Hospitals and Caucuses

[dreamshark]

Long day yesterday: went to work a little early so I could put in 2 hours before taking BarbJ to the hospital for out-patient foot surgery. Somehow, a 1-hour surgery always ends up taking all day, esp. after you fill pain-pill prescription, run around the medical complex looking for a place to buy the overpriced baggie that covers the bandage so the patient can take a shower, etc. Barb's friend Lori arrived to watch over the patient and I dashed off to my DFL precinct caucus.

For the last 19 years we've been caucusing at Kingfield Park, but this year we were in a new location (Country Day School, formerly part of the Incarnation Catholic School at 38th and Pleasant). Probably because of the disastrous redistricting process last year that tore precinct 10:10 out of its ward in Southwest Minneapolis and attached it to the inner-city Ward 8 on the other side of the freeway. I'm extremely bitter about this - my neighborhood has absolutely nothing in common with Ward 8. I don't even know who my council member is now - certainly not the person I voted for.

The caucus was packed to the rafters. Judging by today's Strib article I guess that was what pretty much everybody found this year. I like going to precinct caucus just to see what kind of people live in my neighborhood. My block has always been very politically active: I saw Ginger Dopp, wife of the guy that was precinct chair for years and years. Convener was Bert Black, a moderately big wheel in the DFL who just happens to live in my precinct, although not on my block. He did NOT want to be precinct chair next year and did a masterful job of coaxing somebody else into the job, despite a distinctly underwhelming response to the usual plea,"Who would like to be precinct chair this year?" The new chair turned out to be Tom from the corner house, one of several gay activists on my block. The woman standing next to us in the sign-in line turned out to be a lifelong neighborhood resident who knew the Lambs, the family that lived in our house for 20 or 30 years. So it was a jolly community-rich event for us.

The caucus itself was disappointing. They've massively changed the process since the last presidential-year caucus I attended, making it more streamlined but really boring. I was hoping for one of those walking caucuses, where everybody present commits to a candidate by walking around and joining one of the sub-caucus groups scattered around the room yelling their candidate's name. Then each subcaucus nominates their own delegates, and in the unlikely event that more people want to be delegates than we have delegate slots, there is some kind of vote. This year, all connection between candidates and delegates was severed. I don't actually even understand how it works. We all just voted on a presidential candidate at the beginning of the meeting, choosing from an out-of-date list that included candidates that have already dropped out. Then delegates were "elected" by asking for volunteers and coaxing a few more people to volunteer until we had the required 33.

Apparently there is no connection between candidate preference and delegates until the final delegates to the national convention are chosen. So what's the point of even bothering with the District Convention? I went to that one year, and it was ALL about caucusing for your candidate and trying to convince people to join you.

Richard and I left at this point, preferring to avoid the interminable and pointless activity of submitting Resolutions. It was disappointing that we didn't get to hear anybody speak on their candidates, but I suppose this method gives caucus goers more of a voice in the candidate selection, since the vote was a binding vote this year rather than the usual "straw poll". I'm glad we went.

Anybody else attend a caucus? Was it similar to ours?

Comments

[michaellee.livejournal.com]

I went to mine, posted it in my journal, and it was similar to yours, more or less....

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

You can always move to forward all resolutions to the Senate District convention. I did, but the motion was defeated, so I left. I can only wonder at the newbies who think the wording and vote on their resolution affects their life. (Even the senate district convention usually forwards most of them on to the state...)

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

The walking caucus is usually done at the Senate District convention... I don't think I've ever done it at the precinct caucus.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Precinct 10.10 has done walking caucuses fairly frequently in the past, usually during presidential years.

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

You have that many people volunteering as delegates? Kewl!

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

You get more people volunteering if you subcaucus. Each subcaucus is under pressure to come up with x delegates, and if you don't, your candidate will be underrepresented. And there you are, surrounded by all these nice people who have become your friends and tribemates over the last 45 minutes of chaos, and ... peer pressure does the rest. The first time I volunteered to be a delegate it was because my subcaucus needed me. Then I did it again a few years later just because I learn slow. :-)

Also, my precinct is a very active one. The first year I went to the district convention, I was proud to note that 10.10 was the only precinct in the ward that didn't have an empty seat. Now we are Precinct 8.7, but I think it's still the same boundaries. There were about 150 people at the caucus on Tuesday. We got 38 delegates (and up to 38 alternates, but we didn't fill all of those).

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Yes, laurafish and I attended our caucus last night.

It, too, was packed to the rafters.

It was pretty clear that some number of people there wanted the walking caucuses. Once we saw the number of volunteers to be delegates (significantly less than the required number), the majority voted to not bother with walking caucuses.

We stayed for the submission of, arguing over, and voting on Resolutions.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

We went to our caucus. It was huge, larger than any other I've been to. But yes, they seem to have changed the process, just since 2 years ago. It used to be that the ballot was a straw poll, and what mattered was the delegates to the district, then state, conventions. Two years, ago, we barely had enough delegates; we barely had enough people. This year, we STILL barely had enough delegates - 38 delegates, 38 people volunteered. Martin and I are two, but we have no idea who the other delegates support. Hearing during the process that Edwards had dropped out took the wind out of some peoples' sails. People are mad as hell at Bush, but it seems like the candidates have been decided, at the beginning of March. It will be Kerry vs Bush. Way too early, IMHO. I would far prefer Kerry, but even more, I would prefer a real choice, and a meaningful process.

I can remember when "Super Tuesday" was in June, not March.

And having served on resolution committees, I see little point. It has to get to the district, then the state, and become part of the platform. And even so, it isn't binding on the candidates or elected officials.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

Yep, I attended mine. It sounds a lot like yours but with fewer people. At first it looked as if there would only be a dozen or so of us but then we did expand beyond the expected amount (ran out of pre-printed ballots and such). In the end we only sent 13 of a possible 14 delegates to the Senate District Convention (of which I am one, whee!).

I liked the comment Lydy made on natter about Martin saying that attending a caucus made him appreciate how organized and well-run Minicon is.