Reply #21: And now there are seven! [View All]

[eridani]

Dear friends,

The caucus process has now closed for the state of Washington for 2004. In case you have not heard, we are proudly sending a total of 7 delegates and one alternate to the Democratic National Convention in Boston at the end of July.

Here is what happened at the State Convention yesterday:

We came in with 6 national delegates (12% of the total) and thus did not reach the required threshold of 15% of the statewide delegation to qualify for a portion of the 17 At-Large delegates that were to be voted on by the national delegates.

However, Paul Berendt, chair of the Washington State Democrats, was able nominate people for two additional At-Large positions. He nominated two fine gentlemen supporters of Dennis Kucinich to serve - Wes Hamilton and David Trotter. Wes won the ballot and was seated as a National delegate.

In addition, the Kucinich delegation was asked to elect one female alternate to the National convention. Nine wonderful women gave tremendous speeches and the voting delegation (our 7 national delegates) had a very hard time deciding how to vote. In the end, we voted and Dian Ferguson, Coordinator for the 37th LD Democrats, and very articulate, determined, hard working and knowledgeable supporter of Dennis Kucinich, was elected.

Heartfelt congratulations to these two very deserving people!

Our next task is to raise funds to get as many of these fine people, both those that were elected and those we were unable to elect in an official capacity, to Boston!

It has (and I hope will continue to be) my great honor to work with all of you - on to Boston, and well, well beyond!

Jim Mullins