Venezia: A peek into presidential politics

Earlier this summer, I found myself at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas among about 2,000 delegates attending the National Organization of Latino Elected Officials convention, or NOLEO.

I was escorted to a private room and hung out with a presidential candidate waiting to take the convention luncheon stage.

And it all started with Facebook, my guilty pleasure!

Noticing a posting from my friend Mike Nason, I was surprised to see he’d hit the campaign trail with Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson.

Now I’ve known Nason for years. This Orange County resident is married to NBC News Orange County Bureau Chief Vikki Vargas, and I’m godmother to their daughter, who graduated from college in June.

Nason has quite a history. For almost 20 years ending in the early 1990s, he was producer of the late Rev. Robert Schuller’s “Hour of Power.” He went on to serve as Schuller’s special assistant and later as his personal aide, traveling extensively with him.

During the ‘80s and ‘90s Nason was a well-known media consultant and public relations guy on the Southern California political scene, with his business partner Lois Lundberg and their company Nason-Lundberg and Associates. After Lundberg retired, Nason started his own media consulting company.

So how the heck did he hook up with Carson?

“I was with Schuller for 42 years, and people often ask me who my top five favorite guests on the program were,” Nason told me. “I’d always include Dr. Ben Carson, who appeared on the show about eight times.”

Nason respected the retired neurosurgeon and his viewpoints. When he heard Carson was making a run for president, he offered his help.

Nason told me that what inspired him to join the campaign is Carson’s “articulate message that each of us is responsible for our own destiny, and that how we conduct and educate ourselves in the first 20 years is what defines our lives for the next 50 to 60 years.”

So last October he met with Carson and his wife in Washington, D.C., for dinner, and in January he became the campaign’s director of advancement.

What does an advance man do?

Nason and his team arrive in a city or state ahead of the candidate. They then work with local groups organizing fundraisers and personal appearances.

Nason’s advancement team helps put together the events, interacts with reporters and oversees the candidate’s arrival and departure schedules.

The pressure is on to make sure every aspect of the campaign stop runs smoothly.

It’s not unusual for Nason to be on the clock 22 hours straight. The day we spoke, he’d been in five states and I don’t know how many cities in the previous week alone.

At a time when Nason could be cooling his heels and enjoying the summer with his family, he’s on a fast-paced schedule that’s nothing short of overwhelming. But he loves it.

I admitted to Nason that I really didn’t know much about Carson, but as luck would have it, the campaign would be in Las Vegas at the same time I would be there.

Nason invited me to NOLEO, where Carson would be the keynote luncheon speaker.

The Latino vote is being courted by Republicans and Democrats this election cycle, so it was no surprise Carson accepted the invitation. The next day Hillary Clinton would be making an appearance.

After arriving at the convention and asking for Nason, I was escorted into a waiting room off the main ballroom. For the next 20 minutes or so it was just Carson, Nason, me and my husband, Stan, chatting away.

I found Carson to be soft-spoken, handsome and engaging as he shared his views on problems with government, education and world affairs as well as his solutions.

He told me that running for president was “a calling.”

Though polling near the top when I met with him, Carson was polling at about 8% among Republicans on Wednesday compared with front-runners Donald Trump, who had 24%, and Jeb Bush, with 15%.

VIPs started meandering in for a meet-and-greet with the candidate. They included former Orange County Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez, now a vice president at Southern California Edison.

Vasquez had delivered a rousing speech earlier that day.

Quite frankly, after listening to both men’s speeches, I felt that Vasquez sounded more like he was running for president than Carson.

So I asked Vasquez if he’d ever venture into public office again.

“You’ll have to ask my wife,” he joked.

Though I enjoyed my peek behind the scenes of a presidential campaign stop, I can’t fathom how anyone could keep up such and exhausting schedule into 2016.

My hat’s off to Nason. It’s going to be an exciting adventure for him, and one I’m sure he’ll continue to share via Facebook.

BARBARA VENEZIA lives in Newport Beach. She can be reached at [email protected].