Tonight, the first Tuesday in February, was precinct caucus night in Minnesota. For those unfamiliar with this tradition, caucuses are when neighbors of like political persuasion get together, elect party leaders at the local level, debate resolutions, and send delegates forth to the next level of government where they do all of this again. After precinct caucuses come city conventions, county conventions, senate district conventions, and ultimately the state convention. Caucus goers also express preferences for candidates for public office at every level. It’s grassroots organization at its purest form.
Julia and I live in Ward 3 Precinct 4 in Northeast Minneapolis, and we caucused at the Spring Street Highrise. There were around 40-50 people in attendance, far fewer than caucus I attended in St. Paul two years ago. In the straw poll for governor, which is the most exciting part of the night as it is the one that is neatly packaged for media coverage, Mayor R.T. Rybak won with 13 votes, followed by 9 for Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, 7 for undecided, and the rest with 4 or less.
Before the vote, though, were the elections to the next conventions (Julia and I are going to the Senate District 59 convention), and resolutions. Ahh, resolutions. Definitely the most entertaining part of the evening, as you get to learn which personal pet issues your neighbors are angriest about. Some people take them very seriously, agonizing over every whereas clause and turn of phrase. I try to keep conversation to a minimum: you never know who you might accidentally antagonize by pointing out their resolution is already in the party platform, for example.
Our caucus wrapped up just after 8, on schedule. The senate district convention in a bit more than three weeks will be very interesting.