Jeffrey Darger, a young technology consultant who lives in Waimanalo, had not thought much about U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign until a friend sent him a link to a YouTube video of one of the Illinois Democrat's speeches.

Inspired by what he saw, Darger gave the Hawai'i Democratic caucuses in February a shot and then stayed around afterward and volunteered to be a delegate to the party's state convention.

"Obama seems to be doing things in a way that is more progressive, more in a way the whole country needs to go," said Darger, who thinks of himself as an independent but is giving the party a chance. "This year is a good year to get involved. So I did."

Darger was among dozens of delegates who, tugged by Obama, attended their first state party convention this weekend. The infusion of new blood and energy is a blessing for many party activists eager for a "second wave" of new Democrats to keep the party in the majority in Hawai'i.

With the state party's leadership in generational transition, the timing of the Obama surge is fortunate. The blend of new faces with party regulars enthusiastic about grassroots activism gives the convention a richness and vibrancy that has often been missing in recent years.

But veteran Democrats who have lived through previous surges — Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, George McGovern in 1972, Jesse Jackson in 1988 and even Dennis Kucinich in 2004 — also wonder whether it will stick.

If the Hawai'i-born Obama were to somehow lose the party's nomination to U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York or fall to U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, would the new Democrats stay interested?

Richard Port, a Democratic National Committeeman and former party chairman, said that realistically only 10 percent to 20 percent of the record 37,500 who turned out at the caucuses would remain involved. He believes those who have become convention delegates, however, are much more likely to stay with the party.

"The old-timers actually do like it," said Port, who supports Clinton but recalls marching into a convention — unwanted — for McGovern as a younger man. "They just don't want to be dissed. They want to be respected because they've been on the firing line for years."

The number of party members under 35, according to the Young Democrats of Hawai'i, has jumped from under 1,000 to about 5,100 during the membership drive that surrounded the caucuses.

Tanya Bruno, a marketing coordinator who lives in Makiki and is a first-time delegate, is drawn to Obama because she said he does not pander. "I really connect with his idea of speaking truth to power," she said. "I think that makes him a different kind of politician."

Michael Gingerich, a personal trainer from Kihei and first-time delegate, believes Obama would govern more transparently and likes that he has refused campaign donations from lobbyists. But, more compellingly, he believes Obama has engaged younger voters.

"He's willing to listen to us. That's huge," he said. "Others seemed to turn a deaf ear. And that makes you not want to get involved."

Although party leaders have succeeded at preserving an aura of neutrality at the convention, delegates who favor Obama clearly outnumber delegates for Clinton, and dozens pushed toward the stage yesterday morning when Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, appeared. Chanting "Yes We Can!" and waving blue Obama banners, the march into the Hilton Hawaiian Village ballroom was the only overtly partisan moment of the day, with scattered Clinton loyalists holding up "Hillary" signs.

"You guys are just gorgeous, thank you so much," said Soetoro-Ng, a history teacher at La Pietra Hawai'i School for Girls.

Soetoro-Ng introduced U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, who appealed to delegates to let the nomination process play out over the next few weeks without acrimony between the two camps.

Abercrombie, who knew Obama's parents as students at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, said Hawai'i's message of "aloha" and reputation for tolerance and diversity could be one of Obama's gifts to the nation.

The congressman said Obama understands that no one can live up to all the expectations people can place on a president.

"What he is is a template for our hopes and our dreams and our best instincts and all that we want good to happen in the world," the congressman said.

Ann Brandman, who works in public information at UH and lives in Diamond Head, said she appreciated Abercrombie's remarks about allowing the nomination to proceed without infighting. As a Clinton supporter, she has experienced being in the minority at both the caucuses and the convention. She borrowed the message Clinton had read from one of her well-wishers during a campaign stop in West Virginia: "It's not over until the lady in the pantsuit says it is."

"I agree with him that we have to come together," she said of Abercrombie.

Abercrombie and, later, U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai'i, both said delegates should concentrate on McCain and the Bush administration and not turn on one other.

Hirono said Obama, as an African-American, and Clinton, as a woman, represent historic campaigns.

"So, I am deeply troubled when I hear those on one side or the other of this contest claim ambivalence about supporting the other's candidate if his or her nominee or her candidate does not become our party's nominee," said Hirono, who has endorsed Obama.

Several of the first-time delegates said that while they wanted full discussion on issues such as the party platform and resolutions, they did not want, as Ben Lowenthal, an attorney who lives in Ha'iku, put it: "scorched earth."

"I'd like to see it less divisive," he said of party politics, "but at the same time, we have to see discussion."

Lowenthal said he initially supported former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards but now backs Obama. He said he is encouraged that Edwards and Obama have spoken about economic issues in the context of the working class and is excited that the party appears revived.

Bruno, the marketing coordinator, said she has been interested in politics before but never enough to get involved as a delegate.

"Obama was able to get me over that hurdle," she said. "But now that I'm here. I think I'll stay."