This is a diary about one of the local legislative district caucuses, the 46th District, in northeast Seattle. This is a hard core Democratic voting area. Today we selected delegates to go to the 46th Legislative District convention on Sunday, April 17th. At that caucus, we will select delegates to go to the County Convention. After that, there is a Congressional District Convention on May1, 2016, and then the State Convention in Tacoma on Saturday, June 18th. Delegates selected at the State Convention will go to Philadelphia. As you can see from the pic, the turnout was huge. The entire first floor of the auditorium was packed, every seat filled. There were even more people on the balcony. Apparently I can’t get my image queue to work. Sorry about that.
The procedures for the precinct caucuses were clear. These folks have been doing caucuses for a number of years. Our PCO ran the meeting. She asked for volunteers for the positions of secretary and for two counters, one for Bernie and one for Hillary. I was the Bernie counter and my next door neighbor was the Hillary counter. We counted our own ballots and then exchanged and counted each other’s ballots. Bernie won, 31-24. Three delegates from the precinct were to be elected and 2 delegates for Bernie were elected and 1 delegate for Hillary was elected. During the process, the PCO asked for volunteers to speak for each candidate. Bernie’s speakers discussed the Citizens United decision and the terrible impact it had had on elections, Bernie’s free college education proposal and his support for education generally, and his economic policies. Speakers for Hillary discussed her extensive foreign policy experience and the fact that if she were the nominee that we would have our first female President. Caucusers were then asked if the Undecideds now wished to make a choice and they did. It did not change the ratio of delegates.
Most important to me was the chance to actually talk face-to-face about our candidates. There were no insults, no trashing of the other candidate, and no crazed shouting people. I have been dismayed at the atmosphere on Kos during this primary season and it was a pleasure to be in a calm, rational, polite discussion. I have seen many many commenters in diaries trash, flag, and insult other people throughout this ongoing primary season. It’s a lot harder to do that when it’s your neighbor right in front of you. I got my first hide rating after 12 years for chiding a Hillary supporter for insulting a Bernie supporter. New experience for me—quite ugly, in fact. So you caucus haters out there, you might want to rethink your conclusions. The Hillary campaign pushed absentee ballots and every absentee ballot we had was a Hillary vote. I was impressed. That’s a good ground game, just as the Bernie team got lots of people to the caucus.
I am going to the 46th District Caucus as a Bernie delegate. One of my sons is going as an alternate. I’m a woman in my 60s and the other Bernie delegate is a young man, excited to be participating for the first time. My next door neighbor, a Hillary supporter, and I shook hands at the end of the caucus and agreed to vote for the other’s candidate if she or he was the nominee in November. This is democracy in action and it is beautiful.