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Subject: Fear and Loathing at the Dem. caucus today in WA
Posted by: Seattle Zen
- Donor [55343019] Sat, Feb 07, 2004, 17:05
I just went to my caucus this morning because I believe it is my civic duty to do so J. It was held at 10am, a little too early for a couple of friends who were too hung over, but I soldiered through, myself. What I really liked was walking to the school, I was joined by a huge crowd. Whereas on Election Day, there is never a rush because people have 12 hours in which to cast their votes, at a caucus, you must be there at 10am.
The local Democratic leadership are idiots. They rented a school and expected everyone to fit into the cafeteria, which maybe seats 250. There were easily 600 people in attendance. The room was a fire hazard nightmare. After a few of the precincts moved into the gym, we could actually breathe.
The way it is run is simple. You sign in at your precinct and state whom you are supporting. Those “ballots” are counted to determine which candidates become “viable”. You must garner 15% of the votes cast to become viable. In my precinct there were 66 votes cast, meaning a candidate needed 10 votes to become viable.
I came in voting for Kucinich and expecting viability, it is uber-liberal Fremont after all, the neighborhood that proudly hosts a statue of Lenin. The votes broke down this way: Dean 32, Kerry 21, Undecided 8, Kucinich 3, Edwards 1, Clark 1. The 13 voters whose candidate did not make viability got to revote for either Dean or Kerry at this point. Eleven went to Dean, two choose not to revote, so the final tally was Dean 43 – Kerry 21. Our precinct was given 4 delegates, so three went to Dean, one to Kerry. The two groups gathered and voted for the actual people to serve as delegates. All done.
It was a madhouse, but we were out in an hour and fifteen minutes. Very disheartened to be unable to send a delegate for Kucinich, but happy to see Dean do so well.
I spoke with a good friend later and was shocked that she got bamboozled. Here’s the scenario: She came in pulling for Kucinich. Her precinct, having four delegates to assign, was very split, with Kerry, Dean, and Edwards (!) all viable. Her vote would make Kucinich viable! Somehow, someone in the Dean camp convinced her that she should throw her lot in with Dean to increase his percentage. She wanted to keep Kerry from getting two delegates and mistakenly thought that going Dean would do that, but SHE SINGLEHANDEDLY GAVE KERRY HIS SECOND DELEGATE. Had she stuck to her guns, Kucinich would have been viable and each of them would have received one. These caucuses are circuses and she complained that no one took control and explained what was happening. Damn it! I had high hopes that Kucinich would finish third and get as many as 10 of the 76 delegates WA sends to Boston, but now that seems far too optimistic. I have heard reports from friends who did successfully get Kucinich delegates elected, one friend was voted as the Kucinich delegate himself. I am so very jealous!
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| 1 | biliruben
ID: 5061711
Sat, Feb 07, 2004, 18:06
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Their were only 12 people in our buddies' precinct, down south, Zen. He's a Kucinich alternate.
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| 2 | Tosh
Sustainer
ID: 57721710
Sat, Feb 07, 2004, 18:07
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I had a great time at the caucus. Just as Seattle Zen described, mine was held at the local high school. Planners expected 200-300 people, but 864 people showed up! It was chaos during the sign-in portion.
When we finally broke into precincts, mine had 42 people show up. We had the first vote and it went Kucinich 12, Dean 12, Undecided 11, and Kerry 7. Everyone else got zero. After the discussion round, 10 of the undecided changed their vote, splitting it between Dean and Kucinich, making the final vote Kucinich 17, Dean 17, Kerry 7, and Undecided 1.
Our precinct gets four delegates. Since Kerry got 16.6%, he got a delegate. That left three delegates to split between Kucinich and Dean. We consulted the rule book, and it called for a coin-flip to decide the outcome. We (the Kucinich side) called heads, it came up tails, so Dean got two delegates, and Kucinich got one. That drew quite a cheer, and though I was on the losing side, I thoroughly enjoyed the enthusiasm from both sides.
There were several older ladies in the Kucinich group that were quite vocal, and definitly did a nice job in recruiting people to their side. When one of them asked 'who wants to be the delegate?' I just assumed that one of them would jump right in. There was about seven to ten seconds of awkward silence as everyone just looked at each other ... so finally I raised my hand and announced I was the delegate! And then a pretty younger gal jumped in and said she would be the alternate (I think the alternates get to go too). So not only did I get a date later this week, I'm a proud Kucinich delegate.
I had a great time, and look forward to the state meeting.
Early state-wide results show Kucinich at 14%!!
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| 3 | biliruben
ID: 5061711
Sat, Feb 07, 2004, 18:10
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Nice Tosh. I assumed the islands would have been more mainstream, so to speak. How disappointing for Fremont!
