Late last year I was feeling particularly
down, and that nothing seemed to be working out professionally for me. In
October I received an email from the Ohio Democratic Party talking about
applying to run as an Ohio Delegate for a presidential candidate. I never knew
what the process was for someone to gain that position, so I watched the badly
made and not hugely informative video, and attempted to read the 52 page Word
document before deciding to apply, assuming I wouldn’t get the position anyway, and maybe it would be a learning opportunity.
Well, last Friday morning I received an
email that listed other events for the candidate I’ve been supporting – Pete –
that also mentioned the CAUCUS for Ohio delegates on Tuesday, January 7. I didn’t
remember seeing anything about a caucus when I applied and immediately freaked out thinking about all those videos of Iowa caucuses with people yelling and
grandstanding. Nope, I decided, this truly was not for me. I emailed the person
I’d submitted my application to and asked to pull it, wondering if there’d been
other emails I’d missed about this event.
I then received another email stating that
there were 36 candidates for Pete in District 1, and the caucus coordinator was
pleading for volunteers to assist her. I felt my flakiness deserved some
punishment, so I offered to volunteer and vote for other delegates, letting her
that I’d pulled my application. My hope in all of this was to learn more about
the process, as I had no idea there was a caucus in my state.
Last night was the night, and boy did I learn.
I worried I’d arrived too late, but nothing seemed to happen until an hour
later when we broke into our groups by candidate. Since we had the largest
number of candidate applications we were given the largest room in the middle
school that the event took place in – the gym. Unfortunately, while I thought
it was late notice to receive the email about the caucus on the Friday before
the Tuesday evening event, apparently others may not have even received the
notice or were even more confused than I was about the process. Of the thirty-plus candidates, only three bothered to show up, and the other candidates did
not send people to represent them or pass out flyers on their behalf. In fact,
all total we were a group of twelve people, including the applicants and the
caucus coordinator. We ended up having to give up our big room, as Bernie,
unlike Pete, had done a bang up job of getting people out to support the delegates.
FYI DNC – if he’s able to mobilize
that many people to caucus for delegates on a cold night in January, he has a
chance of winning Ohio.
Anyway, here’s the process of Ohio Democratic Delegate
caucusing. You show up at the caucus location for your voting district. You’re
given a half-sheet of paper that you have to list the presidential nominee
you’re there to support, your name and address, email, and phone number. You
then exchange that half-sheet of paper for two full sheets of paper – one that
lists female delegate applicants, the other male. You can vote for up to three
females and three males. The top three females vote getters and top three males
become delegates for that particular candidate. Then you have to choose an
alternate, who is female (or at least for Pete that was the case). In an ideal
world, the fourth vote getting female would be the alternate, but last night
for the Pete group in District 1, that was not the case.
Hopefully I’m not divulging something I
shouldn’t, but I’m annoyed enough to not really care. We pretty much decided to
vote for the two women and one man who actually showed up, but that meant
randomly choosing three other delegates and an alternate to represent Pete,
which seemed fairly undemocratic in my view. For a brief moment I was sad I’d
pulled my application out of fear, and know that I need to stop getting in my
own way. Ultimately I think I made the right decision. I still don’t fully know
what the delegate is responsible for doing, but I’m pretty sure it’s not in my
wheelhouse.
The male applicant who was there mentioned
he’d only received the email notice about the caucus the day before, and
wondered if others just hadn’t gone through their email yet. I mentioned this
to the organizer who oversaw the event, but he was dismissive of that,
saying they’d had these dates on the calendar since last year. I offered my
services in helping with dissemination of information, but he also dismissed
me, saying it was “too late now.” I hope that’s not the Ohio Democratic
Party’s plan for March and November – “People
should have seen the dates on the calendar; well it’s too late now.” The
irony is that that same official read a letter from David Pepper, Chair of the
Ohio Democratic Party, asking everyone to pull out their cell phones and text a
number in order to register as volunteers for the Party. I guess they only want
volunteers for what they think is
needed. Hmmmm…
I did email the man who I’d submitted my
nomination to last night after I got home, again offering my services,
mentioning that short, informational videos could help with engagement and
understanding of the process (this is the Democratic Party, not the Republican
Party after all). I’m not going to hold my breath on a response, although I’m
sure they’ll be asking for money again very soon.
The real crux is that just about everyone I
spoke with last night, including the caucus coordinator for Pete, had never
caucused before. Most, like me, hadn’t heard about it until this year, but,
thanks to the outcome of the 2016 election, we are all paying far closer
attention than we had before. That doesn’t mean we understand all of what’s
going on. That also doesn’t mean we’re looking at the Ohio Democratic Party
event calendar (which one person in-the-know told me isn’t updated as
frequently as it should be). Most people at the caucus were there because of
the individual candidates they were supporting, so the ODP and the DNC could be
of help to get us all in the loop. If they aren’t willing to do that than I
really should plan on my move to Canada right now.
I’m also bummed out at Pete’s campaign. I
still support him, but am frustrated at the pitiful result last night. He still
hasn’t opened a local office, which I think factors in to this. He’s far enough
in the polls that he should have a Cincinnati office since Warren has one, and
Bernie’s got his App. A group of local volunteers recently began organizing
some events, but all they seem to want to do is share their Pete stories and photographs,
and go out to eat. I’m not very chatting, and have food allergies, so neither
is appealing to me. Also, I’m reminded of a story my husband told me once that
he had dropped out of the Cub Scouts when he was young because he didn’t think
they were serious enough. Occasionally I focus on his and my differences, but
on that issue we are the same. I don’t want to go out to brunch, I want to
fucking DO SOMETHING before it’s too late.
Recently there’s been nothing from the Pete
campaign in my email box accept continued asks for more money, which I’ve now
responded to them today saying that I’m no longer considering him a viable candidate
until he opens a local office. The next email request for money and I’m done.
Perhaps there’s a warmer part of Canada.