How many politicians have you met before?

[Robespierre's Jaw]

How many politicians have you met before?

I myself have only met one. Just today after a Rememberance Day ceremony. I met the leader of the Victorian Liberal Party and Opposition Leader Ted Ballieu. I got his attention by jokingly saying "I'll save the Party". He was pleased by my comments and said good on ya. Then I shook his hand. I even did it again, when my Gran spoke to him, about the Federal member who we've never seen in his 14 years of service.

[Hatman 🍁]

I've met a number of politicians, the most notable being Jack Layton.  I also work for a politician!

[Ban my account ffs!]

Quite a few.. though mostly local.

Mayor, city councilors...

State senators, state house reps., governor, senators, congressmen

[Brandon H]

Mary Landrieu, Bobby Jindal, Charlie Melancon's wife, David Vitter, plus several state and local candidates.

[Platypus]

I've met dozens, from federal and state mps, ministers and shadows to the Victorian police comissioner, human rights advocates and former PMs. Mainly through my old high school's PIG-Political Interest Group.

[Boris]

Sen. Lisa Murkowski
Fmr. Rep. Bob Barr
Fmr. Rep. Tim Roemer
Rep. Melissa Bean

[Hash]

MPP Madeleine Meilleur (Liberal)
BQ Leader Gilles Duceppe (BQ)

I saw from a distance:
Attorney General Rob Nicholson (Con)
Min. of FA Maxime Bernier (Con)
Fmr. Min. of Defense Gordon O'Connor (Con)
Min. of Transport Lawrence Cannon (Con)
MP Mauril Belanger (Irrelevant Liberal)
MP Denis Lebel (Con)

That's all I can remember.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Most senior would be Rhodri Morgan.

[Speed of Sound]

All the locals, obviously, along with some US rep candidates. As far as big names, the biggest it gets for me is Joe Hoeffel (Senate candidate, Lt Gov candidate, fmr. US rep) and Ed Rendell.

[DownWithTheLeft]

The only ones that know me by name are local politicians.  I think the reason for that being there are no other people as young as me activiely involved in the Republican club.  As far as above local and St. Sen., County Reps:

Gov. Jon Corzine
Sen. Bob Menendez
Sen. Bob Torricelli
Sen. Frank Lautenberg
Sen Candidate Tom Kean Jr.
Sen and Gov Candidate Doug Forrester
Gov Candidate Steve Lonegan
Gov Candidate Paul DiGaetano
Gov Candidate Bob Schroeder
Gov Candidate Bret Schundler
Gov Candidate Todd Caliguire

In fact, I met all 2005 governor candidates except John Murphy

[minionofmidas]

Otto Schily once asked me where the nearest ice cream parlour was. I was 8 years old. Apart from that... well I've shaken the hand of a former Bremen state minister, but then he's my dad's boss these days. And... well. More extremely local politicians than you can shake a stick at. After all my own dad was an elected officeholder for four years.

[Hatman 🍁]

MP Mauril Belanger (Irrelevant Liberal)

Saw him a couple of times, though I wouldn't call it meeting him, though I think he said something to me once in a committee meeting. Anyways, the picture of him on Wikipedia was taken by me at an Alex Munter rally last year.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA)

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

When I was a summer intern at the State Dept., I met Wesley Clark, Madeline Albright and Lawrence Eagleburger

At a rally at George Mason University, I met and shook hands with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

From a distance:  Jesse Jackson, Chris Matthews (do they count?).  Bill Frist. 

[CPT MikeyMike]

I've met a lot. Here are the most known....

John McCain - He actually hit me in the eye with an umbrella.

Bill Weld - Met him at Paul Cellucci's inaugural.

Paul Cellucci - Worked on his campaign.

Jane Swift - With Paul Cellucci.

Jim McGovern - What the hell was I thinking?!? I should have punch him.

Ken Salazar & Wayne Allard - at Fort Carson.

[12th Doctor]

Well, it depends on how low we are willing to go, but a list of people you may have heard of include:

Dick Gephardt, Melissa Hart, Tom Ridge, Phil English, Lamar Alexander, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Rick Santorum (whom I almost got killed), Lynn Swann, John Peterson

And I was within 50 feet of Arlen Specter and George W. Bush.

Oh, I almost forgot, on the way to see Lamar Alexander, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy met in the hallway I was walking though and walked past our group.  They really didn't indicate that they had seen us though.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I met Dick DeVos, Mike Bouchard, Terry Lynn Land, Mike Cox, (Betsy DeVos and  the DeVos Daughters), I saw George Bush.

