State Democratic caucuses likely to get personal

By Beth Kaiman
Seattle Times staff reporter

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Related stories It's about beating Bush, Dems say

Sure, Beverly Marcus has voted before.

"Always," she says. But by secret ballot, with the curtain drawn or at least with a low dividing wall that let her choose her leaders with a little privacy.

On Feb. 7, though, Marcus and thousands of other Democrats in Washington state are planning to attend their first caucus, a process that throws privacy out the window and forces participants to pick a presidential candidate — maybe even argue or horse-trade votes for him — perhaps in front of family, friends and neighbors with whom they had sworn never to talk politics.

Party caucuses are not new to the state, but this year, at more than 550 locations statewide, they're expected to draw bigger-than-usual crowds.

Democratic officials said several factors are combining to attract interest from more than just party regulars: cancellation of the state's presidential primary, an earlier-than-usual caucus date and a competitive contest for the nomination, highlighted by last week's upset in the Iowa caucus.

Another motivator, said Jean Brooks, chairwoman of the Pierce County Democratic Party, is many Democrats' anger over Bush administration policies.

"It will bring them out," she said, and mitigate any uneasiness about voting at a caucus hall instead of in a voting booth.

The caucuses, said Greg Rodriguez, chairman of the party in King County, may be unfamiliar to voters who in previous presidential-election years thought their voices were being heard as they cast ballots in the primary.

Democratic Party officials, though, did not take primary results into account when apportioning delegates for the national party convention, even though, for example, more than 1 million people took part in the 2000 primary, while about 20,000 attended caucuses that year.

Casting a primary ballot may have felt empowering, but the contest served only as a kind of poll and perhaps as a momentum builder for a candidate. Last year, 14 years after the state presidential primary was established, the Legislature canceled it. Legislators said it wasn't worth the money. "It was an illusion" that is no more, said state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt.

How to find your neighborhood caucus Each of the state's 6,500 voter precincts will hold a caucus, though many will be held in the same building — say, in different classrooms at a school or college. To find the caucus for your precinct, you'll need to know your precinct number, which is on your voter-registration card. Call the county or state Democratic Party offices with your precinct number and officials can tell you the caucus location. Or go to the state party's Web site, www.wa-democrats.org, enter your precinct number and the location should pop up. If you can't find your voter-registration card, you can find out your precinct number by calling or going online with your county auditor or the state Democratic Party. The state party's number is 206-583-0664.

Said Rodriguez: "This time, the average voter really counts."

The return to precinct caucuses, though, also marks a victory for the party regulars, who have tended to dominate them.

Rodriguez is a Howard Dean supporter. So is Berendt. Dean has the biggest, most organized campaign operation in the state, and many state-party leaders signed on long ago.

Berendt said that as he works the phones to try to entice people to attend the caucus in his Olympia precinct, he hopes for a crowd. Strategically, though, he acknowledged it doesn't make sense for him to go the extra mile to bring in supporters for any candidate other than Dean.

The more supporters a candidate has at a caucus, the more delegates that candidate gets.

How the process works

Caucuses begin at 10 a.m. Participants must be registered voters and attend the caucus in their precinct.

There is no party registration in Washington, but caucus-goers will be asked to sign a sheet indicating they consider themselves Democrats.

They also will be asked to sign a sheet indicating their candidate preference, the only real difference between Washington's caucus and Iowa's, in which no such initial question about preference is posed. Caucus-goers also can remain uncommitted.

At 10:30 a.m. — latecomers will not be accommodated — participants will be asked to divide into groups according to candidate preference. If a candidate does not have support from at least 15 percent of participants, he is considered not viable and not eligible to receive delegates.

In a second round, supporters of all candidates — including those considered not viable — can move about the room, choosing to stay with their first choice or to join another group, perhaps one that needs just a few more supporters to be considered viable.

Candidates will win delegates in proportion to their amount of support at the caucus.

The 26,934 delegates chosen in this process will be winnowed down through subsequent caucuses and conventions to allot 78 of the state's 95 delegates to the national convention in Boston July 26-29. Democratic Party leaders and officeholders will make up the other 17 delegates.

The state's Republican Party caucuses March 9 will start the delegate-selection process for the party's national convention Aug. 30-Sept. 2 in New York City.

Hooked on caucuses

Javier Valdez, 33, a supporter of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's bid for the White House, has been attending caucuses since he was a 17-year-old student at Moses Lake High School. His civics teacher suggested the excursion, and he was hooked. Now he is on the executive board of the state Democratic Party.

While acknowledging that he is working to attract lots of Kerry voters to the caucuses, Valdez also said he appreciates what is old-fashioned about the meetings: People speak their piece and get heard. "It's finding out at the grass-roots level what's on people's minds," said Valdez, who lives in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood.

Beverly Marcus, 53, is happy to take part, too, but not so much for the civics lesson. It's because "the caucus is the only way I can vote for Gov. Dean," she said.

Marcus, a retired project manager from Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard who lives in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle, has supported the former Vermont governor for almost two years. She has donated money, traveled with the campaign, met Dean twice "for about 30 seconds" and adorned her lawn, garden and front porch with campaign signs.

Caucus day will be an interesting experience, she said, but "it is about winning."

Beth Kaiman: 206-464-2441 or bkaiman@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company