8th Congressional District Democratic Caucus Recap

Today I attended the 8th Congressional District Democratic Caucus as an Obama delegate, round three in the delegate selection process in Washington state.

The caucus was held at Tahoma High School in Covington, and directly followed the 8th CD Nominating Convention at which PCOs made Darcy Burner their unanimous choice for Congress.

On this record hot day it was nice to be in a comfortable air-conditioned environment, especially since most of us were there for 8 hours or more.

Once registration was closed, around 10:30am, the Credentials Committee released the first tally of attendees:

- 133 Obama delegates of 166 possible were present, meaning 33 additional delegates would be selected from the available pool of alternates.
- 57 Clinton delegates of 72 possible were present, meaning 15 additional delegates would be selected from the available pool of alternates.

Once the alternates were eventually seated, there would be 161 Obama delegates (5 short of maximum) and 70 Clinton delegates (2 short of their maximum), resulting in the expected 4-2 split coming out of this caucus, with 1 Obama alternate.

While the Credentials Committee folks were doing their work time was spent voting for Electoral College Electors and Judiciary Review Board members.

Eleven men and eight women were candidates for the Elector positions, which were won by Di Irons with 97 votes and David Dos Santos with 59 votes.

Five men and three women vied for the Judiciary Review Board positions, which went to Josephine Jarvis with 117 votes and Michael Finkle with 102 votes.

These votes were completed by 12:50pm.

While all of this was going on candidates for a coveted Democratic National Convention delegate slot in Denver were campaigning for votes. Many had gone to great lengths, making signs, buttons, and fliers in the hopes of drumming up support. Some had a number of helpers who held up signs and attempted to improve name recognition. Prior to today people also sent out letters and emails seeking support. This was a huge deal for those aspiring to attend what is surely to be an historic and interesting convention in Denver, and so it was not surprising how energized people were.

Once the delegates had all been seated the Obama and Clinton delegates broke into two sub-caucuses. At 1:40pm we began the one minute per candidate speeches, working backward alphabetically from the letter "X". I have no idea why they chose to do it that way, and it was ironic in a sense since nobody had a name starting with "X". Anyway, each candidate had a compelling story to tell about who they were, or why they felt they should be selected, or why they supported Barack Obama, and the diversity was great to see.

Speeches concluded by 3:45pm, and it was time to vote. Each delegate had to choose exactly two women and two men, and frankly the decision was very difficult to make. One of those I voted for was Casey Knowles, who you might know as the "3am Girl" in Hillary Clinton's ad. Unfortunately, she didn't make the cut after the first round of voting (which would have required a majority of votes cast to avoid a run-off).

Those that did make the cut were: Sima Sarrafin, Willetta Ward, Nyla Rosen, Lorin Walker, Richard Mitchell, Ikemefuna Udeze, Reuben Powell and Michael Powell (not related). Delegates were then instructed to pick two men and women from these finalists, and after a short wait it was revealed that the Obama delegates would be Sima Sarrafin, Willetta Ward, Richard Mitchell and Michael Powell, with Lorin Walker as the one alternate. Congratulations to them all for what will surely be a memorable experience in August.

With the final results in, the caucus was officially adjourned at 5:12pm.

In the end it wasn't clear that the massive campaigning approach won more votes as both types of candidates, those that went to great lengths and those that seemingly did not, earned slots for Denver. How these delegates were chosen was a combination of how well people related to their pitch, their story and their qualifications, or how they otherwise connected with, and earned the respect of those voting for them. African-American participation was significantly high in this predominantly white district, and it was reflected in the final results, but this was a diverse group that had a little of everyone in it, as one would have hoped. I would have liked to see another younger delegate selected, as I believe the youngest was 26 years old and there were a number of teenagers in the running, but hopefully the Washington delegations chosen elsewhere will make up for that.

Next stop will be the State Convention in Spokane next month, which will be the end of the road for all but the small group that will continue on to Denver.