The Democratic Party’s momentum is building, according to a handful of more than 300 Maine Democrats at the party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday night.

Speaking via cellphone from the convention floor, Diane Poirier of Lewiston said she was thrilled to take part in the convention.

Poirier, 56, said she was a lifelong Democrat, but this was her first chance to attend a national convention, and she’s glad she did.

“The momentum is really building and the speeches have been really motivating,” said Poirier, a semi-retired grandmother. “I’ve been amazed by the speakers, how great they are, how really moving they’ve been.”

What has stood out most for Poirier was the focus on “Democratic” family values, she said. “It’s reminded me of why I’m here and why I’m a Democrat.”

Waiting for speeches by Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama, delegates from the Maine Democratic Party said they were having a good time celebrating their party’s presidential ticket and were preparing to get to work campaigning once they returned to Maine later this week.

The key message for Democrats back home could be summed up in a single word, said Maine Democratic Party Chairman Ben Grant: “enthusiasm.”

“This is a party that is completely behind the president, and the energy here is really phenomenal,” said Grant, also at the national convention for the first time.

He said Maine Democrats’ experience at their national convention was in “stark contrast” to the experience Maine Republicans had in Tampa last week.

“This is an absolutely unified party,” Grant said. “I think Mitt Romney has a very big problem with the way Ron Paul delegates from Maine were handled and they’ve got that staring them in the face back home.”

Lacking any internal party controversies, Maine Democrats were still making a mark on their party’s convention, Grant said. He noted that Karen Mills, a Maine native from Brunswick and a member of the president’s Cabinet as the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, had a speaking part at the convention.

Grant said his favorite speeches as of Thursday were from former President Bill Clinton and Newark, N.J., Mayor Corey Booker.

Grant said Clinton was an expert at taking complex government policy issues and making “political sense” of them for everyday people.

He said the convention message was “determined, positive and hopeful but includes an honest and realistic reminder to Americans about how we got here in the first place.”

Elaine Makas, another Lewiston Democrat at the convention and a former Maine state representative, said her favorite speakers included San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and first lady Michele Obama.

Makas said she’s been to five national conventions and 2012 was her fourth in a row.

“They’ve all been memorable and exciting,” she said. “But this one has been really, really moving and exciting because people are really fired up about this election — this re-election.”

Makas agreed Democrats seemed to be gaining momentum but that the work to deliver Maine as a solid Obama state would continue in earnest for the next two months.

Her message for Democrats back home?

“I’m going to tell them I’m going to work even harder,” Makas said. “Nothing is guaranteed; we’ve got to keep the progress going that we’ve made in the last few years. It depends on all of us.”

Grant, the state party chairman, said the convention’s overarching theme kept coming back to him and would be the message he would bring back to Maine.

“‘We are all in this together,'” Grant said. “This is one of those times when we are all pulling our oars together, like everyone else, to move forward.”

sthistle@sunjournal.com

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