Caucus (Updated)

I didn’t decide to do this until about a day or so ago.

I’ll be attending the Lyon County Democratic caucus later this morning.  Part of me is wondering why I am bothering, but since I didn’t go in 2010, AND this is the year that the DNC will issue a new platform (not that they’ll follow what will surely be a watered-down bowl of mush), I thought I’d add my two cents. I might add more than that, and in fact, that’s a pretty good bet.

Make no mistake, the only people who will be getting out in the wet weather and attending a Democratic caucus in a year where there is no contest for the nomination will be the hard-core Dems.  I’m going because I want to see what is on the mind of these people. Have they had it? Are they willing to rattle the cage? If I like what I hear, I might stick around.  If I hear the same old, we can’t rock the boat bullshit, I’ll be heading for the door.

This isn’t to say I’ll be neutral. In recent days I’ve also come to the conclusion that come November 2012, given the current field of candidates, I’m going to have to put on my big girl panties hold my nose and vote for Obama. I’ll not be leaving the top of the ticket blank this time.  Not that I think he’s any great prize (as regular readers will know), but he beats bat-shit crazy any day.

Just don’t ask me to canvass for him. That would be a bridge too far.

Update: Some photos from today

Dems don’t just have a “young voter” problem, they have an identity crisis

chatblu slices and dices Chris Cilizza’s piece about unmotivated Democratic voters, Democrats’ young voter problem

Obama and the Democrats have more than just a young voter problem, they have a base problem. chat notes:

The article admits that the Republican base is markedly more enthused about the forthcoming election that the Democrats are, but does not address the rather significant fractures within the Democratic party itself.  Most strategists have at least privately admitted that the Jacksonian wing of the party went out with Hillary Clinton.  Many strategists, and for that matter pundits such as Chris Matthews, have begun to verblize the necessity of repairing the rift with the Clinton voters (if they can).  It  also  fails (spectacularly) to note that the core reason of Democratic lassitude is that the prez is not really acting like a Democrat at all, and does not even mention that Organizing for America appears to have withered from neglect. Gone forever are the favorable comparisons to FDR, who told the bankers in no uncertain terms that he welcomed their hatred.

Last Saturday, Nevada Democrats held their county conventions. Lyon County’s was held at the Silver Stage High School gym, directly across the street from the Silver Stage Middle School gym where I was participating at a Wellness Fair. The Wellness Fair parking lot was packed, the Dems had a dozen cars or so.  I saw more than a couple of people I fully expected to be at the Dem convention participating in the Wellness Fair . . . people who used to be the backbone of the county party.  People who’d been around since the dark days of 2004 when we were just revitalizing the Dems in Lyon County and had no office, no web site, no mailing list, no history of activism.

A Dem friend of mine stopped by the Wellness Fair after the convention had wound down early and told me that basically it was the Central Committee and two others who attended. I don’t know the size of the central committee right now, but in the days leading up to the 2008 election when Democratic activism in Lyon County was at its peak, attendance at central committee meetings hovered around 40 (probably more as it got closer to November, but since I left in May 2008, I don’t know for sure). If only about 40 attended the LCDP county convention, those numbers are lower than 2006, when we had close to 70 attend the county convention. 2008 saw a convention with more than double that attendance.  (I don’t even think 2004 attendance was that low. Granted, 2004 was a presidential election year, but our county party had pretty much been dormant prior to that, so having anyone show up was well nigh to a miracle.)

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right

Five years. In March 2003 I got out of my armchair and went to work supporting this former governor from Vermont, who had called the Democrats on their spinelessness. He didn’t get the nomination, but he asked us to get involved in our local Democratic parties and work to help elect John Kerry. And work I did. I jumped in with both feet in Lyon County and elsewhere in rural Nevada. I designed the Lyon County Dems web site, got elected Secretary and served in that position until June of this year. I probably created nearly every flyer that came out of the party. I wrote press releases, administered the email list,  tabled, phone-banked, walked, waved signs and opened my house to poll workers on Election Day. In 2004 I got elected chair of the Rural Nevada Democratic Caucus and as a group we canvassed in remote parts of rural Nevada on behalf of John Kerry, and Nevada Assembly candidates Marcia deBraga and Cathylee James. The Democratic Party was my passion. I believed in it.

