We’re starting to get down to the wire now, which means I’m starting to go in to a little bit of a panic mode.

Luckily, panic is what we reporters tend to thrive on.  At least it helps keep me awake!

I’ve spent most of today talking with delegates from Northeast Florida and, with help from the WOKV News Team, getting some information from other notable names about what I can realistically expect to see next week in the big speeches and meetings.

From the delegates- the people like you and me who were chosen by their party to represent the county- I picked up a surprising theme: voting rights.

Now this is something that has been a hot button issue in politics around the state, and especially in Northeast Florida, in recent months.  I personally have followed lawsuit from Congresswoman Corrine Brown and others on early voting in Duval County.  We have also seen federal ruling on the state’s voting laws, and the Governor continues to move forward efforts to reexamine Florida’s voter rolls.  But to hear- unanimously and unprovoked- from people in Nassau, Clay and St. Johns counties that the issue was of top priority to them was not the first thought on my mind.

Aside from that, the economy and healthcare were the two biggest points.

State Senator Audrey Gibson told WOKV she thinks healthcare, specifically Medicare, can be a good point for the President because “the [Republican] platform really has no realistic or well thought out basis.”

University of Florida Political Science Professor Daniel Smith thinks the healthcare fight that takes place at big events like this also comes down to branding.  Essentially since the inception of the Affordable Care Act, the right wing has instead referred to the healthcare overhaul as “Obamacare” to reference what they see as a very large stack of regulations pushed through by the administration.  Recently, I’ve noticed Democrats starting to use the term as well.  While this was initially a shock, Smith says it’s intentional.  He says the party is trying to take that brand in order to strike away any of the negative slant associated with it.  And that’s something he expects will continue this upcoming week.

But perhaps one of the biggest arguments we will see at the DNC is on the economy.  After Republicans have spent the last week hammering the President on the last four years and the current state of our economy, there is a lot of ground to cover.  The economy really is an issue that crosses generational lines, and with the President now having to fight the Romney/Ryan ticket for the youth/college age vote, it will have even more appeal as an argument to win.

Over the next few days I will continue to work out the logistics of the trip and start getting down to what you, the people of Northeast Florida, want to see come out of the Democratic National Convention.

I will be all-access in North Carolina, so I want to know what you want to see, what you want asked and what you think are the top issues this election cycle.  Please feel free to email me your thoughts (stephanie.brown@coxinc.com).  You can also follow me on Twitter throughout next week (@NewsAndNom).