I Go Caucusing

On February 5, "Super Tuesday" of the primary season, Californians and voters from 21 other states voted for their favorite candidates. The voting actually was to determine how many delegates each candidate would get. We hear the delegate numbers tossed around, 1600 and some for Obama, 1500 and some for Clinton, and rarely stop to think about who these people might be. Most of us probably presume they are party bigwigs with a lot of high-level connections. On Sunday, April 13 the delegates themselves were chosen in caucuses across the Golden State. I went to one of those caucuses to pick the Obama delegate from the state's 21st Congressional District, an area that includes Tulare County and part of Fresno County.

The caucus was held in the auditorium of the Visalia Senior Center. I went with my wife and five other friends. The site was marked by nothing more than a bunch of balloons floating above a hand-lettered sign reading, "Obama Caucus" outside the door. We came in right behind a woman walking in with five kids ranging in age from about 5 to maybe 13. Folding chairs were set up inside. There were two tables for signing in. One had a sheet of paper taped to the front that said "Tulare County" and the other "Fresno County." We printed our names and addresses and signed our names. The poll sitter handed us a slip of paper, printed this time, or photocopied, it would be more accurate to say, reading "Ballot Claim."

We took our Ballot Claims to another table where a woman took the claim and handed over a ballot. We were told we could mark it right away and go turn it in at the ballot box table or wait to hear the speeches. A few people marked their ballots and left but most stood or sat visiting and waiting for the speeches. The doors had opened at 2:00 and would close at 3:00. Then would come the speeches from the hopefuls. I counted 46 voting-age folks in the hall at 3:00 when it was time for the festivities to begin.

There were five women on the ballot and three of them were there in person. According to Democratic Party rules mandating gender balance, it has been determined that the Obama delegate from the 21st would be a female. Hillary Clinton, who had won the district, would get three delegates at another caucus meeting up the road in the little town of Kingsburg.

So at 3:10 Ricardo, the caucus leader, got up to explain the rules. He answered questions patiently, considering the same questions were asked by different people about three times. He made a point to give his view that no matter how things came out in the nomination, it was important for all Democrats to join together in November and vote for the party's nominee. He got warm applause for that. Then the three delegate candidates spoke in turn, each for about two minutes. None of them were prominent people, but all had put in a lot of work for the Obama campaign.

The first, a 60-year old woman, said the first time she had gotten excited about a candidate was John F. Kennedy in 1960. She had not been involved in a campaign since, but Obama rekindled in her the same sense of hope and vision that had drawn her to JFK. She had been making 100 phone calls a day for Obama. The second was a 25 year-old student who had been going door to door for Obama for weeks on end. The third was a 27 year-old army vet and mom who had served as an Obama precinct captain, scheduling the volunteers and getting out the vote on election day. "Don't worry," she told the audience, "I will be 120 percent for Barack at the convention."

They finished, the votes were cast, and everyone gathered around to see the ballot box opened and hear Ricardo call out each vote. Pam, the first speaker, got 41 votes. The others got 12 and 6. Three votes were split between the two other candidates who hadn't shown up. Democracy was done, Pam was the landslide winner, and everyone came by to congratulate her. She'll be going to Denver at the end of the summer. Then my friends and I went to Marie Callender's for some pie.

What a simple and unpretentious exercise of the democratic principle we had just taken part in. It was really something that 41 votes was all it had taken to choose a representative from an entire Congressional District to go elect a nominee for President of the United States. It was a good day to be an American.