Caucus Experience
I have to say that this was my first caucus experience and I was not sure what was going to happen. Luckily, I was able to find the caucus location on-line because there were no signs indicating we had the right place when we did finally find it. It was apparent that the turnout was far greater then they had anticipated. The Convener had pointed out a few times even before we started that ‘we just don’t get this kind of turn out, last time it was 10 people’. My estimate was that with the four precincts there were approximately 120 people there. That being said, I will be hopeful that because of the large response it is why the entire process seemed so laborious and disorganized. The Convener started the night by giving us a brief agenda of what to expect. Although, he had left out a few items that I found interesting some of which I will illustrate below.
First, we stood and began with the Pledge of Allegiance. Then, as a complete surprise to me a person of ‘faith’ spoke for about 5 – 10 minutes about how the country needed to be ‘absolved of its sins’ and how we ‘needed to come back to God and cleanse ourselves’. When he finished the group bowed their heads for a prayer. I was extremely shocked by this action. I did not in any way expect to hear 10 minutes of prayer at an event that should be keeping ‘church and state’ separated. Not to mention the varied faiths that the candidate’s themselves are from.
The meeting then moved into the reading of the letters that were available from the candidates. This was another ‘hmm’ moment for me. The Convener prefaced by stating that they were going to read the letters in no particular order or fashion, that it would not represent their personal opinions. But, the side comments about how one candidate’s letter was ‘long’ along with the deep breaths and sighs made if evident of his opinion about that candidate. In general, I thought this was very disrespectful of the Convener to the candidates . After-all, this was the ‘party’s’ caucus not the individual candidate’s headquarters.
The group was then separated by precincts. The Convener of my group decided to run through the agenda again. He said we would be choosing a “Permanent Chair” and “Permanent Secretary”, but these positions were only for tonight’s meeting (odd use of the word permanent?). The group would then perform a ‘straw poll’, then nominate delegates and alternate delegates (38 of each) and finally discuss any resolutions and issues.
No one volunteered at first for the Chair or Secretary positions. We did not have enough ballets so that took another 5-10 minutes to work through. We finally got to the ‘straw poll’ and that was right around 7:50pm.
I found the entire system to be archaic and inordinately disorganized and unprofessional. I find it amazing that reality shows like ‘American Idol’ can manage to pick a winner after millions of votes and yet here we are trying to choose the leader of our country for the next four years and we are reliant on people not interested in participating, disrespectful banter about the party and the worst of all; paper ballots.
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Comments
Irene, I'm afraid to admit how disorganized my caucus was for fear that will reinforce a tremendous disappointment that I sense in your posting. However, our evening was chaotic as well. From the accounts I read in our blog and in the media reports, caucus organizers were overwhelmed by turnout. I've been attending caucuses with one party or another since 1980, and many times have been in an intimate (and often uncomfortable) with a handful of people. In Empire Township in southern Dakota County, the previous caucus had at most 20 people, and that was with four kids attending with parents. On caucus night this year, almost 500 people showed up, fully double the biggest record turnout ever in anybody's memory (and there were some pretty old historians in the room). That's the good news, in my opinion.
I suspect the conveners could benefit from some training. Our convener didn't really convene -- he begged for patience and then disappeared for about 20 minutes while he helped cut more ballots, and then reappeared to beg indulgence again, and again. If the pledge was said at Farmington Middle School, it was before my part of the long, long line got into the cafeteria. Many people had hoped for speeches from candidates or representatives, but as I posted, the last of the registrants hadn't signed in until about 8:10 p.m.
Perhaps if they had known the rooms would be full some time and attention to a protocol and program would have been on somebody's mind. I believe your voice is an important one to be heard by party leaders in all parties hosting caucuses. You speak for all the people who stepped forward to exercise a citizen right, and then drove home wondering if time had been well spent.
Of course, there's always the other tried-and-true way to improve the system: sign up to be a caucus convener or officer and make it happen! Good luck -- I'll be on your campaign committee -- Wendy
Posted by: Wendy Wustenberg | February 8, 2008 01:47 AM