My Caucus Experience

I got about ten books off in the mail and then went home to retrieve my cell phone and then went to the Edwards HQ in town where I made phone calls to get out people who would caucus for Edwards. My wife and I then went over to the high school with a card table and food (shrimp, cookies and some Mexican-style snacks my wife had made) and then left once again to pick up some elderly ladies who had been repugs but decided to go for Edwards. They and my wife got off at the entrance (east rear door of the Maquoketa HS) and I parked the car and went in myself. Long lines waiting to go in and I had to fill out some forms. Finally took a seat and saved a space for my spouse. Caucus began and we counted people. The Obama folk had more people and the Hillary people were tied with us but we got enough people from the unviable candidates to get two delegates for Edwards. (Two for Obama, two for Edwards and one for Hillary C. in our precinct). It took some time to figure out how to do this and the caucus chair had to call Des Moines to make sure it all was OK. My wife was elected to go to the county convention as one of these. I mainly sat and observed the Hillary people who seemed perhaps a bit puzzled at their lack of strength. Obama people were ticked that they did not get three delegates. Later we went to a hotel bar in town where the Obama young volunteers were noisily celebrating. We stayed there about an hour. I drank some 7-Up and watched the results on TV and then we decided to head home to a quieter atmosphere where we watched Fuckleby and Mitts give their speeches. Obama had a big speech too but I was tuned out and busy checking the Internet to see how the Iowa caucus was being reported on the world stage. An interesting day, indeed.
My main reason for going was to help wreck the Campaign of the Hillbots and it seemed to work so I don't have to see all those awful DLC hacks anymore and creatures like Madeline Albright. And we did succeed in tripping up the Inevitable Hillary.

We ran out of chairs very early. Everyone else had to stand for over two hours. It took a really long time to get everyone checked in before we could even start. 585 caucus goers, plus observers, plus children that came with their parents, makes for a very crowded elementary school gymnasium.
I talked to several people who switched parties, they seemed happy to be newly minted democrats.

We opened the community center in West Liberty at 5PM. I wasn't even the first in the door. A couple of older ladies and a Richardson staffer beat me in while I unloaded the car.
By 5:30 we had about 60 or 70. Then they really poured in.
What a night.

Ours is middle range in size for our county precincts.

Clinton started as the only viable candidate but upon realignment ended in third and did not receive any delegates. Everyone was organized and polite (except for not helping in the beginning :grr:). There were two complaints from the Clinton camp that the Edwards folks were 'over' counting - so people lined up and the caucus Chair (Mr. Debi) counted them (of course no over counting to be had).

The Hillary people had ham and chicken sandwiches and cake and fancy cookies of some kind. Both groups had bottles of water. All the shrimp was eaten up and half of the other things. I urged the newspaper editor and our county officials (all Dems) to help themselves and they did so. I'll send you over some shrimp next time around!!

our caucus in Kalona, town of about 2200 was huge for us. We were at the middle school and divided into two precints. Those that live inside city limits in the cafeteria and those that live outside of town in the gym. We had 163 people from in town, that's double the size from '04 and the "out of towners" had 125, nearly double for them too.

Obama started out with with around sixty supporters, Clinton thirty, and Edwards just under twenty which was pretty close to the Richardson camp. Dodd supporters, about ten, mostly went to Edwards camp as did a few undecideds, All three Biden supporters and a few undecideds went Richardson's way getting us just viable and I worked the five Kucinich people to come Richardson's way but only got two of them.

Ended up, Obama got two, Edwards two, Hillary and Richardson each got one. In the gym it sounded like it was pretty much the same although I'm not sure if Richardson got one or not. They had seven delegates to give so maybe he did get one.

Love the caucus process, don't know why people cry about it must be jealous.

Went to my first caucus ever last night to support Edwards. My precinct apparently went from 87 attendees in 2004 to 147 last night and overflowed into another room which made it difficult to realign. We were packed in like sardines and also stood the entire time.

Though Hillary had the most support, she, Obama, and Edwards each got 3 delegates plus 2 for Richardson due to the math.

All in all, it was a good experience if a little disorganized and chaotic. Granted, they can't be provided by the party and probably wouldn't be available everywhere, but why aren't the precinct chairs encouraged to bring a laptop with a prepared spreadsheet for the dreaded math? The chair spent nearly 10 minutes figuring the delegates and did not inspire confidence. Check in was another issue, but I would have to say as a whole, it was a great experience and one I will remember forever.

Question: Does the party plan to take advantage of all us newcomers? I'm not active in the party locally because it is clique-y, like all civic/local organizations, but you would think that the state party would have an interest in capturing all of the newly actives, independents, and republican turncoats that attended last night and encourage me/us to become active. I'm wondering if I will be contacted later and wonder if there is a plan to try to pull all those 20-somethings that finally awoke from their stupor into the active side of the party organization rather than allowing that momentum and energy to be solely candidate driven. Any thoughts?

I'm glad you had a good feeling about the caucus you attended. Thanks for supporting Edwards. We worked hard to get extra delegates for him and it worked out. Too bad the MSM is ignoring the fact Edwards finished in second place but that just makes his supporters work all the harder. As to the math thing, we made do with pocket calculators. I think about ten people had them out doing computations!

As to the youth movement in the party, it is something those older and not-very-much-wiser have mulled over for a long time now. The thought was always how to mobilize the potentially large and vital forces of the young but now that they are arriving in battalions, we don't know quite what to do. We are dizzy at the prospect of the gains we could make with these reinforcements but need a plan to incorporate them (you) into the party where their numbers could be best utilized.
My experience with with the college age students today in my antiwar organizing activities is to merely provide information and insight and not attempt to run anything. The new radical student movements have been organizing themselves with no older rad supervision and that is as it should be. So perhaps the best idea is to form cadres of youth volunteer organizations that are party oriented but also autonomous and strong enough that the older party leadership must go to them and discuss what to do rather than issue proclamations from on high. I mention these thoughts only to start such discussions.

:hi:

I do hope the party embraces all the newcomers!

If those who showed up Thursday night end up sticking around November sure is going make me BLUE!!!! heh heh