Civitas Conservative Leadership Conference - Dinner With Senator Dole

It was an exciting first day at the Civitas Conservative Leadership Conference. The crowd was still talking about the Gubernatorial Debate and looking forward to hearing from our senior Senator, Elizabeth Dole, as we made our way to the room for Dinner.




While we were waiting for the crowd to gather I got a chance to talk with two of my compatriots on the campaign trail; Joe McLaughlin (shown in center below), candidate for Third District U. S. Congress and Dan Mansell (shown on right below), candidate for Second District U.S. Congress. For those outside the Northeastern NC area who may be unfamiliar with the race, I am the Republican candidate for North Carolina's First District U.S. Congress. You can see my campaign web site here.




The room really started buzzing when Elizabeth Dole arrived, and several people got a chance to meet her and get their pictures taken. Senator Dole is like a rock star in this crowd. She is shown here (center below) with Dodie Renfer (on left below) and Morgan Dickens (on right below).




Francis Deluca, President of Civitas, acted as Master of Ceremonies, and welcomed everyone to the Conference.




Frank Falkson (shown below), former Marine, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.




I missed the name of the lady who led the invocation (shown below).




There was a good crowd for this years event, but I don't think it measured up to last years event. I am curious why, since Civitas certainly had some great speakers and great events scheduled.




At the table for the dignataries (shown below), they had Representative Howard Coble, NC House, Senator Elizabeth Dole, and Senator Fred Smith, NC Senate.




Introductory speaker this night was Representative Howard Coble (shown below).




Keynote speaker for the evening was Senator Elizabeth Dole. She was, as usual, entertaining and informative.




It was a great ending to a great first day for the 2008 Civitas Conservative Leaderhsip Conference.