Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

LIVE Inside the Washington Caucuses: It looks like a massive rout for Barack Obama

The precinct caucuses are just wrapping up here on Education Hill in Redmond. Volunteers from the 45th District Democrats are putting away tables and chairs, paperwork is being collected, and equipment packed up.

If my precinct is any indication, this will be a massive rout for Barack Obama.

The final allocation in my precinct was one hundred Democrats signed in support of Obama, twenty for Clinton, and five uncommitted. No one signed in for any other candidate. (Other precincts at this area location are reporting similar percentages).

The best Clinton did in any of the precincts tallied so far here is a third.

In our precinct, we elected seven delegates to the legislative district caucus for Barack Obama and one for Hillary Clinton.

I have been hearing from friends that the margin for victory in Barack is other precincts is also very significant.

It was easy to imagine that turnout would be high. But envisioning it on a human level is much, much different. And that's the problem we ran up against today.

The state party is going to have to radically simplify and improve its process if future caucuses are to be run more smoothly.

Comments:

Blogger knoll said...

Here in Madrona (central district edge, not gold coast) we had 98 votes for Obama and 16 for Clinton. Expected Obama victory, but amazing spread. I voted Obama, but am an equally strong Clinton supporter. I'll be very happy however it turns out.

February 9, 2008 3:38 PM  
Blogger Leland Bryant Ross said...

I went to my caucus in Seattle's marginalized Eastlake neighborhood as one of the marginalized, to wit, a Gravel caucuser, the only one in my precinct; I switched to Obama before the delegate election. In our precinct our five delegates split 4 for Obama to one for Clinton; the actual sign-in at the vote was 84 Obama, 19 Clinton, three undecided. And from what I just saw on FoxNews (yikes!) it was the same story in the Palouse and in Lewis County. It sounds wonderful. All these kids finally get their chance to vote for John Kennedy! ;-)

February 9, 2008 3:45 PM  
Blogger Ian said...

I just got back from the caucus on Bel-Red road, and it does look like it's going to be Obama all the way. In my precinct, it was 70% Obama, 30% Clinton. Friends of mine in two other precincts say it went 4 to 0 Obama and 4 to 1 Obama. Lets hope this trend continues throughout the state!

February 9, 2008 3:48 PM  
Blogger Klackity said...

Kirkland here. The community hall they booked for my precinct and its neighbors was also too small to hold everyone. They ended up having to move some of the precincts to another location. Enthusiasm on the Democratic side is extremely high this year.

In our precinct, Obama won over Hillary 3 to 1. Other precincts in the hall voted similarly.

February 9, 2008 3:50 PM  
Blogger Barb Levy said...

I'm in the 36th district, and my precinct had 112 votes, which led to 7 delegates for Obama and 2 for Clinton. I look forward to being a delegate for Obama for my district on April 5th!

February 9, 2008 3:56 PM  
Blogger jj said...

In West Seattle's 34th District, my precinct delegates went Barack = 3 Clinton = 1 (28 votes Obama, 8 votes Hillary, 2 Kucinich).

I asked several people how their precinct went. My unofficial count of 4 precincts (including mine) was 17-6 Obama over Clinton.

February 9, 2008 4:08 PM  
Blogger Ben Straley said...

At my precinct in Wallingford, it was 70 for Obama and 10 for Clinton. Obama gets 6 delegates and Clinton 1. The other precincts meeting at Hamilton Middle School ran about the same percentages. Turnout was ginormous.

February 9, 2008 4:53 PM  
Blogger Marqos said...

Lacey/Olympia area here, specifically Lacey, in my case.

Our location had three precincts meeting with right around 65-70 dems per precinct. The ratios were about the same for each of the three precincts, a little less than 60-40 Obama.

Of the 15 delegates we awarded, two of the precincts split evenly, and the one 5-delegate precinct went 3-2 Obama. Altogether 8-7 Obama in terms of delegates.

It should be noted that this took place in a 'retirement community', I guess you'd call it, and the vast, vast majority of dems in attendance were over 60. (My wife was easily the youngest person in the room, and she's 35. I was probably in the youngest 4 or 5 and I clock in at 42.)

Also, it should be noted that unlike reports from other states I've seen on these here internets, there was no bickering, no squabbling, no backstabbing, and only a wee little bit of blathering.

My sense is that most dem voters like both of these candidates very much, and that preferences are nowhere as extreme or well defined as it sometimes seems if you spend a lot of time online.

What else did I take away from this year's caucus? Huge, huge, huge numbers of voters absolutely cannot wait to be rid of Bush and the GOP. WE CANNOT WAIT!

Yeah!

February 9, 2008 4:56 PM  
Blogger Jason Waskey said...

Beautiful, diverse, Beacon Hill: precinct 1390.

We had 132 votes: if memory serves, it was 116 Obama, 15 Clinton, 1 undecided.

Final delegate apportionment was 7 for Obama, 1 Clinton.

Busy, loud, and noisy, it took an extra 45 minutes to begin he tally.

February 9, 2008 5:51 PM  

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