Published: August 23, 2008 09:26 pm         

Democrats in Denver

• Mitchells represent Payne County at convention

Prior to 2004, neither Dr. Earl Mitchell Jr., nor his wife, Bernice, had attended a Democratic National Convention.

Now the pair are becoming regulars.

Earl was a delegate for Gen. Wesley Clark at the 2004 convention and Bernice tagged along.

This time, Bernice is a delegate for Hillary Clinton and Earl is a special photo correspondent at the convention, which begins Monday and concludes Thursday at Denver’s Pepsi Center.

Bernice, chairwoman of the Payne County Democrats, was elected to represent the Third District at the state convention in February.

“I’m really honored,” said Bernice, who is on the way to Denver for the DNC with her husband today. “To be selected by Payne County and then the Third District to select me, I really treasure it. It’s a great honor.”

Earl was, as he puts it, drafted to be a photographer.

“At the last convention, I took a lot of pictures and put them on the Web,” said the co-chair of the precinct who represents Payne County at state meetings. “Tim Reese, who was at the convention last time and runs a couple of Web pages for the Democratic Party, decided that maybe I should be the official photographer and take pictures of the (Oklahoma) delegation (for the sites). What I should be doing is taking pictures of the delegation at all their functions. We have a breakfast every morning. We have political people come and speak to us.”

He added, “These are the best pictures because they are casual and people are normal. They really make for good pictures.”

The Mitchells are excited about their second visit to Democrat-central.

“I first met (Barack) Obama at the black caucus last time,” Earl said. “He spoke there before he was on the convention floor. I was excited hearing him talk at that time because he was the first really public official who spoke in terms of unity even at the black caucus.

“He received some criticism because he wasn’t ‘black enough.’ I was impressed with him at the time. When he gave the speech at the convention, that sealed it.”

Bernice said she knows Clinton from their serving on a national committee together years ago.

“I’ve known her for a long time and worked with her,” Bernice said. “I look up to her. She is one of my mentors.”

During the 2004 convention in Boston, Bernice was able to get an extra credential so she was in the audience when Obama spoke and she heard her favorite poet, Maya Angelou.

This time, she will be a voting member.

“It’s kind of nice to see what happens at the national level and to see how all of the things we did at steps A, B, C and D show up or pays off at the national level,” Bernice said.

She has a long history in Oklahoma politics. She was a Payne County commissioner from 1986 to 1996 and is on the Oklahoma Commission for Women.

Bernice tells the story of how she became involved in the Democratic Party in the state. When she and her husband moved to Stillwater in 1967, a neighbor invited them to a precinct meeting “right around the corner.”

“I went and when you open your mouth you end up getting chosen to do something,” Bernice said. “I got elected secretary to the precinct at that time.”

The neighbor was Dan Draper, who later became speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

“I really can say he was in a sense the cause of my getting involved from the grassroots level,” she added.

Earl is a professor emeritus at OSU who taught biochemistry, was associate vice president for multicultural affairs and was head of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology.

     

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