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| 4 | Tosh
Sustainer
ID: 57721710
Sat, Feb 07, 2004, 18:17
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Overall, Vashon Island went about Dean 35%, Kerry 30%, Kucinch 25%, and Other 10%. I was certainly surprised that my precinct was so pro-Kucinich. There is a lot of verbal/signage Dean support out here, so I figured he would blow away the competition.
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| 5 | Tree
ID: 4018716
Sat, Feb 07, 2004, 18:31
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i must say, speaking as someone who wants to see Bush ousted in the worst way, these large turnouts are an encouraging sign...
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| 6 | nerveclinic
ID: 2814620
Sat, Feb 07, 2004, 21:33
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So Tosh does that mean you go to the convention as a delegate? If so pays for it?Is it out of your own pocket? Or does the demo party pay?
Nerve
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| 7 | Tosh
Sustainer
ID: 57721710
Sun, Feb 08, 2004, 02:32
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It's not very romantic, or even much of a journey. I get to go to Seattle on May 1 and May 8 for the state caucus, and will be one of 26961 delegates. I guess this is where we officially declare our allegience. Washington gets 95 delegates (I think) to send to the National Convention in Boston. 46 of those 95 are "appointed" by the Washington State Democratic Party ... so I guess I have a 49 in 26961 chance of going to Boston. Not too good. I don't expect to get re-imbursed for my mileage.
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| 8 | Seattle Zen
Donor
ID: 55343019
Sun, Feb 08, 2004, 14:06
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Kerry cleans up, but Kucinich does finish a strong third.
With 97 percent of the state's 6,552 precincts reporting, Kerry was rolling up 49 percent of the pledged delegates elected to county conventions. That was well ahead of Dean, who had 30 percent.
Dennis Kucinich was third at 8 percent and John Edwards was close behind at 7 percent. Wesley Clark and an uncommitted slate had 3 percent apiece. Al Sharpton barely registered.
Dean did beat kerry in Seattle's 7th Congressional District. Very glad to see Kucinich finish third.
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| 9 | Tree
ID: 40141166
Mon, Feb 16, 2004, 17:54
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Krist Novoselic, Dean supporter, but Kerry delegate at the Wahkiakum County Democratic Party convention
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| 10 | Seattle Zen
Donor
ID: 55343019
Mon, Feb 16, 2004, 17:58
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Damn, I was really looking forward to him challenging that horse's ass Brad Owen for Lt. Gov.
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| 11 | Seattle Zen
ID: 529121611
Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 18:09
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FOUR YEAR'S LATER - and a million miles away...
I went to my caucus again today, this time down here in Cowlitz County. This year the race is completely up in the air, so you would think that there would be a huge turnout. Well, my precinct had 11 people and that seemed to be average. I have not been to a Cowlitz caucus before, maybe that is record turnout?
The local Democratic leadership are idiots.
Well, some things never change. My voter card does not say which precinct I'm in, so I didn't know where to go. Not to worry, the organizers had ONE woman with ONE computer to answer the 100+ people just like me who didn't know where to go. Rather than wait in that idiotic line, I walked around looking at the precinct names until I found "Mount Solo", the name of the mountain in my front yard.
We all signed in and stated our preference. We split 7-4 Obama to Clinton. The four Clinton supporters were all old. We made short presentations as to why you should vote for Hillary and I pitched for Obama. The crux of my argument is in a national election, there will be far fewer people voting AGAINST Barak than Hillary and he is likely to end the war in Iraq sooner than Clinton.
No one changed their vote. Precincts are given four delegates. Since ours was split 65-35, that meant 3 for Barak, 1 for Hillary. Three of us volunteered to be delegates for Barak and the vote was unanimous. Now I'm on to the county convention!
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| 12 | walk
ID: 1715098
Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 18:24
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Wow, thanks for the insights. Never knew what a caucus was really like.
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| 14 | Tosh
Leader
ID: 057721710
Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 19:04
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I just back from my caucus as well. We had a 1pm start, in an overflowing school. It was just as disorganized as 4 years ago, but at least there was a wall projection with a map breaking up the community into precincts. We signed in and declared our choice. During the 'announcements' part of the caucus, it was revealed that the island had an 86% voter turnout in 2004, and went 81% Democratic. We then scattered by precinct throughout the school, outside (first day in weeks it hasn't rained), and even into the neighboring school.
My precinct originally went 68 votes Obama, 29 Clinton, 2 Kucinich, and 15 undecideds. We broke up into candidate groups, and brainstormed on reasons that our candidate is better than the other candidates. My group (Obama) decided to focus our presentation on Obama's strengths, rather than Clintons "candidate" weaknesses.
