With the Democrats in Denver

First there are the delegates chosen at Congressional district elections last spring, April Vargas, 58, of Montara is an Obama delegate and wears many hats. She is a member of the San Mateo County Central Committee and serves as its controller. She is the battle state coordinator for Congressional District 12 for the Obama presidential campaign and is the outreach coordinator for the county Democratic party’s United Campaign. This will be Vargas’ second convention. She was a delegate in 2004, heard Obama give his rousing keynote speech and was hooked. She decided then that he had to be the nominee in 2008. She went on to be a founding member of Obama San Mateo County and attended Camp Obama. In the early days, the small group met in a veterinary hospital, then moved to an upstairs conference room in the Howard Johnson hotel on El Camino Real in San Mateo. As the group expanded, they moved into regular office space in South San Francisco. Today the Obama campaign in San Mateo County shares spaces with the county Democratic headquarters on El Camino Real in San Carlos.

Mark Brickman, 51, of San Mateo, another Obama delegate, was also an early Obama supporter. He and his wife Cynthia first heard Obama speak at a St. Patrick’s Day event in Oakland in 2007. He was so impressed he filled out a form to volunteer and ended up hosting Obama grassroots meetings in his home in San Mateo. Mark graduated from Mills High School and works as a court reporter. He is now head of the San Mateo-Foster City precinct captains and will be leading Camp Obama training sessions for volunteers after the convention. He also writes a blog, markbrickman.blogspot.com. This will be his first convention and he looks forward to being part of the action rather than watching events on TV.

Lilli Rey, 49, is a Clinton delegate. She is a Hillsborough mom with four children. She first became involved with politics when she met Jackie Speier whose child was a kindergarten classmate of one of the Rey children. She became a volunteer and fundraiser for Jackie’s campaigns. Rey met Clinton a year and half ago at a democratic party meet and greet. She was so impressed with Clinton she decided to get involved in her campaign. She has raised more than half a million dollars for Clinton’s presidential bid. She is disappointed that her candidate is not the nominee and has signed the petition for the Clinton roll call vote which will take place tomorrow night at the convention. But she has not joined the Hillary diehards who refuse to support Obama. She says she will vote for him but probably will not play an active role in the presidential campaign.

Ray Buenaventura is also a Clinton delegate. Buenaventura is 43 and is president of the Filipino Democratic club and an active player in the Filipino Democratic caucus. He is a criminal defense lawyer and his law practice and home are in Daly City. When he attended the state convention last year, he heard Clinton speak and was so impressed he joined Asian Americans for Hillary. He worked as a volunteer on behalf of his candidate in Iowa, New Mexico, Texas and Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the County Democratic Central Committee. This will be his first national convention. He is not bitter about Clinton’s loss and plans to support Obama.

Other delegates from San Mateo County include Clinton delegates Joseph DeBono of South San Francisco, Christopher Nichols of Menlo Park and David Sanchez of Burlingame; and Obama delegates Eileen Donahoe of Portola Valley, John Roos of Hillsborough, Steve Westly of Menlo Park, and Richard Gordon, San Mateo County supervisor, of Menlo Park. Roos and Westly are part of the state and national Obama fundraising team. Also attending will be Brook Josephs of San Mateo Highlands, a member of the state Obama campaign. Carol Doggett of Belmont is an unpledged add-on delegate. There will also be a number of volunteers including Gini Stewart of Foster City, Mary Tweig of Burlingame and Ruben Abrica, East Palo Alto councilman. And of course San Mateo County’s congressional representatives will also be in attendance.

California has a total of 441 delegates.

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Local Democrats who cannot attend the hoopla in Denver can attend an event at local Democratic headquarters at 628 El Camino Real in San Carlos to party and view convention speeches tonight, the official opening, and Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday, Aug. 28. Tickets are $200 for the two nights to "experience all the magic of the convention with a fraction of the carbon footprint and cost.”

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Back home, San Mateo and the Hillsdale Shopping Center will get a big bite of the apple when a new Apple store opens at the mall. Stay tuned for another exciting new tenant.

Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs in the Monday edition. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.