my thoughts on it, and tc and i were talking about this all evening, are that obama has spent a lot of money in the last 2 weeks on a boatload of radio ads here constantly. not so for hillary.
My two little disenfranchised wards here in SSP had our own caucus site at the high school. The rest of District 57 was at Park H.S. Probably 50 people there. No hoopla and no public servants. I hated it.
Those 60 people you saw at Central Square were the Republican's who live in those two wards, Kitch. That's why it was so small.
I don't like the caucus system. It doesn't allow everyone to have a voice. A 60-90 minute window to pick a presidential candidate is just not enough. It sticks around because party insiders like it. They get to be the delegates at the higher levels and get to have the most influence.
I would prefer a primary with regular voting hours. Our primary, later this year, will be a joke. The presidential race won't be in play for us, the republicans have Norm running with no opposition, and the three democrats running for senate have agreed to abide by the caucus delegate results so two of them will be out before it happens. Blech. :barf:
Damn! You have your bitch and I have mine. You can have all those SSPites you sent across the highway our way. It sounds like you had the room. We sure didn't :angry:
Yes, the traffic was horrid. There were so many people at our location, it was chaos - which is why I don't like the caucus system. See my earlier rant.
Thanks for the welcome. At least I know someone from my new district. :smile:
No, I didn't even stay around or volunteer for anything. It was a pretty gloomy caucus and the under-enthusiastic caucus chair was putting me to sleep. I doubt there were enough people in the room to fill their quota of delegates. One room, not even enough for any sub-caucuses.
Next time I'm going to picket in front of the building and cause a little excitement. Something on the sign like, "Give me back my voice", or "Where the heck are my friends and neighbors?". :cool:
One more thing. As someone who lives among the core group of people being represented by 56 officials, do you see the craziness of this district boundary? Breaking two small wards off from our community, the rest of whom are in 39, to the extent that they even have a separate caucus site for us, thus isolating us even more from the caucus process?
I'm reading over some literature I got in the mail.... by RuPaul Ron Paul
claims he is the only candidate that proposes to amend the Constitution and end birthright citizenship - ???
so my grandkids wouldn't be American? What, make everyone take a test to become American whether you were born here or not? We're grandfathered in? I suppose maybe he means if you don't have American parents already. still though.
He is listed ONCE in the pamplet as DR. Ron Paul.
I thought a person with a title uses it all the time.
Looks like he has delivered over 4000 babies .... I don't
even want to think of our next President as someone who has seen that much <edit>.
something interesting though, he claims to not participate or accept the congressional pension program. I've always heard about this but was never sure if it was a myth.
One of the main reasons that there was chaos (at least on the DFL side) is that the legislature didn't get their act together and change the law to say that Feb 5th is the official caucus date. Schools normally have to give us their spaces for free and are not allowed to hold any other events on caucus night. I can't blame the cash-strapped school districts for charging us but that resulted in us having to be very frugal and not having enough space. Parking was also a major issue. Middle schools (where a lot of caucuses were held) typically don't have much parking because no one drives to school other than the teachers. If we didn't have to worry about how much the space would have cost, we could have rented high schools or better yet community colleges. Also, the new sign in system was a fiasco, most precincts ran out of sign-in sheets, and there simply wasn't enough space in the classrooms which resulted in people spilling out into the halls and even more chaos. One gentleman at my caucus kept asking me what the fire code rules were. :sillygrin: We just weren't prepared for the turnout.
On behalf of the DFL Party, I apologize for everything that was within our control. :wink: :wink:
Ron Paul is referring to the 14th Amendment as it's being interpreted regarding the children born in the USA to illegal aliens. Your grandchildren will be American Citizens. :smile:
Duke University School of Medicine, and after his 1961 graduation and a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, he became a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, serving outside the Vietnam War zone.
All of our precincts were located in a crowded junior high lunchroom. We decided to move out into a hallway and made it work, but it wasn't the best impression to make on so many first time caucusers.
I got roped into being an associate precinct chair, what type of duties does that entail?
Being an associate chair just means that you're an alternate on the district central committee for the chair. It also means that you'll probably help run the caucus in 2010. Were you selected as a delegate?
I can't believe how close yesterday was on the Dem side. Depending on which count you look at, it appears that Obama netted 5-20 delegates yesterday. The calendar appears favorable to Obama; he is likely to win every state between now and March 4th with the possible exception of Maine (though he could very will win there too). Washington might be close too but since it's a caucus state one would think Obama would have the edge there. The question is that will he gain enough delegates in the next month to cushion the blow that Texas will most likely provide, and also can he compete in Ohio? It will definitely be an interesting few weeks.
No, about the legislature and what the effect was on the caucuses. Republican caucuses were also held at places with evening activities and limited parking.
Same with me Terry, I said forget it! I didn't want to have to illegally park 4 blocks away and then walk in late I showed up at like ten to 8 not realizing it was going ot be a zoo
Right but republicans didn't have anywhere near the turnout we did. If we had the same number turn out that they did we wouldn't have had any problems either.
"-- The executive director of the DFL didn't get a chance to vote because the lines were too long and he had to get to work.
-- Other caucus sites ran out of printed ballots and turned to blank sheets of paper to allow attendees to vote.
