For those of you who never get to play the caucus game, here's how it worked in Washington.
On Saturday, February 9, we traveled to a local elementary school and found the library, where the Republican caucus was being held. The Democrats were in the cafeteria. The rule in Washington is that you can participate only in your own party's caucus, unless you are an independent like me. Then you get to take your pick. I could have gone to the Democratic side and cast a vote in the straw poll against Hillary, but K is a registered Republican, so I went with her.
We were all placed at tables by precinct. Our precinct officer was a guy down the street whom we know from neighborhood association meetings. We were good friends with everyone else at the table; in fact, we took two of them to the caucus with us. I thought it weird that there were only seven people from our entire precinct, an area that covers a heavily-populated square mile. Five were actual Republicans, and there were two of us independents. Meeting at our location were approximately ten precincts.
My fellow independent and I were allowed to participate in the straw poll and provide platform input, but we could not vote to elect delegates. There was nothing scientific or fancy about the straw poll. Everybody got a two-square-inch piece of yellow paper. You wrote the name of your choice on it and turned it in the the guy running the show. I won't tell you whom I voted for, but I can tell you that the vote count in our precinct was Romney 7, Everybody Else 0. I will leave it to you to figure out how I voted. :-)
Now you may be thinking, "Hey, hadn't Romney declared that he was withdrawing by then?" If you are thinking that (or even if you are not), the answer is "yes"! However, this was wide open. I could have voted for Barry Obama if I had wanted to (I didn't want to). In our location AND in our entire county, Ron Paul actually finished first. The Huckster was second, Romney, the non-candidate, was third (4.7% off the lead), and McCain was fourth. Nobody else was above 0.5%. In the state as a whole, McCain won. The papers were quick to mention that the Huckster was a very close second, but they ignored the fact that Ron Paul was a just-as-close third.
The platform stuff was just a data-gathering survey thing, not very exciting.
Last step: our precinct had to nominate and vote on four delegates and four alternates for the county convention in April. The precinct officer could not be a delegate; he had other roles at the county convention already. Only Republicans could participate, so we actually had five people choosing eight people. You needn't be present to win. Our precinct delegates included K, two other people at our table, and the precinct officer's son. Our four alternates were one of our close neighbors, the precinct officer's daughter-in-law and 18-year-old grandson, and our son, R, who is away at college in another state. Okay, so we were nepotistic. Don't blame me! I couldn't nominate or vote! Blame the thousand or so who did not come and participate!
So that's the nonsense of a party caucus. If your state ever has one, go! It's a real kick! I'll have more from the county convention in April.
12 comments:
Hey, thanks for the great information about how a caucus works. I oftened wondered what when on in those back rooms. Very interesting!
I still don't get the caucus thing. Don't you have to have some kind of training to participate in the Iowa caucus, or is that to be a delegate? And how can 5 people that show up choose people to be delegates that are not even there? Seems like they're giving too much representation to a precinct that, in general, doesn't care. Eight representatives for five people? Please explain. What do the delegates do, now?
Well, four representatives really. The others are alternates. And we had seven people there, but two were independents. Our precinct is chock full of liberal Democrats who want me to pay their medical bills.
The party offered a sort of training a few weeks in advance at the party headquarters, but you did not need to be present at that to play. We didn't go, because it was on Scout Night or something.
The delegates go to the county convention. There, they work on the party platform for the county and choose some small number of delegates for the state convention. Those delegates at the state convention do more of the same at a higher level. Then, they choose delegates for Minneapolis.
I too attended a caucus--the first ever in Nebraska. JW, R, K, and I attended the democratic caucus. It appears that I am in the minority among my siblings since I am a democrat. Being a democrat in one of the reddest states in the union is scary, and I thought my vote would never count in this state. But the caucus was actually a grand experience, and my vote actually resulted in the assigning of a precinct delegate to my candidate. (If it were not for my and R or K's vote, this would not have happened.) At the time of our caucus, two democratic candidates remained on the ballot. (My preferred candidate was Joe Biden, but he fell off the ticket weeks ago.) At our caucus, we discussed the candidates and policies very civilly. We were all in agreement that either choice is much preferred to any of the Republican candidates. The past seven years have been disastrous for this country; many young people have lost their lives, children are being "left behind," our economy is in decline, and our environment is suffering, just to name a few things. I actually was in tears when George W. Bush won a second term because I honestly believed we would not survive given our state of affairs. (Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.) At any rate, R was elected as an alternate delegate in the county caucus, so we may all be going to our second ever caucus. All-in-all, we were thrilled to "make history" at the first ever democratic Nebraskan caucus!
