The Nebraska Caucus (Candidate Neutral)

OmahaBlueDog

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Sat Feb-09-08 01:21 PM
Original message

The Nebraska Caucus (Candidate Neutral)

Edited on Sat Feb-09-08 01:27 PM by OmahaBlueDog

I just got back from the Nebraska Caucus. I caucused in a Steamfitters local on the west side of Omaha. Turnout was good and we were all shocked to see this many Dems in Omaha.

I'm not posting this to indicate who I thought won, but I did want to share some observations. Apparently, this is the first time the caucus process has been used in Nebraska. If we eventually decide to have caucuses in Michigan and Florida, I would urge them to do two things. First, try to have the caucus on a Saturday; no matter which day you choose, it will be bound to disenfranchise someone who can't attend because they work, have prior commitments, are out of town , etc. Second, get venues that hold twice as many people and have twice as much parking as you possibly expect. The Union hall we used was in an industrial neighborhood. There were a lot of closed businesses, but some were open (and doubtless some were Republicans) and got snarky about allowing parking.

If we have caucuses in Florida and Michigan, the attendees should expect chaos. In Nebraska, the rules were apparently allowing "Democrat for a day" registration, so GOP and Indy voters participate, which I'm not thrilled about. I was also shocked that the roll checkers did not check IDs; I could have brought any woman over 18 and had her state she was my wife and no one would have been wiser. We were all given blue ballots, which some roll checkers filled out with reg # and precinct, but others did not. There was a blank space that said "Presidential Preference"; some put the name of their preferred candidate, while others (apparently misunderstanding) put down "Democrat". Once enrolled, we went to rooms (more or less randomly). Once in the rooms, it was like a middle school dance. Obama supporters on one side, Clinton on the other, and undecideds in the middle. At the start, the room picked a chairman to preside, and then each side selects a spokes person to talk up their candidate to the room for a minute and a half; you've met these people for 30 seconds, and now you have to choose one to be "preference leader" and speak, and then after speaking, try to sell your candidate to the undecided. This went on for two rounds, and (after some confusion about how many people were actually in the room). Then we turned in our blue slips to the "preference leaders." At the end, they passed a hat (literally) and took a collection to help defray expenses. All told, it was about 1 1/2 hours.

If we do this in Florida and Michigan, I have advice for supporters of both candidates:
1. Before you go, brush up on your candidates basic talking points and strengths. You may just end up having to talk at your caucus.
2. Go early.
3. Take the time and learn where you are supposed to caucus, and realize that (most likely) it will not be the place where you usually vote. Actually look it up! I got a robot call from the party, and if I'd listened to it, I would have gone to the wrong caucus location.
4. To point #1; if you are the local organizer for your candidate, try to train a cadre of speakers to speak for 1.5 minutes on behalf of your candidate, and tell them to volunteer when "preference leaders" are chosen.

If we do this in Florida and Michigan, I have advice for the local party:
1. As stated, get a place with a lot of parking (and I mean a lot) and capacity for 2x as many people as you expect. If your area has a dead Wal-Mart store, see if you can rent it for a day. Otherwise, a school (if you can use several rooms), a community college, etc. If you have to use a place with parking issues, make arrangements and rent or beg for a lot to use. Most of us could have easily had our cars towed if someone had had a mind to do so.

2. Send out fliers letting people know what to expect, how the process works, how to look up your location, etc.

3. Don't just tell people to pick a room. Herd people into rooms and count them as they enter. Pick a fixed number for each room (say 100) to simplify counting for the folks inside.

There was not much inter candidate sniping, and our room stayed pretty good natured. I would caution that I heard a couple having their candidate's lawn signs torched (probably kids), so we'll probably all have to brace for a long 2008.