After the election, I was approached by the former Northern Nevada Field Director to see if I’d be interested in replacing her. I was honored that she would consider me, and after many interviews with the PTB, I proudly came on board with the NSDP in April of 2005as the Rural Coordinator. In July 2005 I switched over to the DNC payroll as one of Governor Dean’s first hires in the 50-State Strategy. I spent the next two years working all over rural Nevada during an off-year election cycle. I’ve met and worked with some of the most incredible people you could ever hope to know. I put tens of thousands of miles on my car, attended every county central committee, state central committee meeting, conducted trainings, “cut turf” and conducted precinct walks, phone banks, organized GOTV efforts. I’ve been flipped off, booed and yelled at, and told I wasn’t an American by rightwing whackos who thought that Democrats were the spawn of Satan. All of it rolled off my back.   The Democratic Party was my passion. I believed in it.

After two years, I wanted to gain some semblance of normalcy to my life, and stepped down as paid staff and took a full time job in Reno in May 2007. Little did I know that my move just meant I had two full-time jobs. My day job and my work for the Democratic Party. I continued to volunteer and worked with Dems from all over Nevada, and was a key organizer for the January 2008 Nevada Democratic Caucus. We’d never done anything this big before and a lot of people worked long hard hours to pull it off. With no opportunity to catch our breath, as the Lyon County Democratic Convention Committee Chair I barely looked up for the five weeks between caucus and convention. At the same time I was working for the party, I also found time to support my candidate.

There wasn’t a weekend that didn’t go by that I didn’t have something “Democratic” to do. In the past five years, I have no idea of how much money I’ve put into Democratic work, and I don’t just mean candidate support. I mean paper, toner, food, pens, postage, etc, etc, etc. The house, the critters and the LOML were put all on the back burner. My husband understood. After all, we were the good guys. The Democratic Party was my passion. I believed in it.

More on the flip side.

Candidate Forum: Public Transit in Lyon County

From my inbox:

Public Transit in Lyon County
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2008
6:30 pm—8:30pm
SILVER CITY TOWN HALL

This is a free public forum which will be attended by
CANDIDATES for LYON COUNTY COMMISSIONER
Citizens can listen to candidate views and express to the candidates their ideas on this subject.
For further information:
775-575-1133

This is the first in a series of ISSUES FORUMS to be presented by the Lyon County Democratic Central Committee during this 2008 Election Season. We welcome members of all parties to these events as we believe open and respectful dialog is essential for a healthy democracy.

Why It’s Worth It

Yesterday was WOW busy and full with the Lyon County Democratic Convention.

I got up at 4:30 (after going to bed at 1am), left the house at 7am, was at the convention (I was the convention committee chair) from 7:15 until 5:30 completely busy the whole time…running around..answering questions, working with both campaigns, the credentials committee to work out issues, working with my own group (Hillary) to make sure all our missing delegate slots were filled, etc, etc, etc.

It was frustrating to many of the delegates that such mundane things as platform discussions, waiting on the credentials committee report, and other business delayed the moment they had all been waiting for: Delegate Election.

The moment of truth finally came and the convention came alive with competing group chants of “Yes we can!” and “Yes we will!” Determining group strength was easy. Then we moved into delegate election and each group worked out a way for each person running for delegate an opportunity to speak on their own behalf. The convention rules said they could speak for a minute, but in our group we realized that we could be there for 30-40 minutes, so limited time to 30 seconds. We picked a time keeper (the ten-year-old daughter of one of our delegates) and she was a very conscientious time keeper.

Everyone gave their speeches and I was so incredibly impressed by the life stories many of them wove into their narratives. I am sure the Obama group would say the same thing. We were allowed to vote for five delegates per ballot and let me tell you, that was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make. They all deserved to be delegates. How could I pick only five? We elected half our delegates (14) on the first ballot and had to make the tough choice again of five more for the second ballot where we elected our remaining 13.

At the end of the day, our convention was almost perfectly split in raw votes: 78 to 77 (with Obama getting the one extra vote) and splitting the delegates to the state convention evenly: 27 to 27.

Lots of drama and intense feelings, but at the end of the day, I really realized why I love being involved in grassroots politics. Its about the people. Period.

