Our delegation has arrived in Denver, and most of our time has been spent configuring our office at the hotel, preparing to host a Party with the Arkansas and Delaware Delegations, and trying to catch up on sleep after taking the redeye flights.

Most of us haven’t been to a national convention before, so we’re all thrilled to get started. The delegation is led by Sen. D Daniel K. Inouye, but many of the delegates you’ve probably never heard of before. For instance, Jennifer Tsuji, a child care provider from Waimea on the Big Island only got into politics in the last year because of Obama. She organized her part of the Big Island during the caucuses, and was elected at the state convention to go to Denver as a national delegate. She’s young, energetic, and learning the political ropes quickly as she goes along. Our vice chair, Kari Luna comes from a political family on Maui but has never been quite this engaged. As a young single mom and administrator at the Maui Community College, she’s a great example of the diversity we have in our ranks.

We’re sharing a hotel with Delaware and Arkansas. The Delaware folks are thrilled with the selection of their native son Senator Joe Biden, and we’ve been told to expect Sen. Hillary Clinton to address our delegation later this week.

In terms of the business of the convention, I’ve told our delegates several times, and I believe that they understand - we are full participants in this year’s Democratic National Convention. There are elements in the national platform that we are hoping to change, especially provisions to recognize native Hawaiians. We also want to build relationships with other states and state parties.

Brian Schatz

chairman, Hawaii Democratic Party