I spent most of the day yesterday attending the Washington state 43rd district convention. Though a mid-level caucus and thus a bit overlooked in terms of total state delegate count, it was more entertaining than I expected it to be. Here's a summary of my experience.
Everyone that was elected a delegate or an alternate from their precinct at the original caucus day in February was called to attend on Saturday. I spent Thursday evening "getting out the vote," as if Obama's delegates did not all show, we would lose delegates to Hillary and we were told the Hillary people were extremely motivated to get their own people there.
There were between 1300-1400 total delegates there (not counting alternates), electing 67 delegates to the state convention in early June. The 43rd district, one of the bluest in Seattle, had the most delegates of any district in the state. Of those 67, Hillary ended up qualifying for 15 delegates, Obama 53.
Right away it was clear that the reports of newfound amity and unity between the new camps that I've been reading about here did not extend to the 43rd district. The mistress of ceremonies prompted each camp to cheer for their candidate, and although the Hillary people sounded scarily loud to me, it was nothing to the roar that went up when the Obama people were called on. And although there was a good deal of cameraderie and community feeling in the crowd, there was no love lost between Hillary and Obama people. An Obama man sitting next to me shouted in response to a speaker that Hillary's attempt at a health care system "had failed, " and a Hillary person in front of us turned around and shouted "BUT SHE TRIED!!" at the top of his voice with veins bulging in his neck--I thought he was going to burst a gut!
Things got more interesting from there. Each campaign represented was allowed to have a "surrogate" give a speech in support of their candidate. The Obama surrogate went first, a local pol, and did a good job. Kucinich was allowed a speech as well, having 2 delegates to our convention and did well. The Hillary surrogate, however, had not even ARRIVED by the time the other two speakers had finished, so we were left waiting and wondering and getting impatient--and most of us not being Hillary supporters in the first place, we were not inclined to be considerate. Finally the person showed up: it was Sean Astin, the actor who played Sam Gamgee in "Lord of the Rings." The problem was, they'd gone to all this trouble to bring in a famous person to represent the campaign, but not only was he horribly late, they didn't do a good job of explaining who he was (I knew because I had read earlier that he was doing this), and he didn't even give a very good speech. I don't think I'm being biased here--there was simply nothing in the speech that would have prompted me to change my mind even if I had been thinking about it.
Following this was a rather heated argument about whether any delegates should consider switching sides or not. In the end we agreed that although people had a responsibility to weigh this decision carefully, in the end it is allowable under the rules to switch. Finally we were able to break into separate caucuses for Hillary and Obama to elect our state delegates.
Everyone was allowed thirty seconds to make their case, and I'm guessing there were about 350 people that wanted to speak, so it went on for hours. Some people were excellent candidates with interesting personal stories or a long track record of Obama support; many just cheered for Obama (some literally made up cheers), and others simply said, "I really really want to go to Denver!" Needless to say none of the latter won my vote. I ran and gave a 30-second speech about my experience campaigning for Obama; among other things I had organized my area caucus site, at which both Hillary and Obama supporters alike were so excited to be participating in their democracy. I haven't heard back yet--the odds are pretty small, but we should hear today either way.
If you make it to the state level, you can theoretically go on to the national convention in Denver, but chances are even smaller there. Still, I will do my best! And the whole process was interesting and exciting--I'd encourage anyone who has a similar system to take an active part next time, if you did not this time!
I do not know yet if Obama will pick up any extra delegates out of WA state. I think that will not be clear until the state convention.
Extra kudos to N in Seattle who organized all the hundreds of us wanting to run for delegate and worked really hard yesterday!
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