EDIT: I forgot a few: I saw Dick Cheney walking while I was in D.C.  I met Carl Levin, Bill Caul (MI House), Thad McCotter, Saul Anuzius (MI GOP Chairman).

[AndrewTX]

I'm not going to remember them all, but here are a few.

Mayor Richard Moccia (R-CT)
Mayor Dan Malloy (D-CT)
Mayor John Destefano (D-CT)
Mayor John Fabrizzi (D-CT)
(Pretty much the entire CT GOP House Legislature)
Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT)
Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT)
Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT)
Rep. John Larson (D-CT)
Gov. John Rowland (R-CT)
Gov. Jodi Rell (R-CT)
Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele (R-CT)
Lt Gov. Kevin Sullivan (D-CT)
CT Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI)
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NY)
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
Sen. John Warner (R-VA)
Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA)
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA)
Frm. House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Majority, now Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Rep. Andy Putnam (R-FL)
Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL)
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
Madeline Albright (D-?)

 Aannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I'm tired of listing. There are still more, but oh well.  Albright was the only one who was no longer serving in office anymore when I met them.

[nclib]

Rep. David Price (D-NC)
Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC)
ex.-Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker (D-NC)

I've also met many state legislators, though I doubt anyone on this forum has heard of them.

[J. J.]

Locally, several hundred, at least.  At the Federal level. probably about two dozen.  In terms of governors, I met Thornburgh, Casey and Ridge.

[Silent Hunter]

I appear to top the lot of you. Gordon Brown (when he was still Chancellor), plus five of the 2007 Labour Deputy Leadership contenders.

[Middle-aged Europe]

In connection with my thesis, I "met" (interviewed, actually) a few politicians from my homestate of Saxony-Anhalt in the last months.

These included:
- Thomas Webel (CDU), state chairman
- Uwe Beye (CDU), state manager ("Landesgeschäftsführer")
- Christel Riemann-Hanewinckel (SPD), member of the Bundestag
- Andreas Steppuhn (SPD), member of the Bundestag
- Heidemarie Ehlert (LINKE), former member of the Bundestag
- Michael Entrich (LINKE), state manager
- Corinna Pilatzki (LINKE), state treasurer
- Ralf-Peter Weber (Greens), former state chairman
- Uwe Droese (FDP), former member of the state parliament

Through two distinct internships I also met once:
- Karl-Heinz Daehre (CDU), state minister of transportation for Saxony-Anhalt
- Ingrid Häußler (SPD), then mayor of my hometown of Halle (only met her because she had an appointment in the state ministry of transportation one day, while a was a intern there )
- Martin Stadelmaier (SPD), head of the state chancellery for Rhineland-Palatinate (a position maybe best described as "chief of staff to the state PM")

[minionofmidas]

In connection with my thesis, I "met" (interviewed, actually) a few politicians from my homestate of Saxony-Anhalt in the last months.

These included:
- Thomas Webel (CDU), state chairman
- Uwe Beye (CDU), state manager ("Landesgeschäftsführer")
- Christel Riemann-Hanewinckel (SPD), member of the Bundestag
- Andreas Steppuhn (SPD), member of the Bundestag
- Heidemarie Ehlert (LINKE), former member of the Bundestag
- Michael Entrich (LINKE), state manager
- Corinna Pilatzki (LINKE), state treasurer
- Ralf-Peter Weber (Greens), former state chairman
- Uwe Droese (FDP), former member of the state parliament

Through two distinct internships I also met once:
- Karl-Heinz Daehre (CDU), state minister of transportation for Saxony-Anhalt
- Martin Stadelmaier (SPD), head of the state chancellery for Rhineland-Palatinate (a position maybe best described as "chief of staff to the state PM")

The only one I've heard of is the one with the looong surname.

[minionofmidas]

What's your thesis (Diplomarbeit? Für welches Fach? Politikwissenschaft?) about?

[Middle-aged Europe]

In connection with my thesis, I "met" (interviewed, actually) a few politicians from my homestate of Saxony-Anhalt in the last months.

These included:
- Thomas Webel (CDU), state chairman
- Uwe Beye (CDU), state manager ("Landesgeschäftsführer")
- Christel Riemann-Hanewinckel (SPD), member of the Bundestag
- Andreas Steppuhn (SPD), member of the Bundestag
- Heidemarie Ehlert (LINKE), former member of the Bundestag
- Michael Entrich (LINKE), state manager
- Corinna Pilatzki (LINKE), state treasurer
- Ralf-Peter Weber (Greens), former state chairman
- Uwe Droese (FDP), former member of the state parliament

Through two distinct internships I also met once:
- Karl-Heinz Daehre (CDU), state minister of transportation for Saxony-Anhalt
- Martin Stadelmaier (SPD), head of the state chancellery for Rhineland-Palatinate (a position maybe best described as "chief of staff to the state PM")

The only one I've heard of is the one with the looong surname.