We were then supposed to have 1 minute presentations by each group and then people are given the opportunity to change their vote. Because we had so many undecideds, it turned into a 30-minute, very-spirited discussion about the choices. In the end, 2 of the undecideds switched to Obama, and the 2 Kucinich voters decided to stick to their ideals, and end up having their vote not count.
There were plenty of people wanting to be delegates this time, so I didn't step up like I did in 2004. I think the final delegate tally for my neighborhood was Obama 4, Clinton 2, Undecided 1.
Overall, just as fun as 2004.
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| 15 | Seattle Zen
ID: 529121611
Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 19:18
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What an awesome turnout, Tosh. Your experience sounds a lot more exciting than mine. Being down here in SW Washington, I think I have a much better chance to make the cut for the state caucus than if I was still in Seattle. That's my goal, I harbor no illusions about going to Denver.
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| 16 | Tosh
Leader
ID: 057721710
Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 19:35
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My goal in 2004 was to get a funny straw hat that said "Kucinich". I'm still a little bitter that I was never able to meet that goal.
It felt a lot like walking to a concert on the way to the caucus. People were parking over a mile away, and it was just a long parade of people walking down the road towards the school.
As a side note, prior to this morning, I was going to vote for Clinton. In the last week, I have had 7 recorded phones from Hillary and her supporters (Locke, Sims, Cantwell) asking me to vote for her. If Obama wasn't going to take the time to ask for my vote, I wasn't going to give it to him. But this morning, I had a call from a LIVE person, asking me to vote for Obama. That's all I needed to push me into the Obama column. :-)
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| 17 | walk
ID: 1715098
Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 19:37
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Nice one, Tosh! Nice recap of the caucus process, too. Appreciated.
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| 18 | Tosh
Leader
ID: 057721710
Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 19:50
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No prob walk. I had you in mind while writing much of it. :-)
Now if only I could figure out what the heck our Feb. 19 Primary is for. I've received my absentee ballot, and the only thing we vote on is President.
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| 19 | walk
ID: 1715098
Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 23:49
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LOL. thx
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| 20 | Seattle Zen
ID: 29241823
Sun, Apr 20, 2008, 22:56
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Now I'm on to the county convention!
The county convention was yesterday.
Now, when I decided that I wanted to be a delegate it was out of curiosity and maybe be a part of drafting of a platform. As you might imagine, I would like to get a drug reform plank into the Democratic platform.
Eager beavers these Democrats are, we started checking in at 8am so we could start at nine. This was held at a high school gym, plenty of space. There were nearly 400 delegates to seat. 9am comes and there are many people missing, so the arduous process of seating alternates begins. There are innumerable introductions, various candidates addressing the crowd, blah, blah, blah. Since nothing can be accomplished until all of the delegates are seated, the guys in charge decided to allow people to come up to the mike to tell the crowd why they are supporting their candidate. Yeck! Lame, lame, lame! Not a compelling argue was to be. It's now noon and they still haven't seated everyone.
I learn that the Cowlitz County Democratic platform was already drafted in some smoke free lounge and all we can do is vote it up or down. It's timid and unremarkable, and won't be addressed until the end.
The numbers are crunched and my legislative district will nominate 7 male and 7 female Obama delegates to go to both the Congressional convention in May (about 40 miles away) and to the State Convention in Spokane for three days in June. I'm going to throw my hat in!
Those who wanted to run had to merely go to the front, take the mike, and address the crowd for 30 seconds. In addition to the 7 male delegates, there were to be 4 alternates. In the end, 14 men addressed the crowd, pretty good odds.
Perhaps being the only person not running for political office wearing a tie scared people away from my candidacy, but I think I finished 11th of 14, rather humbling. Yes, I was nominated as an alternate.
Everyone must pay their own way. Going to the Congressional convention wouldn't be too much of an imposition, but then I started to think about why I wanted to do this. I was curious. That curiosity vanished about 30 minutes into this 5 hour snoozefest. Thankfully I had a co worker to chat with and a New Yorker to gnaw on during the boring parts, but that was one of the worst Saturdays I've ever had. It felt like Traffic School. The only thing that could have made it worse was if Joe Morgan was doing color commentary.
I decided that these conventions are pointless if we aren't going to craft the platform. The idea of sitting in the stands WATCHING people do this because you weren't seated as an alternate would be beyond my capacity to remain civil, so I politely declined my post. Spokane is a six or more hour drive. No thanks.
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| 21 | Boldwin
ID: 463471413
Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 13:46
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Did you ask what it took to get a seat in the 'smoke-free room'?
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