-- Confirmed attendance of more than 190,000 shattered the previous record turnout of about 80,000 set in 1968 or 1972. This year will end Democrats' argument about which of those years was bigger."
This from an interesting article in this morning's PP, that addresses the large turnout.
Make some noise and get noticed at the district convention and you stand a good chance of being elected to the state convention. Try to find a sub-caucus that isn't loaded with familiar political activists and party people, because they'll get the first nod. But they love to get younger voters involved too.
And I'm assuming she lost more votes than Obama because Hillary had the 'older' voting public who understand the meaning of wasted time. The younger supporters probably thought the big turnout was normal and went through the motions.
Hey Kitch - got your VM from last night. You said that you were able to get in and out OK but seen how fast traffic was backing up on your way out. What time did you go? I wonder if most problems were from 7:30-8?
I don't know how you can plan accordingly when the turn out is 3x the previous record. There is no way to know how many will show up on a given caucus night - hence one of the problems with caucuses. After last night, I hate them more than I did last week.
I think they should base turnout on how effed up the current president is screwing up the country. Did you notice the year(s) of the past attendance records? There ya go. :wink:
Those 60 people you saw at Central Square were the Republican's who live in those two wards, Kitch. That's why it was so small.
I would prefer a primary with regular voting hours. Our primary, later this year, will be a joke. The presidential race won't be in play for us, the republicans have Norm running with no opposition, and the three democrats running for senate have agreed to abide by the caucus delegate results so two of them will be out before it happens. Blech. :barf:
Mr. C. Master
like a comedy or fun snl skit
first I read it as if there were 2 people there ...the second time around I read it as if only 4 people showed up at his caucus location-- hahaha like
glad to see you all getting out and taking active rolls.
200k show'd up for the dem's
and
80k show'd up for the GOP
somebody has their #'s way off...
Welcome to district 57 though!
Are you going to the senate district caucus? If so, I'll see you there. We can subcaucus undecided/more medallion hunts!
http://caucusresults.sos.state.mn.us/ResultsPreferentialBallot.aspx?ElectionID=1&PartyID=-1&ID=7
I really wonder how many tried to go but got frustrated and never show'd up...
that looked interesting..
No, I didn't even stay around or volunteer for anything. It was a pretty gloomy caucus and the under-enthusiastic caucus chair was putting me to sleep. I doubt there were enough people in the room to fill their quota of delegates. One room, not even enough for any sub-caucuses.
Next time I'm going to picket in front of the building and cause a little excitement. Something on the sign like, "Give me back my voice", or "Where the heck are my friends and neighbors?". :cool:
One more thing. As someone who lives among the core group of people being represented by 56 officials, do you see the craziness of this district boundary? Breaking two small wards off from our community, the rest of whom are in 39, to the extent that they even have a separate caucus site for us, thus isolating us even more from the caucus process?
RuPaulRon Paulclaims he is the only candidate that proposes to amend the Constitution and end birthright citizenship - ???
so my grandkids wouldn't be American? What, make everyone take a test to become American whether you were born here or not? We're grandfathered in? I suppose maybe he means if you don't have American parents already. still though.
He is listed ONCE in the pamplet as DR. Ron Paul.
I thought a person with a title uses it all the time.
Looks like he has delivered over 4000 babies .... I don't
even want to think of our next President as someone who has seen that much <edit>.
something interesting though, he claims to not participate or accept the congressional pension program. I've always heard about this but was never sure if it was a myth.
On behalf of the DFL Party, I apologize for everything that was within our control. :wink: :wink:
All of our precincts were located in a crowded junior high lunchroom. We decided to move out into a hallway and made it work, but it wasn't the best impression to make on so many first time caucusers.
I got roped into being an associate precinct chair, what type of duties does that entail?
to a presidential primary -- while keeping the caucuses for other races and
for party governance -- is worth talking about. I encourage you to contact
your legislators with your views, since only the Legislature can establish a
primary.
BRM
Brian Melendez, Chair,
 Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
brian.melendez@usa.net
Perhaps you are to make yourself available for people to sit on you if they run out of places to sit.
that is if the other 1,321,483 die suddenly.
whew...I was worried...Tim having Power scares me
You want Hillbilly?
Try this
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-- Other caucus sites ran out of printed ballots and turned to blank sheets of paper to allow attendees to vote.
-- Confirmed attendance of more than 190,000 shattered the previous record turnout of about 80,000 set in 1968 or 1972. This year will end Democrats' argument about which of those years was bigger."
This from an interesting article in this morning's PP, that addresses the large turnout.
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_8179834
I'm going to do my best to go to State but I'm not too stressed about it.
And I'm assuming she lost more votes than Obama because Hillary had the 'older' voting public who understand the meaning of wasted time. The younger supporters probably thought the big turnout was normal and went through the motions.
Hey Kitch - got your VM from last night. You said that you were able to get in and out OK but seen how fast traffic was backing up on your way out. What time did you go? I wonder if most problems were from 7:30-8?
drove down the road...didn't want to walk 12 blocks...so went home...
Low approval rating = high voter turnout
bumper sticker you cant see over the dash let alone see over the steering wheel how did you see that!!!