Lyon County Caucus Results by Precinct

Precinct	Clinton		Edwards		Kucinich		Obama
Lyon 1	2	40%	1	20%	0	0%	2	40%
Lyon 2	1	20%	1	20%	0	0%	3	60%
Lyon 3	2	40%	0	0%	0	0%	3	60%
Lyon 4	1	25%	1	25%	0	0%	2	50%
Lyon 5	2	50%	0	0%	0	0%	2	50%
Lyon 6	1	25%	0	0%	0	0%	3	75%
Lyon 7	1	33.33%	0	0%	0	0%	2	66.67%
Lyon 8	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	1	100%
Lyon 9	1	25%	1	25%	0	0%	2	50%
Lyon 10	1	50%	0	0%	0	0%	1	50%
Lyon 11	2	40%	1	20%	0	0%	2	40%
Lyon 12	1	33.33%	1	33.33%	0	0%	1	33.33%
Lyon 13	1	50%	0	0%	0	0%	1	50%
Lyon 14	4	66.67%	0	0%	0	0%	2	33.33%
Lyon 15	3	50%	0	0%	0	0%	3	50%
Lyon 16	3	50%	1	16.67%	0	0%	2	33.33%
Lyon 17	2	40%	1	20%	0	0%	2	40%
Lyon 18	2	66.67%	0	0%	0	0%	1	33.33%
Lyon 19	1	33.33%	1	33.33%	0	0%	1	33.33%
Lyon 20	0	0%	0	0%	1	50%	1	50%
Lyon 21	4	57.14%	0	0%	0	0%	3	42.86%
Lyon 22	1	50%	0	0%	0	0%	1	50%
Lyon 23	3	50%	1	16.67%	0	0%	2	33.33%
Lyon 24	2	40%	2	40%	0	0%	1	20%
Lyon 25	2	40%	1	20%	0	0%	2	40%
Lyon 26	2	66.67%	0	0%	0	0%	1	33.33%
Lyon 27	2	50%	1	25%	0	0%	1	25%
Lyon 28	1	50%	0	0%	0	0%	1	50%
Lyon 29	1	33.33%	1	33.33%	0	0%	1	33.33%
Lyon 30	2	66.67%	0	0%	0	0%	1	33.33%
Lyon 31	1	25%	1	25%	0	0%	2	50%
Lyon 32	3	60%	0	0%	0	0%	2	40%
Lyon 33	4	66.67%	0	0%	0	0%	2	33.33%
Lyon 34	2	50%	1	25%	0	0%	1	25%
Lyon 35	1	50%	0	0%	0	0%	1	50%
Lyon 36	1	100%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%
Lyon 37	2	50%	0	0%	0	0%	2	50%
Lyon 38	2	50%	0	0%	0	0%	2	50%
Lyon 39	4	66.67%	0	0%	0	0%	2	33.33%
Lyon 40	3	60%	0	0%	0	0%	2	40%
Total	74	46.54%	17	10.69%	1	0.63%	67	42.14%

TIME CHANGE: Hillary in Fernley this Friday

Hillary Clinton will be at East Valley Elementary School on Friday EVENING. The time change is due to an emergency vote called in the Senate for which Senator Clinton flew back and is now flying back to Nevada to make this appearance in Lyon County.

Hillary Clinton in Fernley!
Friday, November 16, 2007
6:30 PM
East Valley Elementary School
4180 Farm District Road
Fernley, NV 89408

Click here for map and to RSVP.

On a side note, yours truly will have a small speaking part at this event.

Rural Democrats Engage High School Students

Rural Democrats are stepping up and moving in their communities!

Churchill County:

High school students learn about the election process (Lahontan Valley News)

About 75 Churchill County High School seniors learned about the presidential caucus process on Tuesday in the high school cafeteria.

The Churchill County Democrats were in charge of holding the mock caucus with the high school seniors.

Cynthia Trigg of the Churchill County Democrats told the students that most of them will be 18 or older by November of next year and will be allowed to vote for the next president.

[...]

Shane Groover, a CCHS senior, said he was looking forward to the election because he will be old enough to vote.

“I think it is interesting. I got to help choose the nomination,” he said of the mock exercise. “I kind of learned how delegates are chosen with the math.”

