Getting involved locally
I'm not sure how many of you are involved in your local democratic organizations, but I recently attended my first legislative district meeting. I don't know if the state of things is similar across the country or not, but despite the fact that there is TONS more interest and more attendance in local politics this year, there were still many volunteer spots open. We have PCOs (precinct committee officers) that are supposed to meet their neighbors, find out who are democrats, keep in touch with your neighbors so that they get to know you so that when it comes election time they know who you are and will likely listen to what you have to say, etc. I think this is an excellent opportunity to get Gravel's message out. The monthly meetings are a chance to meet with other politically-oriented individuals who will be more open to what we have to say. You also get an opportunity to meet some of your local politicians as they show up to these meetings as well.
In my district, there were many precinct spots without PCOs and I was able to easily become elected as my precinct's PCO.
Has anyone else here been going to their local legislative district meetings? I'm not sure if this is organized differently in different states, but this is the situation in WA state.
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Comments
Pretty funny. I seem to have put a wrench in the caucus process.
Submitted on March 8th, 2008 by DebbieKatRead thread starting from the bottom. :-) Names and precinct numbers have been blocked
out for privacy reasons and I've edited out some of the less interesting portions of this
thread.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Hmm, I guess this is another issue the credentials will have to make a judgment
call on. I wish I had whatever minutes the precinct
caucus generated to understand what happened.
The vote count I'm seeing in the signins is 48 Obama, 13 Clinton, 1 Gravel.
This makes the delegate (and alternate) allocation 5
Obama, 2 Clinton. The delegate report shows that many delegates of each, but
only a single alternate which is Debbie for Gravel.
This was incorrect and should not have happened.
Now, if I'm following the narratives here, it sounds like many of the people
left before the election of delegates and alternates
was concluded and the Obama subcaucus elected Debbie as an alternate even though
she'd signed in as a Gravel supporter. (Please, I
don't need to learn that anyone was solicited to become a delegate after the
caucus was over!) If that's the case, I think we can
construe that Debbie was elected as an Obama alternate, despite being listed as
Gravel.
Alternates can be seated in place of any Delegate for the same candidate. They do not have to be in the same precinct,
although
preference is given to seating an alternate of the same sex and from the same
precinct.
A Gravel alternate can only be seated to replace a Gravel delegate and I don't
believe that we have any such in the NNth.
The most important thing for each campaign is to make sure that the total number
of delegates and alternates present for their
candidate is at least as great as the number of delegates elected for their
candidate. If not, their campaign will lose votes. Of
similar importance is making sure that their seated delegates and alternates do
not switch allegiance.
Looking at the XXX NN-NNNN numbers, it's unfortunate for the Obama campaign that
Debbie didn't switch to Obama before the second
tally. Had she done so, the delegate allocation would have been 6 Obama, 1
Clinton and she presumably would have been an Obama
Delegate, not an alternate.
This will get discussed. I don’t have all the available facts and what I've written is to some degree my personal opinion. I've
added the other Credentials Committee members to the cc line of this message as
we all need to have the same information available
to us.
M
-----Original Message-----
Subject: RE: Alternate for Obama
Debbie I have not heard anything, but the credentials committee is meeting
this weekend as I understand it. Although we will be doing training, the
most important thing would be to show up. Check out Obama.XXX.com. It
has a wealth of information about the caucuses and more. As soon as we hear
from the rules committee, we will be disseminating that information as well.
As an alternate, you would substitute for a delegate from your precinct that
does not show up--but as I said earlier you were elected as a Gravel
alternate so I don't know how or if that would work with alternate status.
We will be breaking up into 2 groups, one for the Nst Congressional District
and one for the Nth Congressional district. Each of those groups will break
up into Obama and Clinton groups and undecided (I'm pretty sure this would
not be an option because you need a minimum of 15% to get a group but we
don't know what would happen at the time of the caucus). The point of the
caucus is to move the members of one group to the other side. You are a
Gravel supporter, so you would be in the minority (you need to have a
minimum of 15% to move on) and have to move to Obama, Clinton, or undecided.
Once another vote is taken, the groups split up again and the people who are
delegates vote for delegates that move on to the Congressional District
caucuses. The number of delegates elected here decreases dramatically. Even
if you remained an alternate or were not allowed to participate as an
alternate or delegate, you could run to be one of the delegates to the CD
caucus, but you would have to run as a delegate for Obama or Clinton, not
Gravel, unless you could convince 15% of the people to change their vote at
the second ballot.
M or P--chime in if I've said something out of line here.
Thanks for all you do.
XXXX XXX
NNth LD Coordinator for Barack Obama
Respect. Empower. Include.
-------------- Original message ----------------------
> I have you down as an alternate for Gravel, but that makes no sense to me
> based on what I know. An alternate substitutes for a delegate that is
> absent--and the substitution is candidate for candidate. An Obama
alternate
> substitutes for another Obama delegate. On the other hand, I don't see
that
> you should be disenfranchised.
>
> You don't have a Gravel delegate to substitute for. P, what do we
do
> in this case? This was a weird situation where everyone voted and then
left.
> Delegates had to be called to come back to get voted on.
>
> Thanks for all you do.
>
> XXXX XXXX
> NNth LD Coordinator for Barack Obama
>
> Respect. Empower. Include.
>
>
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
> >
> >
> > Thanks for all you do.
> >
> > XXXX XXXXX
> > NNth LD Coordinator for Barack Obama
> >
> > Respect. Empower. Include.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Please remind me again what precinct you are in. I can't find you in my
> > list, but I can look at the original sheets and see if I can find you,
but
> I
> > need to know what precinct you are in.
> >
> > XXXX
> > -----Original Message-----
> >
> > Subject: Alternate for Obama
> >
> > Hi XXXX -
> > Just sending you an email to be in contact about the legislative
district
> > caucus. I'm the one that was chosen as an alternate for my precinct
> because
> > most of the folks had left and they had to start calling down the list
to
> > get delegates for Obama, even though I voted for Gravel...
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Debbie