Latest Breaking News
In reply to the discussion: Democrats Are Considering Dropping Superdelegates Altogether [View all]LisaM
(27,800 posts)My first one was in the 1990s, when I caucused for Tom Harken. We sat in a room at a school, there were about nine people, we represented about four different candidates (it was a crowded field that year), did several rounds of voting, and allotted our delegates. People from different precincts must have been in different rooms.
2000 was pretty much a shoe-in for Gore, and I didn't go.
2004 was, as someone described it, a "raucous caucus". It had significant more participation than previous ones. It was lively, and everyone was united against Bush. But the seeds of discontent were sowed. Kerry won our caucus fair and square, but the Dean people were not having it. They'd actively go to other precincts and try to change peoples' votes after each round. Later, on the radio call in shows, they'd call in and claim that the results were rigged and Kerry didn't win, but that his supporters were changing the count! That certainly wasn't the case at our location (and really doesn't gibe with how anyone Kerry supporter I knew would act), though the Dean people were clearly the loudest and most upset.
Both times, the district and state party planks were voted on, one at a time.
In 2008, all hell broke loose. There were now 1000 people at one location (remember I told you the first one I went to had 9?) They were mostly there to vote for Obama, and had no intention of voting by rounds. They also wouldn't sit still and vote for the party planks, as decreed by rule. Now, generally, they were nice people, clearly positive and excited about their candidate, but they were new to the party process and didn't want to deal with the tedium of sitting there while people spoke for or against the planks they'd worked so hard to draft. While I felt most of the voters were sincere, I didn't like their lack of focus on the other elements of the caucus, which goes beyond candidate selection. The people running our precinct lost control and ended up skipping that part of it, which still bugs me. Well, it's water under the bridge, I guess. I, too, hope they change it, and apologies for the long tale of woe.