Thanks, Mad Tern. Ke, like I told R before, Republicans have been known to vote for Democrats in the past, even Republicans related to you. If Hillary wins the nomination, this is one "Republican" that won't vote for her, though I'd like to see her out of my state. You non-New Yorkers have to remember that if you don't register in one of the two top parties, there are no primaries for you. I chose the party that showed more respect for babies when I was 17. I likely would have registered Independent, like Joe, were it not for the primary thing. Personally, I don't think there is a decent choice this year. I feel very much the same way I felt in 2004; a promise of "change" (which is a given in any case) is not enough.
Ke, how many people were there for your precinct? How many delegates were assigned for your precinct. Is the number of delegates population-based?
I have a definite respect for babies and do not support abortion. I also respect the lives of young people who are sent off to fight a war which should not have happened. I feel that our respect for babies should hold firm even after they have grown up with parents who don't care for them and abuse them. I think we have to weigh all these things. We have to provide all kids a good education, health care, and clean air to breathe. We have to restrict the use of guns; I can't believe the power of some of the weapons used in recent shootings across the country. Every day, we as parents are sending our kids off to school and letting them go to shopping malls; are they truly safe? We have to be concerned about energy. There are so many more issues that affect kids than abortion and "family values," not to say these aren't important, but you must ask yourself, "Do these candidates really believe in these things or are they trying to get votes?" Are they in a position to teach you what family values are, or can you figure that out for yourself? They all have skeletons in their closets, just google "McCain divorce" for example. I'm not saying that the dems have better personal lives, that's for sure, but when it comes to any moral issue, I certainly don't look to any politician for advice. I find that I have to go beyond this type of issue when voting. My main concerns at present are to put an end to this war and use the billions spent on it to improve education, health care, and energy. Paid for by "Ke for President;" to donate go to www.keforpresident.org
Mau, our precinct was represented by about 30 people, and turnout was estimated to be at 10% (not as bad as you think since democrat numbers are low in Nebraska and to top that off, they only expected 5%). So if we were typical, I guess our precinct includes approximately 300 democrats. Our precinct was assigned 2 delegates, and 2 alternates, in case the delegates could not attend. But remember, these two are not the final delegates to represent the state; they just go on to county, etc, where I guess they could be elected to finally represent the state.
On war: I agree with Ke that the war is a shame. I don't feel so bad for the troops, who after all were not drafted but chose to become soldiers. I think, however, that it is a colossal waste of bucks and question whether it really matters.
On children being "left behind": In Washington, no child IS left behind, and it is a problem. When a kid won't study and stays in constant trouble, is it wise to make the good kids "wait" for him, so he is not "left behind"?
Education should be a local issue, not a federal one. Health care should be a private issue, not a public one.
When government meddles, nothing works and everything is more expensive. We really need to limit government involvement if we want to solve problems.
No war. Less government. Ron Paul.
Too late.
The troops may have signed up to be soldiers, but it is still the government's job to be responsible with their lives.
I'm pro-choice with abortion. My choice would be to not have an abortion and I would take care of the baby.
I think ALL children should be able to have health care!! I'm a little torn about private vs. public health care for adults. I saw a patient a few weeks ago who was receiving free care from a county health outreach program and the patient just seemed SO ungrateful to be there and acted like she was entitled to whatever she wanted, which kind of made me angry. I figured if people are paying taxes to give her free care, she should show up on time and cooperate because there are people out there who don't qualify for free care and can't get it. However, my roommates reminded me that not everyone has parents like we have telling them how to act or setting good examples for them. I'm still on the fence.
Environment, school, etc. are all important and can't be established without government money, so unfortunately government has to be involved in a country so large.
So, I can't understand why everyone is not a Democrat! We just need a leader who CARES about the people. I know George Bush doesn't, but I'm hoping Hillary or Obama will... maybe wishful thinking, but I think there will be an improvement.
I loved going to the Nebraska Democratic Caucus... it was so great to see people want to be involved and discuss issues.
If we want someone who cares about the people, it won't be a politician. Anyone qualified for the job is smart enough to know they don';t want it.
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