Caucus
Washington State's caucus to select a Democratic
candidate for president were held today. Elise and I
attended.
Some people think that a
primary would be more democratic, but after having attended two caucuses
(cauci?), I think this system is actually more true to the democratic spirit.
The way it works is that a bunch of your neighbors who consider themselves
Democrats (you don't actually have to be registered with that political party)
show up and
discuss
the candidates before picking delegates. The first caucus we went to was held in
someone's living room, and it was easier to hold the discussions than the large
auditorium used this year (where other precincts were also meeting and it was
thus quite noisy). But there were discussions. Uncommitted attendees were
swayed. I learned enough to have a second choice should my first choice drop
out.
Our precinct got to pick 4
delegates to the next level caucus, and after several rounds of voting, it was 2
for Dean, 1 for Kucinich, and 1 for Kerry. I decided it would be fun to be an
alternate delegate for Dean, and won a mini-election. (I had been an actual
delegate for my candidate, Paul Tsongas, back in my first
caucus.)
One of the more interesting
arguments for Dean was that senators hardly ever win, governors win. Presumably
this is because governors have actual executive experience?
Posted: Sat
- February 7, 2004 at 02:28 PM