Well, I ended up going to the Independence Party caucus. I guess turnout was about what I expected, though more than the facilitator had planned on. I thought there would be 20 people or so, but I think he only expected about six (he did have enough material for almost everyone who attended, though). There will probably be an article in the Daily tomorrow, since a reporter from the paper was there the entire time. Later on, someone came in with a video camera, and a third person was also videotaping from the doorway after a while. One of them was making a film on the 2004 elections. I asked the other one what she was recording for, and I guess I didn't totally parse her response, but I ended up with the impression she was a journalism student. I was interviewed by the Daily reporter, so I might actually see my name in print somewhere other than the Op-Ed pages ;-)
Maybe.
What did we do? Well, we, uh, caucused. The organizers weren't allowed to do the presidential straw poll until 7:30 (half an hour after things officially got going). There were some proposed resolutions that were discussed, and new resolutions were proposed and voted on. A guy in the group volunteered for being the local district chair, and shortly after being officially nominated said something like “Okay, before moving on, can you tell me exactly what I'll be doing?” which made everybody laugh, of course. People slowly percolated out of the room, and the remaining people (including me) sorta got snookered into acting as delegates to the state convention. In theory, the delegate designation can stay with me even if I move. I'm not sure if my presence will really be appreciated, though, since my ballot went something like Nader, Kucinich, Sharpton, Kerry, Edwards…
The guy leading the whole group had unfortunately forgotten to introduce the state House candidate for district 59B until the very end. Anyway, he's Ron Lischeid. His platform at the moment mostly seems to be replacing Phyllis Kahn, who has been representing the area for 32 years (he says she's served so long that she has become an icon—or “iKahn”). However, he's been active in community groups, and is one of the lead guys for making an official University neighborhood in Minneapolis.
I was reminded of the times my dad ran against Steve Sviggum for his House seat back when I was finishing high school and starting at college. My dad didn't accept PAC donations, and even had to fend off radio advertisements made to endorse him by other organizations. My dad ran as a Democrat, so it should be easier for this guy since it's actually party policy to not use such funding.
The party has a fairly libertarian bent, it seems. I think a few people kind of scoffed when I mentioned I liked the party “plank” of supporting high-speed rail. Obviously, some think that it's less economical than highways and whatever. I suppose I'd really be targeting airline traffic, but I'm never good at articulating such things on the spot. People seemed to be fairly open to the whole gay marriage thing (though the median age of the room was probably about 22). One of the proposed resolutions was to advocate the idea of making everyone have civil unions under the law, same-sex or not, and only having the term “marriage” be used in the religious context.
I guess the party was also conducting an Internet vote expected to take two days, so results won't be in until Friday. That's kind of annoying. There was a vote on the presidential candidate, but there was also a vote on the mascot to use for the party (which has been reported as a “news of the weird” item in the press). Some of the candidates were the bison (both normal and white), the loon, a roaring lion, and a moose. I chose the normal bison, but I guess I'd considered the moose as well. Strangely, that poll was conducted in the traditional way. Maybe there's some party rule that says they can't make binding votes with instant-runoff voting…
Posted by mike at March 2, 2004 10:18 PM | Decision 2004 , Politics , Ralph Nader | TrackBack