Report from the 5th Leg District - Hunter Precinct:
Just got back from caucusing at Clark. I put down Romney. There were only 6 of us from our precinct - 1 precinct next to mine (Kintler or Kingler - I can’t remember now) didn’t have any one there. I’m going to be a delegate at district on Mar 8. I know of at least 3 votes Mitt got from other precincts. Our precinct’s votes included Fred and McCain.
I meant to take a guesstimate count before I left and didn’t. In thinking about it now, I’d say a rough guess from what I can remember is that there were about 150 or so there from various precincts.
On the way home, I passed Pacific Freshman Campus - the parking lot was full and there were cars parked up and down Issaquah - Fall City Road. I pulled in and asked what was going on - they said it was the Democratic Caucus (obviously much bigger turnout than ours, but I believe they do theirs differently, too). I thought it was at one of the elementary schools on the plateau. My caucus members and I were talking about Reichert - this used to be a very reliable Republican district and so the last election - Dave against Darcy Burner, should have been a no brainer; however, a lot of libs have been moving to the burbs, including up here, so the voting demographics is unfortunately changing. They screw up Seattle and then move to the burbs and try to screw those up, too (like the folks moving from MA to the south).
Well, I am a veteran PCO, and I ran my caucus like I always do. First, we had 2 precincts at my table ... mine, and our neighbors to the south. The PCO from that precinct did not show up, so I told them they could follow along with what we were doing. One of them became secretary of that group and filled out thier paperwork.
The room at Tahoma was packed full ... I would guess we had between 3-400 people there. The most annoying thing was the gal that kept grabbing the microphone to answer questions that were raised to her that apparantly were “important” ... but in reality were just unwanted delays in the real business. The other annoyance was that our caucus was a good 25 minute drive from our precinct ... I think in the future I will hold it at my house!
Before I showed up, I printed a list of all registered voters in my precinct, then when everyone signed in, I checked the names against the list to make sure everyone’s votes would count.
Of our delegates (my precinct got 6 delegates and 5 alternates ... and we sent 5 w/1 alternate), they were all for Romney except 1 for Huckleberry. We had a couple of people that did not want to go to the LD caucus ... one of them was for Hunter and the rest Romney.
To the people that posted comments about being upset that they did not get to discuss issues ... I am sorry ... maybe you should become the PCO.
In my caucus, I explained to everyone that even though we are all taught that we dont discuss politics or religion in polite company, that it was OK to discuss politics here, and that I was going to go thru a list of topics and we could discuss each one and it was OK to attempt to sway others to your point of view.
As we went thru the issues, I not only read them to the group, but I explained what the options meant, and then opened the floor for arguements. I made suggestions as to how to prioritize thier responses as well, and by the end of the caucus, most just wanted my analysis of the issue and guidance on how to vote. I know that my caucus was pretty unique in this, because we were the last group to finish in the room. It was kinda neet that even the other precinct stuck around to listen to our discussions about the issues and participate.
All in all, I made some friends yesterday, and I think that if I called on the participants to help in the future, that based on the experience yesterday, they all would.