Hanewinckel?


EDIT:

What's your thesis (Diplomarbeit? Für welches Fach? Politikwissenschaft?) about?

Magisterarbeit, actually. And yes, political science.

It's about the nomination of the candidate lists for Bundestag elections... primarily about the question why Kampfkandidaturen occur and why those Kampfkandidaturen occur far more often in FDP, Greens, and LINKE than in the two other parties... and you should come up with an English term for Kampfkandidatur now.


Why they do occur more often in the "smaller" parties (I also included some West-German state chapters of the LINKE, so I hope they qualify as "small" party):

1) The smaller parties do not win direct seats, nor do they win as much list seats than the large parties. Hence more competition in the smaller parties. This explains not everything however. For example, neither the CDU nor the PDS/LINKE tend to win direct seats in Saxony-Anhalt and both win about the same amount of list seats during Bundestag elections (at least this was the case in 2005). Nevertheless, Kampfkandidaturen occur far mor often in the LINKE than in the CDU here. You could also argue that the Greens in Bavaria win about as much seats as the CDU does in Saxony-Anhalt and still there are more Kampfkandidaturen in the Bavarian Greens.

2) (You may come up with an English term for Listenvorschlag now... "candidate proposals"?) The state executive boards of the CDU and the SPD always compile Listenvorschläge before the formal nominating conventions. Those list proposals are simply confirmed by the delegates most of the time. The Greens generally doesn't have Listenvorschläge. Neither does the FDP in most states. The LINKE practices this in some states and in other states not (interestingly, they tend do it in the eastern states, but do it without in the western states... the eastern LINKE state chapters seem to be resemble CDU and SPD in some aspects, while the western LINKE state chapters are often alike the Greens).

3) CDU and SPD have an unwritten rule, which is only very rarely broken: Only direct candidates get a spot on the list, period. In those two parties, the nomination of the direct candidates also serve as sort of a pre-nomination for the lists. If you want to get on the list, you run for the candidacy in your electoral district first. If you lose, then you don't run for a spot on the list either. In the Greens for example, there isn't such rule. In fact, the direct candidates aren't even nominated before the lists in some states.

4) The "women's quota" (?). This factor mostly applies to the Greens and the LINKE only and it is based on the fact, that most of the people who want to run for a spot on a list, in any party, are men. However, Greens and LINKE have a strict 50/50 gender quota for men and women. This sometimes has the effect, that only a single (or only two) women run for a spot reserved for women, while five or maybe even ten men run for a spot where men are allowed to run.

5) Interestingly, Kampfkandidaturen are also a bit more common in the SPD than they are in the CDU. This has a specific reason. As I told you, only direct candidates get a spot on the list in those parties. There is one exception from this rule however. The SPD also has a quota for women candidates. This quote only applies to the list candidates and not the direct candidates. When the case occurs that only few women are nominated as direct candidates, the SPD tends to put some women without any electoral district between the (male) direct candidates. This practice is not very popular among some male direct candidates. In addition, most direct candidates are also incumbent MP's , while those "quota women" aren't. So, some male candidates in the SPD are often pretty pissed. At least this seems to be one of the primary reasons for Kampfkandidaturen in the SPD and is also the main reason why Kampfkandidaturen are less common the CDU. The CDU doesn't have a quota and simply places the direct candidates/incumbent MP's on the "upper" spots of list, no matter whether they are male or female. In fact, in the case of the CDU, the opposite situation occurs sometimes: A women candidate runs against a male candidate because the Frauen-Union thinks they were not enough women in the candidate proposal of the executive board. This happened in Berlin in 2005, for instance. Of course, the Frauen-Union is not an all too influential sub-organization, so Kampfkandidaturen are still rarer in the CDU.

6) This the hardest one to prove and maybe I even drop this one: Different political cultures. The Greens and the LINKE in particular are based on the principles of Basisdemokratie (grassroots democracy), while CDU and SPD are directed by their executive boards. The FDP is somewhere in-between, but posseses also some distinctive features of the Greens and the LINKE... representatives of the FDP call it "liberal traditions" instead of "basisdemokratisch", because they don't want to be put in the same category as the LINKE.

So, those are the basics I guess. I'm conducting interviews with former candidates who participated in Kampfkandidaturen in 2005 as well as with party representatives. I'm trying to analyze press coverage of the 2005 elections and I also try to get the official protocals of the respective nominating conventions from the individual state parties (which is easy with the Greens and the hardest with the CDU).