The craziest caucus Wyoming's ever seen (in a good sort of way)

In the past, caucuses for Wyoming MN were pretty mundane. We had about 14 people show up, we discussed the resolutions, then we (almost) all signed up to be delegates, closed up shop, and waited for the real thing. (That is, for the countywide meeting, where the really important stuff happened.)
This Tuesday Evening was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. As my Mom and I walked in, shortly after 6, we already had more people sitting in the room than we have ever seen at a caucus before, including ourselves. As we proceeded to organize our papers and thoughts, the room slowly filled as we pulled out more and more tables. We ran out of ballots and so were forced to improvise by taking a scissors to a thick pile of plank paper.
The straw pole commenced as my Mom and chairman Montzka tried to get the proceedings under control and under way.
The results were astounding; as the township residents left for their separate caucus, the results came in.
Rom. 68
Mc. 37
Huck.27
Paul 7
Taylor 2
(And, because of some confusion over the procedure, we had three votes for local candidates hoping to be endorsed by the party. We had two mayors vying for endorsement for the same seat, one from Chisago, the other, from Wyoming herself. We allowed them to make their speeches early, for, you see, our current mayor, for charity fundraising reasons, was obligated to return to a tent on a roof after making his short speech.)
It was incredible. There were ten times the number of people we usually have. One Hundred and forty sat in that room, supporting the Republican Party… Or, rather, supporting what they believed the Republican Party needed to see, to hear, to know and to do.
Most came for one reason and one reason only: They wanted to stop our party from walking down the left-ward road the candidates seem to have taken.
After we broke up into two groups, the city and the township of Wyoming, we proceeded to explain to these newcomers what the duty and opportunity of the delegate is.
We filled every single slot we were allotted and then some.
These people, along with the long time, hard working conservatives, will join me at the county level, to discuss resolutions and help decide who moves to the next level… and who out party will endorse.
We will choose whether we think that the candidates will follow the platform.
The people from the city didn’t bother with resolutions… what’s the use of resolutions when the candidates will ignore what they claim to stand for? Though the township had the pressing matter of the annexation issue to grapple with, most of the newcomers are interested more in finding a way to support those candidates who will follow the platform than in changing it.
What’s the use of changing the platform for the city, county, state, or anything else if they don’t bother to follow it?
This turnout is, still, a great thing. It may have been caused by a problem, but we may finally have stepped toward a solution. Finally, people are getting up and doing something instead of sitting back and complaining. For that, I suppose I have to thank those such as Jason Lewis and other talk show hosts who exhorted people to get out and come to caucuses.
I don’t care if you don’t like politics, or if you think there’s nothing you can do to change it all. If you care, then get up, get to caucuses, find the people you know and trust, then elect them. If not for a local office, then elect them to go and support the right candidate at the next level, to be one more vote in the right direction toward endorsing the people who you think really should be there.

It’s not the system that’s the problem, or the “republican party.”
It’s the fact that normal people who care enough to refuse to vote don’t bother to get up and try to fix it. True, “just one person” doesn’t seem to make a difference. But for every person who made the commitment to serve as a delegate, that’s one more vote against a bad candidate, against a bad proposal, and one more vote for the right ones.
When we sit back and grumble, those willing to work get what they want at our expense.
But when we get up and do our duty and take the reigns, they have to listen. Or else they’ll never make it into office.
And that’s the way I believe it should be.

American Pie

American Pie
By: M. Austen Gilbertson
“Lino Lakes Prescient 3 room 112”, a tall well dressed man said. As a migrant bird instinctually follows the same annual path I know my way to room 112. My caucus was held at my old high school, and I knew what would be in that room, and I was excited. “Welcome to Mrs. Johnson’s Foods and Nutrition Classroom” the same sign read from years ago. The final project in Mrs. Johnson’s Foods 2 class was to make an apple pie. My scenery recall went off; I could hear the apple peelers squeaking as they were turned removing the green skin of so many apples. I could smell the rich sent of baking cinnamon and, and could feel the warmth of 12 ovens set for 425 degrees. I sat there and thought, how perfect! What could be the only thing more American then participating in the electoral process? Apple Pie.

Unlike the always satisfying feeling of eating a well baked pie my caucus experience was more like eating bakers chocolate, more bitter then sweet. Driving this apple pie analogy into the ground lets us pair each steep with an ingredient.

First, the flour, we will call this the parking lot; important and a must have, but always messy, like an over filled, icy parking lot.

The next ingredient is the shortening. This I relate to lots of people. It has it advantages like knowing that this means people are getting involved, but bad because of high fat content.

