt Gov), and finally Joe Hoeffel the Virgo. I got a picture with Joe but am waiting to get it from Bill’s camera. You’d better believe it will be on my facebook and twitter! I’ve been a fan and supporter of Joe Hoeffel since I met him at the Ambler R5 train station when he ran for Congress in 1998. I was a Sophomore at Temple University and rode the SEPTA from Ambler to Philly 5 days a week and was impressed to see Joe out on the tracks, greeting the commuters. Then, in 2005, he agreed to read my poem, Closet Rebel (email me if you’d like to read it), that I wrote for the Montgomery County Wissahickon Democrats, “Thank You” party for volunteers. To top it all off, Joe is also a Virgo, born on September 3rd, my astrology sign as well. We Virgo’s are awesome. Organized, hard-working, virtuous, practical, and down-to-earth.

You can bet I was sooooo totally stoked when Joe not only lit the room on FYRE with his speech but then clinched the endorsement for PA Governor from the Lancaster Democrats. Hell yea! Then, Joe Sestak the Capricorn shows up in his green military jacket and takes the floor. He didn’t speak from the podium like the other candidates—he stood with the people and walked up and down the aisle speaking to us with passion and conviction. (He did the same at the Chester County Dems meeting. See YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozJF9z0tXLQ) I must admit, I almost cried. The only candidate that didn’t show, was of course, Arlen DisreSpecter. And guess what, he got NO LOVE from Lancaster County. Joe Sestak received the endorsement. And although Gemini Jonathan Saidel didn’t get endorsed by the Lancaster Dems, I got a chance to talk with him and to hear him speak. He’s already been endorsed by the state committee and many other county committees. Doris Smith-Ribner (no birth date known yet) is great as well—in fact, she’s amazing. I wish I had known who she was prior to Saturday’s convention but I have time to learn more and hope she stays on the scene for a while.

All in all, I had a great time at the convention—I even got to be “mic runner” for all the committee nominations. I shook a lot of hands and actually remembered to hand out business cards. I should probably thank the recent new moon at 26 degrees Aquarius, that was conjunct my MC, the angle for career and reputation, for the public exposure I had this weekend. I cast a chart for the actual convention below. The time was set for when I arrived, a little after 8am, which was the time the convention was scheduled to begin. I like the Aries ascendant that had our group fired up but also in good spirits—note the chart ruler, Mars in the 5th house of recreation. The north node is in close conjunction with the 11th house of groups and associations, and power-monger Pluto is sitting very high in the chart near the MC, in the sign of Capricorn, ruled by Saturn. The moon in Taurus was set in the 2nd house of values, its home position as Taurus rules the 2nd house, and it was nice to hear Chairman Beardsley touch on Democratic values during his opening speech, mentioning how there are now over 100,000 registered Dems in Lancaster Co, 50 state offices are held by Lancaster officials, the PA State Democratic organization used Lancaster’s strategy as a template for the state, that power flows upward from the districts to the state level, and that we must keep in mind that for the primary we are running and competing against friends and allies. I’m optimistic that that Saturn in Libra on the cusp of the 7th helped to forge some fortunate alliances and partnerships for this year’s election cycle. More to come! Go Dems in 2010!

PA Political Astrology: Tweeting up after DemFest 2010

[tweetmeme]Today I had the pleasure of tweeting up with Sue Stoltzfus of the Lancaster County Democrats after we crossed paths on twitter yesterday during DemFest. (See also: PA Political Astrology: DemFest 2010 and Social Media and the Pennsylvania Young Democrats hashtag “Twub.”) Sue is the President of the Lancaster County Dem Women, a club that I had wanted to become a part of for some time. We had a wonderful conversation at Isaac’s Restaurant & Deli, which I added as my first, Newbie check-in point on foursquare. I was delighted to discover that we both share an interest not only in politics but also in social media. We have since connected on facebook and LinkedIn, and were brainstorming like crazy on new ideas for community and county engagement. When I left our meeting, I felt as though I was finally connected to my new town after leaving Montgomery County in late 2007.

