Spruill roast

Last night, I attended a roast of Delegate Lionell Spruill (77th). Prior to dinner, there was a reception for people to mingle and talk. I spent most of my pre-dinner reception time in the VIP reception, where I got a chance to speak with some of the electeds in attendence, including Senators Yvonne Miller (5th), Louise Lucas (18th), and Henry Marsh (16th), Delegates Paula Miller (87th), Dwight Jones (70th), Ken Melvin (80), Johnny Joannou (79th), Democratic Caucus Chair Brian Moran (46th), and Minority Leader Frank Hall (69th). As the reception wore on, more and more people came into the room, making moving around a little difficult. All were waiting for the arrival of the featured speaker, Senator John Kerry. Around 7:15pm, Kerry arrived.

Kerry spent about ten minutes moving thru the room, shaking hands and speaking to people. I got a chance to chat with him as well. First impression: golly, that man is tall! As I was one of the few folks with a camera, I had several requests for photos, which I was happy to take.

Since we were running about an hour behind schedule, we were instructed to head to the dining room and take our seats. The room was quite full – I’d say about 500 people were there. Congressman Bobby Scott (3rd VA) served as master of ceremonies. Chesapeake Vice Mayor Dwight Parker introduced the elected officials in attendance. In addition to the aforementioned ones, Delegates Jeion Ward (92nd) and Kenny Alexander (89th) were there, along with local elected officials too numerous to name from throughout the area. I had the pleasure of dining with two of the local electeds – one from Suffolk and one from the town of Ivor.

After dinner, the roasting began. Fourth District Chair Grindly Johnson started us off, telling us about how Spruill likes catsup on his egg foo young. She was followed by DPVA Chair Dickie Cranwell, who was suprised to be invited, making a crack about the two Democrats he knows in the area: Tom Moss , “who has left the party,” and Alan Diamonstein, “who’s in a nursing home somewhere.” Among the remarks of Delegate Dwight Jones, who is a minister, were some biblical comments. Rev. Jones admonished Spruill that the Ten Commandments are not the Ten Suggestions. The last one of the “roasters” was not a roaster at all. Jimmy Rogers from Associated Distributors presented Spruill with a framed copy of the article that appeared in the paper last week.

Spruill took the ribbing good naturedly and then introduced Kerry. Kerry took the microphone to thunderous applause. After echoing the story of how he and Spruill met, he spoke briefly about the Democratic agenda for the next two years, touching on such issues as Iraq. I got the distinct impression that Kerry is going to put forth a full effort to obtain the presidential nomination.

A couple of kudos for this event are in order. First, to Spruill’s chief of staff Susan Rowland. She did a fantastic job in putting this event together. Second, to Miss Emily Hasty. This little girl – 10 years old – did a wonderful job singing.

I am already looking forward to next year’s event. I hope Spruill can convince some of our other representatives to visit this part of Virginia. As he said, they should see other parts of Virginia and not simply cross the 14th Street bridge.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention the funniest thing I saw all night. As I was leaving the event, I was behind an SUV with both an Allen sticker and a Drake sticker on it. Funny to me, since this had to be the largest Democratic gathering on the Southside this year.