Maggie Nelson, another high school senior, said she enjoyed learning how the Nevada caucus works.

“I knew there were different precincts, but I did not know there were different stages,” she said.

Nelson said the mock caucus has encouraged her to take part in the actual event in January.

Alicia Perazzo, a high school senior who is a Republican, said she now knows how the process works. She said did not know how the process worked before taking part in the mock caucus exercise.

“We were organized into different groups and got to voice opinions and elect delegates,” she said.

Lyon County:

Senior students developing “candidates” for mock caucus (Fernley Courier)

Students at Lyon County public schools will be involved choosing their “favorite candidates” for President as part of a mock caucus being conducted next Wednesday, Oct. 24, in Silver Springs.

The mock caucus involving senior U.S. government students is scheduled from 9-11 a.m. at the Silver Stage High School gym for the five high schools in the Lyon County School District.

The mock caucus idea was initiated by the Lyon County Democratic Central Committee although the mock caucus (called mockuses in some instances) will be nonpartisan and involve fictional candidates developed by the high school students and Republican Party officials could also participate.

I’ll be on the lookout for Keith Trout’s follow-up article, but word is that the event was very successful and helped our future citizens to understand the process and the vital part they play in it.

Bill Clinton in Reno, Bill Richardson in Fernley

Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak at a Hillary for President campaign rally this Friday evening (August 17th).

Location: Reno-Sparks Convention Center (4001 S. Virginia Street, Reno).
Time: The doors will open at 5pm.
Admission is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.
Admission is available on a first-come basis, so get there early as they are expecting a heavy turnout.
You may RSVP by calling the Reno campaign office at 333-6655 or by visiting www.hillaryclinton.com/reno.

Be advised: The event is standing room only, that is: No seating except for disabled attendees.

********************************************************************************

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will be in Lyon County next Wednesday, August 22nd
This is the first visit by a presidential candidate to Lyon County.

Location: Fernley High School
Time: Doors open at 6:30 pm
Volunteers needed to help distribute flyers and to assist with the event.
Please call the Lyon County Democratic office at (775) 575-1133 or reply to this email if you can help out or to RSVP.

Lyon County Dems are holding a Mock Caucus

From the Lyon County Democratic Party:

WHAT THE HECK IS A CAUCUS?

Have you heard about the caucus, but it still seems confusing to you?
Or maybe you don’t have a clue what it’s about…
Come join us at our first Mock Caucus and you’ll get a chance to experience first-hand how a caucus works. The Nevada Democratic Party is sponsoring a series of “mockuses” in rural Nevada and they are coming to Fernley on Thursday, June 7th.

Hosts: Jim and Teresa Williams
Address: 1060 Rimfield Drive, Fernley
Time: 6:30 PM

SPECIAL GUESTS:
Jill Derby, Nevada State Democratic Party Chair
Jean Hessburg, Statewide Caucus Campaign Director
Jayson Sime, Nevada Caucus Director

If you have already volunteered to be a Temporary Caucus Chair, or would like more information about the caucus, we really encourage you to attend this event.

It will give you a good feel for what will happen on January 19, 2008.

Feel free to bring friends and family.

RSVP to lyoncountydems@sbcglobal.net

On Edit: The Carson City Dems are doing the same thing on Thursday morning. Details:

Thursday, June 7th, 11:30 am
Buffet at Grandma Hattie’s
2811 S. Carson Street

The Nevada State Democratic Party is sponsoring an information and mock caucus meeting. Jean Hessberg, who ran the 2004 Iowa presidential caucuses, will be helping organize our efforts to make the January 19th the best and most well attended precinct caucus meetings. She will be leading this meeting and should have some valuable insights into what will be happening leading up to January and the running of the caucuses themselves. There will be some new wrinkles and some familiar ones. Let us prove that the DNC was right to select Nevada to represent the Intermountain West in the early stages of the primary process.

There will be some media coverage so a good turnout would be welcomed.

RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED

Please contact headquarters at 841-3367 or e-mail carsoncitydems@sbcglobal.net

The Douglas Dems will be holding a Mock Caucus at Whittell High School in Zephyr Cove on Friday. I’ll get more information to you shortly.