Astrology isn’t confined to the birth of people; it can also be applied to the birth of relationships. Now, naturally, as a Virgo/Libra cusp, I can get carried away with casting an event chart whenever I meet a new guy (see also: Astrologers in Love). But, when I returned home, I couldn’t wait to cast an event chart for my first political tweetup. And wouldn’t you know, the event chart house positions for my tweetup today are almost identical to my natal chart! I’ve seen this configuration before when I cast the event chart for the first day at my current job (that I love, by the way). It’s also interesting that Susan is an October 30th Scorpio, which puts her Sun in my natal and event chart 6th House (near the Vertex, a point of fated connections) – the house of service, everyday routine, and work. Looks like I’ve made an auspicious connection and I’m eager to get started. Yay technology! (See today’s tweetup chart below.)

PA Political Astrology: DemFest 2010 and Social Media

Photo courtesy of micahmj11

[tweetmeme]When I heard the snowmageddon was coming, I was prepared for a comfortable, snowed-in Saturday. What I wasn’t prepared for was the phenomenon of #DemFest on twitter this morning and afternoon. I’m not a political insider in the traditional sense, so I wasn’t invited to attend the actual Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee endorsement gathering, known as DemFest. I don’t really rub shoulders with powerful people either but I read and watch a lot of news like MSNBC, FoxNews, CNN, Daily Show, Colbert Report and pay attention to local political blogs like PoliticsPA, Pa2010, Capitol Ideas, and subscribe to CapitolWire‘s Under the Dome email newsletter. What I also do is follow people that are interested in politics on twitter.

Lucky for me, I was able to pick up on the gossip of DemFest 2010 as it was happening thanks to the #demfest twitter hashtag and the wonderful political twitterati and bloggerati that kept us all up to date. Some, like @micahmj11, even had live video and pictures of the event that they shared with their tweet updates. It’s funny that while I was immersed in the PA Drama, I also clicked on a link tweeted by @spedwybabs (also partner in Progressive PST) on How Scott Brown friended, tweeted, and LOLed his way into the people’s Senate seat. Back in January, I tweeted about how Scott Brown had 3x more twitter followers than Martha Coakley. I even wrote a post comparing their astrological charts to see who’s chart looked more favorable for the special election (Brown’s did). And even though I was ultimately disappointed in the unsurprising endorsements by the PA Dems of Arlen Specter for PA Senate and the disappointing drop of Joe Hoeffel from the 1st round of ballot voting, I found out that I wasn’t alone and that I am still connected for change.

I exchanged tweets with 4 wonderful twitter “entities” that are also in my voting area: @Susan1030, @politicslovr, and of course @spedwybabs / progressivepst. This is wonderful for me because I recently relocated to Lancaster County (see also Lancaster Democrats), after having lived in Montgomery County my whole life (see also Montco Democrats), and haven’t had the chance to meet a lot of local Democrats because I commute to Philly for work everyday and still spend the majority of my time there. From these twitter connections, I’m looking forward to having a tweet-up and talking with and ultimately organizing a nice grassroots social media group for 2010 and beyond. Oh, what fun!

Stay tuned as I begin to analyze the astrology charts of our candidates for the upcoming Senatorial and Gubernatorial races. For the Democrats, we’ve got Aquarius Arlen Specter and Capricorn Joe Sestak against Republican Scorpio Pat Toomey for PA Senate, as well as Democrats Virgo Joe Hoeffel, Capricorn Jack Wagner, Aquarius Dan Onorato, and Pisces Anthony Williams, against Republican Leos Tom Corbett and Sam Rohrer. You can read my previous posts on Jim Gerlach, Tom Corbett, and Ed Rendell to catch up on what I’ve seen so far. Please feel free to tweet me, too: @signon2nine.