Washington State Caucus

Those of you who are political junkies (or those who aren't but curious anyway) may wonder how the caucus process works. Well, a friend in Washington state recently emailed about the Washington GOP caucus. He agreed to let me pass on his experience (some editing was done to protect the innocent).

Caucuses (caucii?), I don’t know, I’m kinda’ torn between primaries and the caucuses. There’s good and bad in both. Yes, with a caucus, there is considerably less financial involvement. If you weren’t paying attention, the average person had no idea there was even a caucus here last Saturday. I saw one TV ad (for Paul). I did get numerous phone calls from Romney urging me to attend. In the days leading up to the caucus, Romney, Gingrich and Paul showed up. Don’t know about Santorum.

Yes, it’s a great grass roots kinda thing. You get together with your neighbors on a precinct level. There’s about 600 voters in a precinct here, normal turnout for caucus from my precinct is 5-7 people. The local precinct captain picks the location, it can be in his home. Went to one of those back in ’88. All of ‘em since have been in a school cafeteria with dozen or so other precincts. While I missed the ’04 ( I mean, why bother), I’ve been to all the others. Generally, pretty boring.

During the first hour, you discuss what should be in the platform, so really it’s an hour wasted on arguing about abortion. At a specified time, generally 60-90 minutes after the start time, you get to vote for delegates to the county convention. Most years, anybody, regardless of who they want for president, who promises to go to the county convention gets picked as a delegate. We’re a big precinct, so we get two delegates.

A couple of months later, you get to go the county convention. Bunch of speakers, hours spent arguing over abortion and then finally you get to vote for this slate of delegates or that slate of delegates to go to the state convention. I’ve been to a 3-4 county conventions, but never been to a state convention. At the state convention, held a month or so later, they pick the 43 lucky bastards who get to go the national convention.

Only thing different about this year, was that as you signed in, there was a spot where you vote in a straw poll who you were supporting for president. And that’s the number the news reported later in the day. Who knows the number of delegates everybody got. Probably the same percentages. But the numbers aren’t really going to matter by the time the state convention gets around to selecting delegates.

Honestly, I much prefer the primaries, but maybe without the TV ads. Once it’s over, it’s over. And everybody knows how many delegates everyone won.

Who did I vote for? I didn’t. I never got in. Another downside to the caucus. It’s my own damn fault. The doors opened at 9:00 AM, proceedings started at 10:00. I got there at 9:30, in plenty of time. Or so I thought. Never ever had lines before. Never had all those people show up.

However, had I gotten in and gotten to vote, I would have voted for Romney. Now, I expect the rest of can handle that, but James, I know that won’t sit well with you. Sorry about that, but that’s the way it is. Santorum’s a religious nut case. Gingrich (whom I’ve always admired) just has too many things wrong with him. While I like half of what Paul says, he’s off the deep end. And the bottom line here, none of those three are going to beat Obama. Romney has a chance.