As most Carmichael residents watched the Democratic National Convention on television last month from their living rooms, Sandi Dunn had a ringside seat 887 miles away in Denver.
"They could have spit on us if they wanted to," Dunn joked about the convention's main speakers, easily viewed from the front-row center seats given to her and about 30 other delegates at the Invesco Field stadium.
Dunn, a longtime Carmichael resident, still doesn't know why she was assigned such an exclusive seat for Sen. Barack Obama's Aug. 28 acceptance speech, but she is sure of her feelings about the four-day convention.
"It was one of the most fun things I have ever done in my life," Dunn said of participating as a district delegate in the national convention.
"There was excitement, enthusiasm, a sense of community and purpose," she said.
Dunn and Bill Slaton, another longtime Carmichael resident, were elected as delegates to represent the 3rd Congressional District.
Dunn, a lawyer, is also a board member of the Carmichael Creek Neighborhood Association and has been active in many Carmichael boards, panels and advisory groups.
Slaton is a Sacramento Municipal Utility District board member.
Dunn and Slaton competed for the two seats, beating out two dozen other delegate hopefuls April 13 at a Democratic caucus held at Rio Americano High School.
The 3rd District covers most of suburban Sacramento County, including Carmichael, Citrus Heights and parts of Arden Arcade. It also includes Solano County as well as Alpine, Amador and Calaveras counties. More than 700,000 people live in the district.
The caucus at Rio was one of many held throughout the state, where record numbers of Democrats gathered to select delegates to send to the convention to represent each California congressional district.
"Two-thirds of the delegation had never been to a convention before, including me," Dunn said of the 503 California delegates and their alternates.
The California delegation stayed in the same hotel as the New York delegation, which was less than half the size of the California group, she said.
"It was crowded. There were a lot of people, but it wasn't overwhelming," she said of the hotel and the pre-convention parties held the weekend before the Monday opening.
While there was uplifting excitement, there was also some anxiety, she said.
"The press was reporting that there was this big division between Hillary (Rodham Clinton) and Obama. The delegates I talked with said they were Democrats first, but the press kept trying to raise questions," Dunn said of both the print and television media.
During the first days of the convention, which were held in the Pepsi Center Arena, Dunn said she sat near the CNN post and could hear the interviews.
At the Pepsi Center, those entering had to have credentials like press passes or delegate badges. At Invesco Field, it was opened to the public.
The crowd of about 7,000 at the arena was dwarfed by the 85,000 or so who jammed into Invesco Field. Some had waited for three hours to get in, she said.
"People saw it as a historical event, and they wanted to be part of history," Dunn said.
There were light moments, too. Like when the delegates held celebrity watches. Spike Lee, Bill Maher and Al Franken were just a few of the many spotted.
"If you are a political junkie, it was nirvana. I'm a political junkie," Dunn said.
But the highlight for Dunn was Obama's acceptance speech and where she sat.
In the front row, she said, she sat next a woman from Auburn and another woman from San Francisco.
"The acceptance speech was one of the most thrilling things," she said.
Then there was the state roll call vote when thousands of delegates were shouting at the top of their lungs.
"It was really loud. It was deafening. It was pandemonium, but not in a bad way, in an excited way," she said.
"The whole thing was exciting to me," Dunn said.
Call The Bee's Ramon Coronado, (916) 321-1013.
