I have put alot of thought into this. In Washington State we have both, but the Dems never use the primary results. I do like my own caucus, which is always a congenial affair. I like to meet my neighbors. This time there were 13 for Obama and 8 for Clinton and 1 uncommitted- a record turnout. That resulted in 3 delegates for Obama and 2 for Clinton.
I didn’t like explaining to hundreds of angry people why the State Democratic Party was disenfranchising them.
Here are some notes I made from the local blogs:
http://blog.michaelcanfield.net/Less than three hours until my caucus ...
... and I still don't know if I am going to go. I went to the supermarket this morning. Of course the supermarket is open, and the coffee shops, the DVD store and everything else. On one street there are hundreds of employees who have to work today and won't have to change to caucus. That sucks. I used to work Saturdays at a job I held two years ago. We had primaries then, which was good for me, or otherwise I would not have been able to participate.
This year, because of the new schedule and (holy law of unintended consequences, Batman!) a dead heat provided by un-Super Tuesday, the Washington State delegates are actually important. I hope the Democrats are not counting too heavily on the disenfranchised shift workers in this and other caucus states next November. Even though this seems to favor my candidate Obama, right now in primary season, this sucks.
It's disgusting.
Fuck you Washington State Democratic Party apparatus.
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http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/2008/02/gregoire_says_state_dems_embraced_message_of_change.html#start_comments9:17 PM, Feb 09, 2008
My thoughts on the WA held Democratic caucus. It was a complete disaster and the following Stranger article sums it up for me.
I say to the WA Democratic party - PLEASE BRING BACK THE PRIMARY system where we have time to vote, allows ALL people to vote, does not waste our time, is done in secrecy and is a lot more democratic IMO.
"Maybe the caucus system works--when precincts have at most 10 people in them and no one gives a fuck about the election. But it's total pandemonium right now at Stevens Elementary. The lines to sign in--for for precinct--stretches all the way across the gymnasium. Lines to sign in for other precincts intersect with our line and no one is keeping order. Thank God for our neighbor: She commandeered a dozen sign-in sheet from the table and brought them to the end of the line so we could register our preferences and get the hell out. Here's hoping our sign-in sheets got back up to the precinct table: we didn't hang around long enough to find out.
Note to the Washington State Democrats: Please don't put us through that bullshit again. Don't waste our time. Let us vote in a primary. Yeah, yeah: The caucus system is supposed to build community, or something, since we're all supposed to gather together with our neighbors and talk about who we're supporting and why, and make appeals to the braindeads--excuse me, the undecideds--blah blah blah. But the only thing neighbors at Stevens are discussing right now is what a bullshit waste of time this is. You're going to need smaller precincts, and a lot more precinct sites, and a lot more workers, or you're going to need to go to a primary system."
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5:39 PM, Feb 09, 2008
The state dem party web site
http://www.wa-democrats.org/caucusfinder today got swamped (and they had a lousy method to find your caucus location) so they redirected people to the Obama web site!!!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/walookupGranted his team allowed you to find your location in one step (the dems have always forced you to do two steps, find your precinct then go to their site t find your caucus location) and their wasn't any state office or effort by Hillary but it still didn't seem fair.
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http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/blogs/dailyweekly/2008/02/precinct_1494_caucus_gets_phys.phpPrecinct 1494 Gets Physical
Posted today at 2:41 pm by Laura Onstot
We had 10 delegates up for grabs. Over 150 people showed up and immediately flocked to the Obama side, picking up seven of the spots on the first count. The handful of Clinton supporters rallied enough to pick up two, and a group of quiet, but firm independents gathered in the middle, leaving one delegate uncommitted. The sides were then each given some time to try to sway the 16 people sitting quietly on the middle folding chairs.
It quickly turned into yelling out favorite platform attacks like Obama's healthcare plan isn't universal, or Clinton's doesn't allow for options. They went back and forth on a couple of other standards—education, climate change—places where the candidates' differences are subtle, the undecideds all taking it in. Then a woman all in green next to me shouted out "the war!" A man in a gray tweed cap on the Hillary side retorted that Obama might have sung a different tune if he'd been voting in the Senate at the time. "No he wouldn't!" green leggings yelled back. Grey hat took a couple of steps toward her, finger pointing:"He didn't have to make that choice!" Green leggings suddenly rushed him, shoving him in the chest. "Did you see that?" he shrieked. "That was assault!" A couple of bystanders intervened and the combatants huffed back to their corners.
With all the other shouting at the undecideds the little altercation went largely unnoticed. Apparently aggression wasn't what they were responding to because at the end of it all, the delegate totals stayed the same.
I walked back with one of my neighbors, a man who originally hails from Japan. He thought it was all surprisingly exciting. "I guess that's how you do it in America," he said. I was about to disagree when it occurred to me that, regardless of intentions, maybe shoving people around until they get on board only to stomp off in disgust when we can't really is the American way. So all I said was: "apparently so."