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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Attention, Washington Wonks and Precinct Delegates

posted by on March 13 at 10:33 AM

Over in Colorado, which, like Washington, uses a caucus system for apportioning its Democratic delegates, Hillary Clinton seems to be picking up delegates as the process grinds along from precinct to district to state convention. Why?

A theory from a University of Denver political scientist:

It’s hard to know if this is all due to chance, if she really does have an effective post-caucus strategy in the urban counties, or if the Obama folks are just flakier as the process goes on. It’s also hard to say just how much this will matter in the end. Each of the state’s seven congressional districts will only send six or seven delegates to the DNC. So maybe she can flip two or three this way, and if she does that in the other caucus states, we’re talking about serious numbers, although obviously not enough to overtake Obama in pledged delegates. Still, every little bit matters right now.

If Clinton really is trying to work the post-caucus system in caucus states, there’s nothing unfair about that. Those who show up, win.

Which means: If you were elected as a legislative district delegate at last month’s Washington caucuses, and you want your candidate to have the best shot at the nomination, then you better figure out the where and whens of the next step in the process and, you know, show up.

RSS icon Comments

1

Plain and simple, Clinton is better at working the post-caucus process. Obama needs to get on it.

Posted by Gabriel | March 13, 2008 10:39 AM
2

Um, dude, it's Colorado.

She's still losing more delegates in California and Texas.

And here - our next level is April 5th, the LD caucus.

Posted by Will in Seattle | March 13, 2008 10:47 AM
3
Posted by Trevor | March 13, 2008 10:54 AM
4

CA is settled as of last week, and TX has bizarrely announced that they just aren't going to report any more results, since they have no idea what they are. Various people have looked at the mess and come up with a likely figure of Obama 38, Clinton 29 in the caucus portion, but presumably no one will really know for sure until they show up at the state convention. I guess. There's no need to mess with Texas, as they're already messed up. It's an embarrassment to the national party, and yet another indictment of the caucus system.

But it's not correct to say she's "still losing more delegates" in either state. She ends up +36 in CA (207-167), and -5 in TX (94-99).

You got the next date right, though -- 10:00 AM, April 5th, at wherever your Legislative District convenes. I'm in the 36th, and we're at Ballard High School.

If you can't find yours, call the WA Democrats at 206-583-0664.

Posted by Fnarf | March 13, 2008 10:56 AM
5

Will, the last time you opened your mouth to bad-mouth Colorado, quite a few people took a dump in it. Have you learned nothing, or do you just like the taste of shit?

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | March 13, 2008 10:58 AM
6

JUST A COMMENT

In the Dem. party in Washington, there are quotas for certain types of folks as delegates.

I wonder if you match one of the categories if you can bump someone who does not.

Experts, what is the deal?

Posted by Kerrie Brown | March 13, 2008 11:02 AM
7

@6 - what in the world does that mean? "Certain types of folks"? Huh?

Posted by Levislade | March 13, 2008 11:06 AM
8

One of the factors for some of us is a concern that Obama supporters will flake out. Turns out Obama Girl thought the Super Bowl was more important than supporting her candidate. Fortunately, there's an easy solution: support Hillary.

Posted by Big Sven | March 13, 2008 11:11 AM
9

I wonder if you match one of the categories if you can bump someone who does not.

That could present problems for my Caucus where we selected 5 white males and 1 African-American woman to represent Obama while the lone Clinton rep was a white female.

Since white males are out and minority/females are in this could present a problem for Sen. Obama in the pledged delegate selection (assuming Wash. State follows the election demographics). I'm sure we're not the only caucus to have this issue.

Posted by XXYY | March 13, 2008 11:12 AM
10

Fifty-Two-Eighty ftw!

Posted by Donolectic | March 13, 2008 11:25 AM
11

Big Sven, that's okay. At least she made it to the parties! That counts... right?

Posted by Donolectic | March 13, 2008 11:28 AM
12

I have not researched it yet - but the Dems want more women, gays, and people of color. And they have a policy to encourage those category of folk to get involved.

