caucus craziness
by Jeremy P. Jacobs
Published: March 14, 2008
So far this election season, I have not been one to criticize the system. From Iowa and New Hampshire’s early placement in the primary calendar, to the esoteric allocation of delegates in Democratic caucuses, to, most recently, the tremendous amount of power the superdelegates will wield at the Democratic convention, columnists, pundits and voters have made their objections to the Democratic Party’s modus operandi well known.
BUT after talking to a friend of mine, I think it is worth taking a moment to reflect on Texas’ “primacaucus” system. Looking back on the primacaucus and talking to an old friend of mine about his experience, I understand why Sen. Hillary would say, regarding the system, “We have grown men crying over it.” It needs to be reformed.
My friend returned early from a two-month trip abroad so he could vote in the Texas primary and caucus. He cast his vote in the primary and headed to a caucus that was held in a church in his neighborhood and scheduled to begin at 7:15 in the evening. The scene at the church was pandemonium. There were 82 caucus members there, more than expected. The process dragged on for two hours as the caucus workers, presumably members of the Texas Democratic Party, struggled to get a handle on what was happening. Arguments kept breaking out between the Obama supporters and Clinton supporters and when the caucus goers finally chose a side, the worst possible outcome emerged: 41 on the Clinton side, 40 on the Obama side and one undecided.
The Clinton workers pleaded with the undecided voter to stay neutral or swing to their side, but the Obama camp had the easier argument: if he joined their side, the delegates from that precinct would be split, an attractive offer to someone who clearly couldn’t decide which candidate he?she supports. The undecided voter eventually saw the reasoning in this and made his way to the Obama side of the room.
Everything looked to be settled until the caucus workers realized that the precinct carries 11 delegates, so an even split was impossible. This, of course, made the previously undecided voter the center of attention for Team Clinton once again. The voter stuck with Obama, though, and the precinct chair phoned the county chair to relay the results.
So how was that last delegate assigned? Coin flip. That’s right, a coin flip. And Obama won.
Maybe I shouldn’t be quite so proud of Texas after all. The final results of the caucus are not going to be released until March 29 (!), according to the Associated Press. It appears that the Texas Democratic Party was overwhelmed by the number of voters that showed up to caucus (over a million) and how close the caucuses were in each precinct. My friend’s story took place in one of the 8,247 that held caucus on March 4. For the record, at this point Obama leads Clinton 56 to 44 percent, with 41 percent of the precincts reported. By the Associated Press’ count, Obama has won at least 31 delegates and Clinton at least 27 from the caucuses.
Oh and by the way, my friend was returning from Cuba to take part in the caucus. His return to American Democracy, he noted, wasn’t as impressive as he was anticipating.
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