Wisconsin lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes.

I spent Friday night and Saturday at my congressional district Democratic convention. I will not bore you with all the details, except to say that my team of candidates — which included me running for treasurer — swept the ticket. None of us is nearly as young as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her cohort, but we are new blood and ready to make some changes.

Wait. I am going to bore you. Here are some excerpts from my three-minute speech.

“Why am I running for a leadership position in the 7th CD? Because we need change. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing time after time and expecting different result. Let’s try something different. Let’s welcome new people, new ideas — crazy, off-the-wall, unorthodox ideas. Let’s talk about them, let’s debate them, let’s pick the best ones with an eye to the future, not the past.

(blah-blah-blah about my qualifications)

“When I was on our county board, our county administrator was fond of reminding us, ‘Budgeting is policy.’ Our constitution states that our purpose, our goal , our policy is to elect representatives to the US Congress. Let’s keep that goal in mind.

(blah-blah-blah about specifics)

“Will these things ensure that we elect a Democrat to the House in 2020? I don’t know, but I think it is worth a shot.”

Most amazing to me was that the person who spoke for my incumbent opponent — she could not be there because of a work commitment — essentially endorsed me while speaking for her. Thank you, sir!

Okay, Kat™, that’s enough ego-stroking for this post. Back to being the modest Scandinavian you like to pretend* you are…

* My ego is exactly the same size as any other only child, which is to say, HUGE!