History, politics, people of Oly WA
Never been to a precinct caucus? Unsure of what to expect?
While if I described it to you in writing it would seem complicated, in reality, your participation in a precinct caucus is pretty straight forward. This video will tell you more.
To find your precinct in Thurston County, go here.
To find your caucus location, go here.
Part 1: What to expect at your caucus
Part 2: Where the hell is my caucus?
Noemie has a very comprehensive post up at Washblog about the upcoming precinct caucuses. She rehashes for a bit the fight last year to try for a primary instead of a caucus, and puts forward some of the arguments for the caucus.
One I find troubling:
Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz has said that the caucus system encourages grassroots democracy and dialogue while the primary favors candidates who spend the most money on TV ads and teaches participants that politics is a solitary process. I agree.
Prior to this, Noemie (full disclosure: I like and admire Noemie) argues that we have to look at the caucuses in the context of our fully screwed up election system. Granted, caucuses are a lot better than much of what goes on.
But, I’d argue that caucuses (while usually a good thing) are being used cynically by the Washington State Democratic Party to:
a) drive down participation, and
b) recruit volunteers for the nine months before the election.
Yes, caucuses are great because they require and encourage active participation. But, the party is using that participation for its own use. And, after the election, the scores of jazzed, encouraged people will be dropped like a wet rag by the party because the job will be done at that point.
If the party was actually all about the participatory democracy, it would hold caucuses for every election. We hold a state primary for every other less sexy election in this state because the party would much rather have the state government pay for its winnowing down election than to have to pay for a caucus no one will show up to.
Here are some old posts from Washblog of mine arguing about caucuses and such:
Republicans were trying to make a point with primary vote
More Caucuses v. Primary
Caucus v. Primary debate keeps attention off the real problem: lack of participation
Here’s my favorite line:
But, the problem with caucuses is that very few people actually do turn out for them. On the other hand, the problem with primaries is that still very few people turn out for them. The Olympian editorial points out that while only two percent turn out for caucuses in a given year (certainly not in 2004), but 42 percent turn out for a primary. Two percent may be extremely small, but 42 percent is all that great either.
Wouldn’t it be great if instead of having to choose between really horrible turn-out and depressing turn-out, we could find a way to get more people participating?
From Bruce Lund:
Join us for the December Meeting of Drinking Liberally this Monday, December 10th, 7 pm at the Bar in the Urban Onion in downtown Olympia.
The address is 116 Legion Way SE, and is located right across the street from Sylvester Park, next door to Happy Teriyaki. Please enter the bar directly on Legion street–that way you won’t disturb the restaurant goers.
Our discussion last week a wild round robin on a variety of issues. We didn’t spend a lot of time on the topic of the evening, Presidential Leadership, and I think it still has some value, so I propose picking up again on that topic.
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Here’s an excerpt from the last email I sent you:
The topic, in tune with the upcoming primary season, will be presidential leadership. What are the qualities that you view are critical for a president to possess, and what are the qualities that would be “nice to have,” but not a deal breaker. One site you might want to visit related to this topic is Dan Mulbern’s “A conversation on Presidential Leadership” website. I’m especially impressed with a post by Robert Fritz on the site. The website is at:
http://presidential-leadership.com/
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Hope to see you Monday night. I hope you weren’t adversely affected by this past weeks weather (as I am writing this, snow is falling).
I wish you the best during this holiday season!
I’ve been poking around the PDC website for a couple of days, and now I’m going to post how much money is given to the both major state parties and the two parties in Thurston County.
All future posts in this topic will be categorized here.
For September:
State Republican Party (exempt): $41,471
State Republican Party (non-exempt) $0
Total: $41,471
Top giver, George Rowley of Rowely Enterprises in Sammamish who gave $25,000.
State Democratic Party (exempt): $4,543
State Democratic Party (non-exempt): $67,103
Total: $71,646
Top giver, Greg Amadon, a venture capitalist.
Thurston County Republicans: nada
Thurston County Democrats: $5,238.41
Top giver, lots of people, because over $4,000 came from a low cost fundraiser. I’m going to guess the burger booth.
This year we’re going to talk about doing away with the burger booth. Its a money thing, some are convinced that we put out way too much effort for what we get back.
