CE Week #3: Open Forum – Caucus Experience

Anyone want to post their thoughts on the whole caucus experience?

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on February 9, 2008 at 8:43 pm Comments (5)

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on February 10, 2008 at 11:48 am Derrick Skaug Said:

My mind was made up for who I was going to caucus for as soon as Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards left the race. Illinois Senator Barack Obama. I also volunteered for the campaign but unfortunately couldn’t make it down to the office until Friday night. I got there about a hour before Michelle Obama was supposed to show up at Fox Theater. I had just locked my keys in my car before I walked into the office. In the office there were four middle aged, middle upper class ladies, 3 white, 1 Asian. I thought to myself, Obama isn’t supposed to be having women or Asian supporters according to all the stats! They drove me down to Fox to watch Michelle where I saw, a democrat state representative of the six district, the head of the Spokane county Democrats (whom I later had a conversation with, she was the youngest head ever), and the state senate majority leader. I saw Michelle speak, and afterwards I ran into Spokane Mayor Mary Vernor and shook her hand, she was very friendly. I went back to the Obama head-quarters and made phone calls to possible Obama supporters for four hours encouraging them to caucus. People can be very rude over the phone. The Obama campaign let me become a prescient captain which pretty much means I bring signs to the convention, put stickers on everyone who is for Obama and have a button that says that I am a prescient captain. The caucus surprisingly was located at the elementary school I had attended for seven years, Colbert. At the caucus I saw several familiar faces. I saw Megan O’Reilys parents, some of my neighbors, the Seimers family (owners of the where MSHS XC races), Former ASB President Dustin,…I forgot his last name, Current ASB President Brian Baker, Nate and Chris Basham, Seniors, Brian Freeland, Michael Renzi, Ian Schinedmiller, Grace Evans, Chelsea Jones, Rory Cipolla and some Colbert staffers among many others I knew. Mrs. Townsend came in undecided and left undecided. I registered to vote and we spent 45 minutes where people figured out where prescient they were in so they could figure out what table to go at. I put stickers on Obama supporters like the campaign asked me to. I ran out of stickers. We said the pledge. The leader told everyone to donate to Democrats. I donated a dollar. One man donated a hundred dollar bill. Because I was wearing a suit, had a briefcase, and a pin that said I was prescient captain my prescient named me caucus chair. It was pretty basic and I handled it well enough, I appointed a secretary and a tally counter. Obama had 28 of the 39 votes, 11 were for Clinton. We debated for a while, I gave a speech I had typed up. Some lady gave a speech for Clinton and it was pretty bad. Other people gave speechs for Obama most were good. Obama supporters tended to be more articulate then Clinton supporters, similar to the candidates. No one had changed their mind after the debates. We re-voted and the tally was the same. Obama got 4 delegates and Hillary got 1. Chris Basham and me were Obama delegates, so were two ladies. People were alternates. As chair I made one mistake which is I did not give each delegate things saying they were delegates. Meaning they cant get in so I have to find them. People all said I did a good job as chair, they were very nice. Some lady had brought cookies and caramel corn so I ate some. The Clinton supporters felt robbed because Obama had 3.6 and Hillary had 1.4 so Obama got 4 and Hillary got 1. Obama won in every prescient. Brian and his mom were named delegates, so was Rory. I think it was fun and interesting but very exclusive and primaries are probably a better way to vote.
on February 10, 2008 at 5:18 pm Grace Evans Said:

I felt somewhat unprepared as I walked into the precinct caucus location. I knew our precinct number from my parents’ voting cards, and I knew there would be some dividing up and vote counting at some point, but that was the limit of it. The positive aspect was that I wasn’t alone. Of the 200 or so people packed into the cafeteria of Colbert Elementary, 90% were first-timers. While that might have been bad for efficiency, I found it an encouraging snapshot of the nature of this election cycle. It may be that the past 7-½ years have angered people so much they don’t know what to do but rally behind a promising Democrat, but at least the enthusiasm is there. Maybe a few will realize it took not only inspiring candidates but a desperate situation to spark that enthusiasm, and never let it get this bad again.
In any case, it was a great experience. I volunteered to be my precinct secretary for the day, and was surprised to discover how accessible the process is. A detailed list of instructions was included in our precinct packet, so all the volunteer chair and I had to do was read the checklist and follow along. The chair read instructions to the group, while I made sure all the forms were filled out. Brian Freeland tallied the candidate preferences listed on the sign-in sheets; no “undecided” votes, no one with a speech to make, and no one with a desire to change their candidate preference. Everyone in my precinct showed up with his or her mind made up, so the paperwork was fairly easy.
Caucusing strikes me as a civic exercise with more room for collaboration and exchanging ideas than simply voting. Voters—or caucus-ers, I guess—have the chance to convince each other that one candidate can solve our problems better than another. When politics is defined by 30-second attack ads and the commentary of self-indulgent pundits, all of which is so exhaustingly superficial, it’s refreshing to hear the honest opinions of neighbors.
on February 13, 2008 at 11:57 pm Patrick Shores Said:

When I went to the republican caucus for my precinct I was amazed at how small it was. I knew that by nature caucusing draws much fewer people then primaries do, but considering much of my precinct is primarily senior citizens, the fact that my precinct only had three caucus goers was very disappointing. That also goes for the other 8 or so precincts that were meeting in the same room as mine. At most only 10 people participated at any one precinct.
Besides all that, I thought that it was an amazing experience. I was automatically selected as a delegate to the county convention and I hope to attend to further my understanding of politics and even taking a greater role in it. With the help of my dad I was actually my precinct secretary.
I hope to somehow get a greater number of young republicans to participate in the next caucus. I might even volunteer to be the Caucus Chairman for my precinct next time around. Im not sure, but I think it would be a very good thing to do. My only hope is that more people participate next time around.
on February 14, 2008 at 10:53 pm derrick skaug Said:

HAHA SUCKER PAT! The dems had like 40 people in my prescient. I think there are two reasons there was a smaller turnout at your caucus.
1. Republicans have had a smaller turnout across the board this election then the Democrats and at this point the Republican election was pretty much decided.
2. Washington state rules make it quite confusing and many Republicans probably just figured since they were voting in the primary and it counted somewhat why go caucus
on February 16, 2008 at 7:21 pm chelsea jones Said:

In reading Derrick’s and Grace’s recounts of their caucus experience, it’s hard to relay any other details that they haven’t already covered. I guess I will just recap my experience: the morning of the caucus, my Republican mother informed me that if you were just 1 minute late they wouldn’t let you in. That was not good news for me because, frankly, I run late almost everywhere. Needless to say, I rushed home from soccer practice, took a way too short shower, and attempted to make myself look put together. Then I hauled a$$ to Colbert Elementary (my former stomping ground), and walked in with the lovely Johnson family (ie- Shauna). My first reaction upon walking into the gym was, “Wow, this thing seemed way bigger in 3rd grade,” and then, “Okay, this doesn’t look too intimidating.” I guess I was expecting something a little more “formal,” but then again the Mead, WA caucus is basically the grassroots level of grassroots. Anyways, Mrs. Johnson eventually found us our specific precinct (I live in the same ‘hood as Shauna) and we sat down at a cute lil lunch table with built-in stools. After connecting with some familiar faces, we finally decided to start (and in case you were wondering, my mom was definitely wrong about the whole “late” thing; in fact, we waited until about 1:40 for people to arrive… doors opened at 1:00).
Anyways, like Grace mentioned, I was very surprised at how “accessible” the whole process turned out to be. We took care of some clerical duties first, and then eventually moved onto the two candidates, Obama and Clinton. My precinct was one of the largest there, with 35 members. After an initial count, Obama was ahead but there were still many undecided. From there, our leader offered the floor to anyone wanting to defend a particular candidate. It was somewhat humorous to me because there were a handful of people willing to speak on Obama’s half, and only one man reluctanly willing to speak on Hillary’s behalf. And in my unbiased opinion, the Obama supporter’s definitely took home the gold. The only thing the guy could say about Hillary was that “we had a chance to make history by voting a woman into office” and that she had “good business skills.” All I had to say was WTF? That is not why I would elect someone to office. Anyways, I spent the rest of the caucus time bashing Hillary under my breath and/or making frequent trips to the cookie/caramel corn table with Shauna.
However, I did my part and helped tally the final votes. I was glad to report that it was 24-11, Obama! I then proceeded to, very willingly, volunteer to be a delegate. And much to my surprise, I got it. Along with Shauna, and her older bro. I was excited.
In conclusion, I was very pleased with the whole caucus experience. It was cool to see one precinct (Derrick’s precinct ha ha) debate long after every other precinct had voted. I enjoyed the caucus because I really believe it is a better way to exercise our rights as voters and allows people the chance to defend or refute candidates/policies, etc. Anyways, I left Colbert Elem. more informed and a follow-up date on April 5th, at the district legislative caucus. WOOT WOOT!