I sat through about four hours of the April 5 legislative
district caucus in Seattle’s 43rd District—the invocation by
a local Buddhist, the laughs at the die-hard Kucinich supporters, the
yawns, the shouts, the period of American
Idol–style campaigning for those coveted spots as a
state convention delegate. It was all very long, but very interesting,
quite well attended, and, of course, a little nutty.
This particular legislative district caucus meeting was held at the
former Lincoln High School in Wallingford. When I showed up, the
gymnasium was overflowing with precinct delegates who had been elected
at their precinct caucuses on February 9—and with what seemed to
be an even larger number of wannabe alternate delegates. So much for
the idea that all those young, energized, newly involved Democrats
wouldn’t show up for the next step in this process.
After registration was done, the energized Democrats listened to
speeches delivered from a half-darkened stage in a nearby auditorium.
(How many Democrats does it take to turn on a spotlight? Apparently
more than the 1,000-plus in the auditorium, because the spotlight never
came on.)
There was a portion of the program devoted to surrogate speeches,
and Obama’s surrogate, state senator Ed Murray (D-43), stood at the
rear of the stage (where the lights were actually on) and pronounced:
“I have been coming to these meetings since the mid-1980s and I have
never seen anything like today.” The numbers were a very good sign, he
said.
Hillary Clinton’s surrogate? He was very, very late, causing a lot
of grumbling from the crowd, which was overwhelmingly pro-Obama. When
he finally did show up he was… Sean Astin??? Yes, the man who played
Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings had flown up to rally the
Clinton troops. Which made very little sense, given that the type of
people who show up for legislative district caucuses on a Saturday
don’t really need a celebrity (or semicelebrity) to motivate them to
take political action.
Astin’s speech was most memorable for this line: “Should Obama get
the nomination, I will become a massive Barack Hussein Obama
supporter.”
Hussein? Eyebrows shot up. Brows furrowed. Heads turned. A friend in
the audience texted me: “Hussein!?” I’m not sure what Astin was up to
with that line, but someone probably should have told him that
Seattle’s 43rd District is the last place in the U.S. where subliminal
messaging around Obama’s middle name is likely to move Democrats toward
Clinton.
Further proof of this: There was some time to kill as multiple
tallies of the delegates and alternates were done, and when the time
killer of taking audience questions had run its course and the idea of
telling jokes had been nixed, someone suggested doing the Pledge of
Allegiance to pass the time.
At the mere mention of doing the pledge, there were groans and boos.
Then, when the district chair put the idea of doing the Pledge of
Allegiance up to a vote, it was overwhelmingly voted down.
There were to be 67 delegates to the state convention apportioned at
this legislative district caucus, and the end result was no surprise:
14 for Clinton and 53 for Obama. 