But, we should keep it. For hundreds of reasons, but this summarizes them all. From You know you’re in Oly when………… over at Olylog:
* There is not a force in the world that can keep you from that yearly Demoburger
From the guys down at DL:
I want to invite you to a very special Drinking Liberally meeting this coming Monday, the 22nd of October at the Tumwater Valley Bar and Grill, starting at 7:00 pm. We are sorry to report that this will be the last meeting held at the TVB&G. As you may know, the establishment is closing it’s doors on October 27th. It will be a sad day for many of us who have spent many an evening there with great friends, great conversation, great service and hosts, and of course-great food and drinks.
So what happens now? Barry and I have been diligently scouting restaurants, bars and taverns throughout Olympia-Tumwater-Lacey that could potentially host us. Several suggestions have been made. One of the most common is to gather at the Fishbowl Pub in Olympia. While we love “the Fish,” all the wonderful energy there results in so much noise, it is impossible to carry on a conversation as a group. At this point, Plenty’s and the Urban Onion seem to be possibilities.
If you have ideas please pass them along. Some criteria include: 1) Informal atmosphere that serves both food and libations at a reasonable cost; 2) Room to host a group between 8 and 20 with no minimum requirements; 3) Use of the facility must be free; and 4) it must be conducive to occasional energetic progressive oriented conversation!
Keep checking the website for future locations. Over the next couple of months, we will most likely be “trying out” a few different locations, and we will make sure that the website is posted with the most current information. The blog address is:
http://drinkingliberally.org/blogs/olympia/ So please join Barry and your fellow Drinking Liberally members on Monday in raising your glass, and toasting the Tumwater Valley Bar and Grill for being such great hosts to us over the past two years!
Kyle Taylor Lucas, who ran against Sen. Tim Sheldon last year, is blogging now.
Nothing local, but she only has four posts up since August on Yahoo 360 account.
I’m going to say that referring to Hugo Chavez as her hero might point to her not running again.
I missed the endorsement meeting this last Monday at the Thurston County Democrats, and I’m really regretting it. Wow, endorsing Craig Ottavelli over Matthew Green, that’s a huge one. Matthew (I did his website, btw) is a long time Thurston County Dem and a former city council member. Craig’s a nice guy, and probably deserves and endorsement, but I wonder why the group backed off doing a dual endorsement.
The really surprising part is the endorsements for the school board. The last couple of days I’ve written about the rift in the current school board showing up in the races this year (here and here). The county Democrats endorsed one candidate from the majority camp and one candidate from the minority camp.
Jeff Nejedly’s endorsement (from the minority camp) doesn’t surprise me. He’s made an effort with the organization. He’s been showing up to meetings since the spring, has had a presence at the Burger Booth and has essentially done the things that canidates to do make good with us. Frank Wilson sounds like a good guy, but he just wasn’t there.
On the other hand, not endorsing Lucy Gentry Meltzer probably has to do with something else. I’ve heard her described as a “one issue candidate,” meaning she’s approaching the race with an axe to grind. I’ve heard that we try to stay away from those kind of candidates. The one issue is arts funding, if you’re interested, but I really have no idea if this was directly related to her not being endorsed. I wasn’t a the meeting.
Via email:
Hi all,
This is your friendly reminder to join us for lively discussion and political conversation tomorrow night, September 24th, at 7:00 pm at the Tumwater Valley Bar and Grill.
The informal topic tomorrow night will focus on the presidential campaign. If you were running for president, what would your strategy be? What issues would you focus on? How would you distinguish yourself from your competitors? How would you respond to negative campaigning? How would you gain support for your candidacy? How would you market yourself to America?
Please join us tomorrow night at the Tumwater Valley Bar and Grill.
Regards,
Bruce and Barry
Hearn is a good fit for council
Jason Hearn is good for Lacey.
Unlike our neighboring city councils, we in Lacey are blessed with men and women who are making righteous decisions for us every day.
Running for the vacant seat on our city council, Hearn will complement and enhance the family values that our city council already espouses.
Hearn is a good man with a wonderful wife and three young children.
His slogan says it all: “It’s all about Lacey.” He’s got my vote!
Dick Sittler, Lacey
The letter itself doesn’t say anything specific. Lacey is great, Olympia and Tumwater not so great. Hearn would fit in with Lacey, but no specific reason why.
What is specific is the language that Sittler used: blessed… righteous decisions… enhance the family values…
So, Sittler is saying that Hearn is a Christian and that his opponent Russ Olson isn’t. Well, if that’s how they’re choosing city councilmen in Lacey, I don’t know what else to say.
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