Caucus Night
By: Mr. T on
February 10, 2008
Kudos to Nebraska Democratic party organizers, they pulled off a pretty exciting and very well-run event this evening. The 2nd floor of the UNL City Campus union was packed with area residents voting in the state’s first democratic caucus. They had enough people on hand at registration to whisk people through and into their voting precinct rooms, including for people who had not registered before or were – like me - switching parties to participate. My room was “4-A” – which was basically half a room cordoned off by a divider for residents of the Near South area right around the unicameral.
After reciting the pledge of allegiance and reading party rules and the night’s procedures, the room was asked to pair off into two sides. On the left (no pun intended) are Obama supporters, and there were so many that they had to stand in the back and to the left. On the right, were the HRC supporters.
And here’s the view from the front of the room. Again, Obama supporters fill the right and the back right side of the room. It was pretty full. But the student rooms down the hall – which covered UNL campus itself and the Greek houses – were packed beyond belief.
On the other side of the divider another neighborhood precinct had a smaller turnout, but the proportions were the same. Left of the aisle are the Obama supporters, and on the right the HRC folks.
It was nice to see a lot of diversity in the turnout. Here’s a hip-looking MTV-generation type guy, and another dude who looks like he came from a Journey concert. Both were there to support Obama.
Generally, it seemed like mostly a younger crowd, especially on the Obama side.
In our precinct, it was a total rout. Approximately 90+ people showed up from our neighborhood. The verdict? 71 for Obama and 20 for HRC. Apparently the caucusing in all the other rooms at UNL were pretty much the same. I heard it was basically a 70-75% win for Obama in all the caucus rooms.
The Obama supporters then voted for local delegates to represent our precinct. These four guys at the front were all running to represent Barack.
It was a historic night for Lincoln and Nebraska, and a lot of fun.
Comments
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Don’t stop Believing
Pretty darn proud to be a Nebraskan right now.
I caucased at Willard Community Center which covered areas in the West A neighborhoods. I believe my precinct ended the evening with 30 for Obama, 17 for Clinton.
Being a midwesterner, it was an odd, but satisfying feeling to discuss my political beliefs in an open forum. Politics has always been a taboo subject, but perhaps that is my smal town rearing coming into play.
I’d say it was a rout all around for Obama. Watching the news in Omaha, it looks like things were much less organized there, and they were completely slammed by how many people showed up.
Even though I am a registered R (hold your boo’s, please), I got two calls from the Obama campaign during the day yesterday, in addition to a robo-call from dear ol’ Senator Ben on Friday or so. Nothing from HRC.
I am still not convinced caucuses are a better format than primaries (and to be honest, I don’t fully understand them), but I will say that I am impressed with the number of people that turned out, and I am impressed that this race is creating some excitement about politics.
We were at the Elks club in Lincoln. Bet that place has never seen that many Dems. We were overwhelmed by how many people from Southeast Lincoln took their Saturday night and showed up to see what it was all about.
While caucusing may not be the best “election” format it was certainly the most exposure the Democratic party has had. If participation is what it is all about then it was most excellent.
Our 41 people in our precinct went 29 Obama, 9 Clinton, and 3 who remained undecided.
VERY disappointed that I couldn’t participate. I’ve been excited to caucus for quite awhile & then got sick the night before!
Grr…Hope my precinct had a good turnout!
From the pictures, the crowd looks about what I’d expect. 😊
As in the lack of older-skewing WASPs at a UNL location? Insightful observation. 😊
LOL ... that didn’t take long!
... you mean “inciteful.” 😊
I was at the Union too- about 80 people from my neighborhood, including my boss and her husband. The turnout was great, and I had a great time. I’ve never been to a caucus before, but I LOVED hearing my neighbors speak about why they thought their candidate was the best.
I’ll get pics up from my neighborhood sometime, but it was definitely an older crowd from what is pictured.
I’d like to see something similar between parties too- I think all parties would benefit from getting together and talking once in a while. I would hope it could be civilized…
I met at 6200 Adams St - very crowded, but it went pretty well. My precinct, however, didn’t provide much chance for discussion. The 20-something volunteer who ran the meeting also insisted she be the one to give the 2 minute intro talk (ignoring those of us who were saying we wanted to) and then (her back turned to us) proceeded to continue the discussion later (only belatedly recognizing people lined up behind her who wanted to say something). Then, she cut it off after only a couple of us got to say anything. When no one immediately stepped forward to volunteer as delegate alternates, she jumped in and volunteered her husband. She was an enthusiastic Obama supporter, but had a tough time letting anyone older than 30 say or do anything. I tried to say something a few times to give myself and others a chance to be involved, but got cut off or ignored. A disappointing experience.
Diane - that sucks! My group talked quite a bit, and our leader was very good. She went through the training, but did not insist that she be the one to lead the discussion. She was pretty good and alternating points of view and calling on different people to make sure lots of people had a chance to be heard.
I think we could have used another half hour or so for discussion, but I understand these things can’t go on forever.
Our caucus location (Humann Elementary School) was overwhelmed by the turnout. The location was too small and the caucus didn’t start until 6:30. With about 10 minutes of announcements, we didn’t begin in earnest until 6:40.
We had four precincts in one room and our group couldn’t hear each other speak. It was frustrating from that standpoint, because I would have liked to make a couple of points but it wasn’t worth the trouble since we couldn’t hear each other.
However, I like the concept and I hope we do it again—assuming they tweak some of the planning.
As in turnout?
I take it you mean the 2 minute “I am supporting this person because…” speech? Ugh - what a poorly run caucus.
At my precinct they ran things very well, and even though the coordinators clearly had preferences in terms of who they were supporting, they were very professional in terms of making sure that the other participants were the ones to drive the process.
Having everyone do it once will certainly be a help next time.
We started after 6 pm and wrapped up before 7. I guess our coordinator wanted to get to Cliff’s for the Obama party. She was pretty self-centered - hopefully she’ll mature.
pretty self-centered
Sounds like some of the Dem party super delegates. I’m interested in knowing to what extent they will follow the will of the party, or will just end up making decisions on their own without consideration of the popular vote.
Agree with gene, everyone at once will be better!
I’m kind of sad that not everyone had as good a time as me. I with there was some way to ensure good coordinators- ones that won’t monopolize the conversation.
I posted about my experiences as well: http://www.os-agnostic.com/2008/02/nebraska_caucuses/
I’m happy that you and others had a rewarding caucus experience. In reading about your event, and those of other precincts, I regret that my precinct had such a different experience. But it was, after all, the first time NE Dems have done this, so one can expect that there would be some slipups and some uncoordinated coordinators.
While my caucus was not really an exercise in participatory democracy, I’m glad NE had caucuses. (And as an Obama supporter, I’m happy about the results!)
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