Dubuque Diary – Caucus Day

Caucus Day at last! How would it turn out? At first disapointed to find that my favorite wireless coffee shop was closed on Mondays, I instead found the breakfast that I’ve been looking for at Dottie’s cafe. While I was eating, a few orange-hatted Dean colleagues entered the diner and didn’t sit down for their coffee until they had worked every customer in the place. OK, so I was gonna get to that after my coffee, really.

Even though traveling here to help the campaign, I have to make a living too, and I spent most of the day online and getting caught up on work. By late afternoon, I set out for St. Mark’s Community Center, caucus location for Dubuque’s 18th Precienct, the one I walked on Saturday. Visitors are welcome to attend and observe caucuses, and I was eager to see the culmination of this campaign effort in the unique political drama that is a caucus. It didn’t disapoint.

But first I needed to spend a bit more time for the cause, so I stood outside on the cold street corner, waving a Dean sign high above my head, shopping for honks of support.

Inside, the basement of St. Mark’s was very crowded, but not uncomfortably so. I grabbed a seat as out of the way as I could, and sat back to watch. I was impressed with how informal it all seemed. Voters sat in groups, roughly together by candidate. There were a total of 131 eligible voters attending, and the doors closed at 7pm, locking in that total amount. Based on this number, the level of ‘viablility’ was set at 20 supporters, and after initials counts of support, only Gephart’s 12 supporters failed to meet that plateau. Given the opportunity to re-align, most of them went to Kerry, a few to Edwards.

There were two voters who declared themselves to be ‘uncommitted’ upon their arrival, which proved to be like declaring yourself to be chum in a shark pool, as each of the precient leaders for the various campaigns set upon them in an effort to pull them to their candidate. They went to Edwards.

Final tallies and delegates:

candidate/votes/delegates

Kerry/43/2
Dean/40/2
Edwards/27/2
Kucinich/21/1

After the caucus, I headed to a local bar to watch the results on CNN. There I met Marty, a Democrat from nearby Galena, Illinois. We talked politics and hit an Irish Pub in Galena together. Gavin the Bartender is from Ireland, and he’s looking forward to his first opportunity to vote this November as an American Citizen. We talked politics over a few beers, and Gavin proves to be very knowledgeable and eager to participate. I was struck by his enthusiasm to participate in our system, and felt sad at the thought that it’s something that so many American’s have lost. I came to Dubuque to participate in a deeper way myself, and to follow trails leading back to a distant Irish ancestor of my own. I did both, and was also reminded by the Caucus goers I watched, and by Gavin the bartender, that there are still people who care and take part, and they’ll be the ones to decide who wins and loses.

My support for Howard Dean hasn’t waned. His expectations got ahead of the voters, and his third place finish is a reality check. The Iowa field has thinned by one with Gephardt’s exit, but New Hampshire will bring Clarke and Lieberman into the mix. We’ll face a whole new episode of Primary Survivor next week in New Hampshire.