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The Saturday after Super Tuesday
With Sens. Clinton and Obama casting their eyes toward the 22 state primaries on Tues., Feb. 5, Washington will have its caucus on Sat. Feb. 9. Here, in Clinton’s campaign office downtown, Jim Kainber, caucus and delegate selection coordinator, schools volunteers on how to persuade fellow caucus goers. Photo by Andrew Drawbaugh |
It’s just after 12:30 when applause and cheers break out among the few people who have already arrived at the Machinists Union hall in South Seattle. On a giant screen hanging from the ceiling, a photo of Hillary Clinton seems to out-smile that of presidential opponent Barack Obama as a newscast calls Clinton’s win in the Nevada Democratic caucuses.
Eventually, 45 Democrats would spread out under the fluorescent lights of the vast hall. They had come for one of many caucus training events that the New York senator’s campaign has held in Washington. As with trainings for other candidates, the goal is to teach supporters the rules of the precinct caucuses that will be held Feb. 9 and, more importantly, how to work the room to their side’s advantage.
The former first lady already has many aces in the hole. One is the White House experience that so many of her supporters stress. Another is a state campaign committee that includes some of Seattle’s biggest political names — among them, former Gov. Gary Locke and U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Bainbridge). At Saturday’s training, Margarita Prentice, chair of the state Senate’s powerful Ways & Means Committee, sat right up front as King County Executive Ron Sims warmed up the room.
“We’ve been in the wasteland for eight years,” Sims said. “Sen. Clinton is going to get us out of that.”
Sims was the only African American in the room. The next day, a group of 30 people that included five Blacks and a greater range of young and old, crammed into the all-volunteer Seattle campaign office of the senator from Illinois for a training of their own. On one wall were photos of Barack Obama with the chair — and, so far, sole member — of his state campaign committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Tacoma).
Unlike the Clinton supporters, only one person in the room raised a hand when field organizer Kurt Peppard asked who had ever been to a caucus. Before the event began, Rebecca Young, a 47-year-old mother and rock musician of Seattle, said she’s for Obama because he offers a new and radical choice. “Experience is overrated,” she said.
The two rooms show how the lines are drawn between Clinton and Obama in Washington and across the country, with one side touting her can-do experience and the other pushing his voice of a new generation. Democrats say support remains high for John Edwards and his populist platform, but if the former Senator from North Carolina doesn’t pull enough votes at a caucus, his supporters (and those of Dennis Kucinich and other candidates) will find themselves forced into a choice between the frontrunners on caucus day, which some say could play into Obama’s hands.
“In a race between Obama and Clinton,” says Jackie Minchew, chair of the 44th District Democrats in Snohomish County, “I’ll be for Obama.”
Minchew says he’s for Edwards because he opted not to take corporate contributions and “his message is people-oriented,” he says. “It’s about the two Americas [and how] the middle class is shrinking and the poor [class is] growing.”
But, if Edwards has dropped out by Feb. 9 (Washington’s caucuses fall after the 22 state Super Tuesday on Feb. 5), he won’t vote for Clinton. Like many Obama supporters, he says he mistrusts her, in part, for what happened during her husband’s presidency. “He wasn’t the president that we thought he was,” Minchew says. “Welfare-to-work was a gift to the Republicans. NAFTA was a corporate giveaway.”
With Hillary Clinton, “I’m afraid it’s going to be the same thing,” he says.
Not so, says Cathy Allen, a longtime Democratic political consultant and Clinton campaign worker who attended Saturday’s caucus training. “I don’t know why it is people assume that a husband’s position is the wife’s position,” she says. “I would only ask most people to judge their own situation and realize that you can seldom take a husband’s position and translate it to the wife’s.”
Allen says she’s worked with Clinton on many projects over the past 10 years, both in paid and unpaid roles, and that she’s the proven choice, particularly for America’s children, their health and their education. At the caucus training, participant Irene Roberts of Renton said she wants Hillary to roll the clock back to the Clinton years, when the budget was balanced and jobs were plentiful.
“Even Barack Obama says we have to make real changes,” says former Gov. Locke, and “real changes mean things like welfare reform.”
At Obama headquarters in Pioneer Square, Kurt Peppard scoffs, pointing out Obama’s history as a community organizer. “It’s the same politics as usual, top down, we’re going to do this for you,” Peppard says of Clinton. But “I don’t trust people who are going to do it for me.” |
A Jolly Caucus Race
Democrats and Republicans will vote for presidential candidates at precinct caucuses on Sat., Feb. 9. The meetings start at 1 p.m. As you enter the caucus, you must write down your presidential preference — which can include “undecided” — on the sign-in sheet at the door. This is your vote and it will be tallied with the others at 1:30 p.m. to determine how many delegates each candidate will get from your caucus.
After the first tally is announced, the caucus chair will ask whether anyone would like to change his or her vote, as supporters of some candidates, such as Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul, may not have polled enough votes to get any delegates at all. The chair will then ask for volunteers to make a one-minute pitch for the candidates of their choice. Expect supporters of the front-runners to court votes from others in the room.
After the speeches, a second vote will be taken. Each candidate’s supporters will then break off into groups to choose who among them will serve as their candidate’s actual delegate(s) at the next level, which is the county convention. (Longtime caucus goers, be advised: Party platform resolutions on issues such as health care or the war are no longer allowed.)
All Democratic delegates will be chosen at the Feb. 9 caucuses — the Feb. 19 primary does not count for Democrats. Republicans will select half their delegates at the caucuses and half during the primary. The Democratic Party offers a “surrogate affidavit” to vote at their caucus in absentia, but the affidavits are only allowed for religious reasons, a disability that keeps one homebound, or military service out of state.
To find out where your caucus will be held, go to http://www.kcdems.net or www.wsrp.org
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