WA State Democratic Convention: Day Two, Part Five

After making my last post, I wandered the Convention floor and took a few photos:

2008 Washington State Democratic Convention

2008 Washington State Democratic Convention - Voting

2008 Washington State Democratic Convention - Lt. Gov Brad Owen at podium

Things then got interesting as the question of amending the charter regarding how delegates are allotted was discussed. The charter amendment called for all or some of the state delegates to be chosen based on the Presidential Primary. Currently they are all selected via the caucus process.

I've commented a number of times that my preference would be that we have a closed Primary in Washington State. However, many in the party prefer caucuses. The voting was considerable against the charter amendment with 632 against to 334 for (and 25 absentions). The vote count also established that there would not be enough votes to approve any of the charter amendments and business then moved on to the party platform.

At that point I determined that I really needed to start the long drive westward if I wanted to avoid driving in the dark after a long, tiring day, so I missed how things turned out. However, Andrew from NPI has a couple of postings that cover the 45 minutes I missed, here and here. Coverage of the last part of the day can also be viewed at TVW.

I should mention that you can also read blogged coverage of the convention from David Postman (Seattle Times), Niki Sullivan (Tacoma News Tribune), Jim Camden (Spokesman-Review) and Bryan Bissell (PolitickerWA).

In general it was an interesting convention. Delegate attendance was surely impacted by the location. Had the convention been in Seattle I think attendance would have been much higher, but one understands the desire to rotate things around the state. The organizers could have also considered the needs of the press a little better - the simple things like having somewhere to sit and plug in. The main lobby might have been set up with more campaign tables instead of spreading them out into the corridors. It would have creating density where there was a lot of empty space. Otherwise, the convention seemed to run smoothly, without noticeable in-party discord between Obama and Clinton supporters (I never really noticed Clinton supporters, who kept a low profile in general), and attendees were in good spirits about the upcoming races this year.

Andrew at NPI is providing continuing coverage of the final selection of national delegates today.