It was at the bottom of the sign up sheet when they asked you to check boxes. (caucus day)

Posted by Kerrie Brown | March 13, 2008 11:49 AM
13

Problem is, in Washington at least, the Party is holding on to the list of delegates and won't let the Obama folks contact their delegates to help them through the unorganized chaos that is the Democratic party.

The Party insiders (that generally favor Clinton) know that if people are given guidance, they won't know how to work the convention system, which is more complicated than our caucuses. They figure the Clinton delegates have played this game before and know what to do at the convention.

Posted by Matt | March 13, 2008 12:09 PM
14

Should be "aren't given guidance"

If Obama supporters can't get in touch with the other delegates, they can't help them at the conventions.

Posted by matt | March 13, 2008 12:10 PM
15

Well, I tried to get Roosevelt High School for the 43rd Caucus, but they're booked up.

So it's probably at Lincoln High School (where Garfield is currently situated) in Wallingford near 45th and Stone Way.

Posted by Will in Seattle | March 13, 2008 12:17 PM
16

As to the comment by Matt @13 - it's not just the State Dems, it's sometimes the District Dems that are holding on to the delegate lists. Some of that is that they don't know who the official people ARE and these are people's cell phones, email and phone numbers - the names are listed on some web sites.

If you're on Facebook, try the Obama District Caucus Delegates of Washington group.

Posted by Will in Seattle | March 13, 2008 12:22 PM
17

I'm a precinct delegate, and I have no fucking idea where I'm supposed to go on April 5, or what time, or what to do once there. And the delegate organizers for my candidate admit they don't know how they can tell us yet.

Posted by K | March 13, 2008 2:02 PM
18

OK, you guys, it's not scary, and there's no conspiracy against Obama delegates. Believe me, the party organization wants to keep new people involved, hook them into their LD chapters, solicit donations, etc.

The LD caucuses (mandatory) are on Saturday, April 5 at 10 am. The King County convention (where you'll deal with platform debate, not candidates) is Sunday April 13 at 2 pm at West Seattle High School--other counties have different dates. Find your legislative district (noted on your voter registration card and your precinct delegate sheet) and look it up here: http://www.wa-democrats.org/index.php?page=display&id=294. (The location for the 43rd, where I'm a delegate, hasn't been announced yet. I'm sure there are others. You should be able to find the website for your district easily enough and contact information for the leadership there--get in touch if the date gets closer and you still don't know the location.)

When you get to the LD caucus, you'll split into candidate groups and elect people for the Congressional District Caucus. It helps to campaign, and there are strict affirmative quotas by sex, and softer affirmative action goals by minority status, LGBT identification, and youth (defined as 17-24). That's the only thing that happens at the LD caucus: Lots of speeches--about why you're a good representative of your candidate and why you will never, never switch your vote to another candidate--and then an election.

You can read about the specifics of the affirmative action plan and delegate allocation here: http://www.wa-democrats.org/index.php?page=display&id=283


Posted by annie | March 13, 2008 3:17 PM
19

This is similar to the thoughts I had after the WA contest, when everyone was posting so excitedly that "Obama won everyone except six old hags - and I signed up to be a delegate!" There's a lot of steps and a lot of widdling people out in the state delegate process and I doubt a lot of people knew what kind of commitments they were making. This, of course, will probably be a problem for Obama, though a minor one, in WA and other states with similar situations.

Posted by johnnie | March 13, 2008 3:20 PM
20

I've been worrying about this from the beginning. I'm a PCO and in my district we're still entering precinct caucus information. I spent several hours this weekend doing paperwork myself. I suppose it's possible some savvy Clinton hacks are trying to slow things down, but it seems more like typical party disorganization.

My plan is to contact delegates for both candidates in the precincts I've entered to remind them to show up on April 5, but I might contact the Obama campaign to make sure they have the list of names.

Posted by Cascadian | March 13, 2008 5:11 PM

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