14th Ward Obama Delegate

Oh, so this crazy thing happened and I'm somehow a small part of this historical election. On February 28, Missouri held its caucuses. I read this online, and never having been to a single ward or neighborhood association meeting since moving to my new 'hood 18 months ago, I thought what the heck? I'll go to the caucus.
I didn't understand the process fully, I STILL don't understand it but this was the Democratic Caucus for my ward. This meant that all the attendees got a chance to vote for their choice of Dem candidate by physically standing up for them and being counted. Edwards dropped out just before this, so at the meeting we could choose to caucus for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. I suppose someone could have caucused for Edwards or anyone else or even "undecided" but no one did. We signed in to the meeting, said the pledge of allegiance, and then the Caucus Chair announced that Clinton supporters should go to one corner of the room and Obama folks to the other. The count was 12 for Clinton, 5 for Obama. This is surprising in some ways, given that Obama won my state and was heavily favored in my city, but not as surprising given that the demographic at the meeting appears superficially to be the types that Clinton attracts- white, working class, women.

From each caucus group, we had to elect one delegate and one alternate to represent our ward at the Congressional District meeting on March 17. We had to have one male and one female delegate, and one alternate of each gender also. The Obama group was all women, therefore we got to pick the 2 female spots and the Clinton crew got the 2 male spots. Four of the five of us were interested in being the delegate, so we went around our small circle and gave a short speech about why we wanted to be the delegate. By secret ballot, I was elected with two votes. TWO! Big support.

The Congressional District meeting was far different. Loud, crowded, chaotic and lubricated with beer. These meetings are all held in union halls and I suppose beer runs through these halls like the hallowed tradition of organized labor.
Lovely. I enjoy beer.

I had read up on the delegate process since being elected, but still understood minimally what was to happen. What I came to learn was that of that massive group of Obama supporters at the Congressional Meeting, we were electing 2 delegates to go to the NATIONAL convention in Denver. The big kahuna- oh, and two alternates as well. The Clinton supporters were also their to elect their delegates and the room was huge and unpartitioned, so as each group attempted to hear 1 minute speeches from our candidates, the other's group was doing the same thing. So confusing. Thank God for beer.

I did not run, as apparently there was paperwork that had to be navigated before one could declare oneself a candidate for the national convention. I would not have even known who to ask for that paperwork. We elected 2 young people, which thrills me to no end! A number of people running were middle aged elected people touting "35 years of experience" and dropping names left and right. I'm sure those folks have their place in this process, but to me a delegate represents their ward, district, and state and the vast majority of us are NEVER elected to anything and don't have names to drop. A young Wash U student who reminded me of a shorter, perkier version of Jeff Smith (imagine such a thing!!) who waged a serious campaign was our male delegate and an alderwoman who was elected at the ripe old age of 26 (and who now can't be a day over 28) was our female delegate. Our alternates came from Jefferson County. The voting bloc from JeffCo was unstoppable.

Next up is the State Democratic Convention, and all elected delegates (read: me) are eligible to attend and either run for a MO national delegate position, vote on who will be the national delegates, or both.
I wanted all my options open, so I called a number of people this time to see what paperwork I might need in order to keep myself eligible for whatever I chose to do. I was told my paperwork was in.

So this week is the convention! May 10, and I have been deluged with letters of requests for my support. Most of them are men, all white, and again most are elected to various offices. A handful have been regular, unelected Joes and I do believe two regular Janes are among the paper pushers. I've gotten two calls and one e-mail, one personally written poem, and a number of photos of people who want my vote. Only one is a person of color, and I am certain we have to elect a percentage of minority delegates that is consistent with the racial makeup of MO. We also have a choose at least 1 gay delegate, perhaps two. This might be tricky given that no one has an official Gay ID card, but I have gotten a letter from one guy claiming to be gay and running for delegate. I think I'll have to take his word for it. Of course my vote is already leaning towards him, based purely on his coming out to a bunch of strangers in the first line of a mass-mailed letter. Kudos, buddy. I don't remember his name. Hopefully he'll look like the gay guy at the convention. So kidding.

I may run. I may not. If I feel good about the people representing MO, I will not. I felt well represented by the delegates we elected at the congressional meeting so I have no reason to think we'll be picking all elected white middle aged namedroppers at this next meeting.

I've never been to a Democratic Convention, either- state or national. It will be an experience I think. If I run and win, I'll be headed to Denver in August for the Democratic National Convention and I'll be a delegate for Barack Obama, the presumed candidate for President.

I'm really, really excited about the chance to do that, but also just plain excited about his candidacy. The process has been confusing, but somehow I'm still a tiny part of history. Yes, we can.