Washington Precinct Caucuses, Seattle, February 9, 2008
In the weeks leading up to the caucuses it was looking like it would be the first time since 1992 that Washington State would have a say in presidential nomination process.
I had toyed with the idea of going to the Republican caucus and supporting Ron Paul. An anti-war Republican is a rarity and can use all the support he can get.
But Super Tuesday (just four days before our caucuses) seemed to seal the deal for McCain, so I decided to go to the Democratic caucus and support Barack Obama.
Both Obama and Clinton visited Seattle in the two days prior to the caucuses, and there was a lot of excitement in the local media about the event.
On the big day I headed down to West Woodland Elementary School just before the 1:00 p.m. start time. The sidewalks were full of my neighbors heading to the same place.
Eight precincts were caucusing in the West Woodland gym. The organizers must not have been expecting such a turnout. They likely thought there would be twenty or so voters from each precint and that
they could easily hold eight meetings in that big gymnasium. I'm guessing there were 700 people total in that room. Each precinct chair had to scream to be heard. Every few minutes a roar would go up
from another precinct (due to passionate speeches being made on behalf of candidates), and that of course made it even harder to follow what was going on in our precinct. But we got it done. Everyone
understood the rules and did all the usual politicking and vote trading. When we started there were 68 for Obama, 9 for Clinton, 6 unpledged, 2 for Edwards, and one for Gravel. Our precinct was electing 7
delegates to the legislative district caucus. Our vote total would give us 5 for Obama, 1 for Clinton, and 1 unpledged. The Obama people convinced some of the unpledged and Edwards and Gravel people to
go for Obama. Our final tally was 6 for Obama and 1 for Clinton.
I went to caucuses in 1980, 1984, and 1992. In all the other presidential election years I've been in Washington there was no contest by the time our caucuses came around.
I remember that the 1984 caucus was very well attended, but nothing like this year. Hopefully this level of interest and enthusiasm for candidates bodes well for our democracy and our future.
Seattle, February 9: Precinct caucus for Precinct 36-1345 in foreground. Seven other precincts in background.