The water in a pie is something that goes unnoticed. Not many people know it is even there. This would be the volunteers. With out them the crust (or the event) would fall apart.

The egg, the binder the one that holds the thing together, this would be the politicians. Without them, ranting and encouraging, and throwing themselves at you, you just would not know how or what to think.

Cinnamon is bitter and that is how I felt about the unsecure process of the Caucus. Simply sighing a legal pad to show you are who you say you are, filling out hand written ballots, placing my ballot in an over full envelope hanging on the wall. Seems like a lot of faith in out moralistic political culture if you ask me.

So is there any thing that stands alone as good?

Well, I can’t complain about apples so that will be the hordes young people being civically responsible. The halls were filled with 08 letter jackets and ears with little white wires growing out of them.

Let’s not forget the sugar, I guess that could represent the sweet feeling of accomplishment that goes with knowing that I made a difference in my county. That I said, “Hey, I think we need some changes, this is what they are, and I think you are the right person to do them”.

So what have we learned?

Individually some things are bad, they are down right nasty. But put them together and you have something sweet. American Pie!

Hands-On Politics: My First Caucus

I attended my precinct (New Brighton-1) MN-DFL caucus on February 5th, 2008 so I could learn more about the political process. This account is an assignment for my Online Media course at Anoka-Ramsey Community College under the instruction of Richard Broderick.

At a little after 6 pm on February 5th my car pulled into the Mounds View High School parking lot. It was already near capacity, and the lobby of the high school was bustling with people trying to find their precinct meeting location. New Brighton (my city) had all four of our precincts meeting in the school's auditorium.

There was a short line outside of the auditorium at this point, so I was able to sign in quickly. A little later, the auditorium began to sound like an auction, but with a dozen announcers. Our precinct began to cast presidential preference ballots so those who did not want to deal with other party business could go home.

When my precinct began to move through the agenda, we did not have a chair at the caucus that night, so we elected a temporary one first. We also elected a chair to serve a two-year term, as well as two associate chairs to back him up. We went over the process of caucusing, presidential preference ballots, and we began to talk about delegates. Our precinct was allowed to send 56 delegates to the next level, so we decided to send around a sign up sheet with an alternate ‘option’ to cut people out if more than 56 people signed up.

While we were signing up, Rep. Kate Knuth talked to us about the historic turn out. Also, Senator Satveer Chaudhary spoke, thanking those who turned out for the caucus that evening for their participation.

One of those resolutions I would like to see advance is one that I wrote. Being aware of the rising cost of tuition for students within the public higher education system in Minnesota, I was able to have my precinct encourage the our state to better fund public higher education. My resolution is vague, but I hope it will be integrated with and strengthened by other public higher education resolutions from around the state.

This entry will close with some numbers I collected:

• My precinct passed 23 resolutions.
• My precinct was able to fill all 59 delegate spots to the Senate District 50 DFL Meeting on the 8th of March.
• Our precinct chose Obama over Clinton nearly 2:1 in presidential preference ballots.
• The last time my precinct caucused, there were 69 people.
• We projected around 100 to 120 people from my precinct to attend this caucus.
• There were 327 people signed up in my precinct at the 2008 caucus.

This contribution is a shortend version of my full account, which can be found here.

St. Paul -- Ward 4 -- Precinct 4

We arrived early, and found a line to get in that went down to the corner and wrapped around the block.

The college students behind us talk about Clinton and Obama. One of the trio is still undecided, heading into the caucus. Another says that the Germans are calling Obama "Schwarze Kennedy" -- the black Kennedy. That switches the conversation, briefly, into German. Then he tells about being in Costa Rica at the time of the Iowa caucuses and how excited people there were about Obama's victory, and how excited he was that "my lily-white home state" had given Obama a victory.

They agree, though, that opposition to Clinton includes a lot of people opposed to her because she is a woman. Her opponents would not make the same criticisms of a man. No argument there.

After standing in the line for 15 minutes, we get to the front -- I look back and the line behind us still wraps around the block. I've never seen such a turnout. Not even in 2004.

Politics in the Precincts

This blog is open to Minnesotans who want to reflect about the political process and -- more importantly -- their participation in the political process. By posting in this blog, you give permission for the Twin Cities Daily Planet and its media partners to re-publish your blog post.

We extend a special invitation to first-time voters to reflect on their experience throughout the year. Here are some starter questions:

As a new voter, what are some of your concerns about the political process?

What do you think about the campaigns in progress?

Are you going to attend a precinct caucus? Why? What do you expect of a precinct caucus?