By JEANETTE WAGNER
As an official alternate delegate for Hillary Clinton to the Boulder County Democratic Convention since the Feb. 5 caucuses, I had received no less than four instruction manuals for the day, either by mail or e-mail. One was formatted with bold lines, listing the agenda hour by hour, 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Two others gave specific instructions amidst encouraging support for my participation in our candidates' campaign. The information I had BEFORE the convention even started was impressive.
There was an awful lot of waiting to do, but fortunately, I brought a quilt I was working on (to earn baby-holding rights come May) and there was no shortage of interesting, outspoken people to talk to....which brings me to my first observation:
The people who serve as delegates, straight from the caucuses, are not exactly representative of the populace. They are the extremely concerned and well-informed among us. They are perhaps more well-educated and have had to listen to, on the night of the caucuses, what candidates at different levels felt or did about various issues. This is more knowledge than most voters have before voting. Which could be why most voters don't feel compelled to vote.
The delegate system, even by caucuses of the general public, is not really comprised of a cross-section of the general public, but rather those who are acutely, politically aware. And those are good people.
If only we could combine a primary election with the consequent information gained from caucus night and the convention meeting hour. For instance, all I did was show up at a local high school, and I found myself eavesdropping on (Congressional candidate) Joan Fitz-Gerald's phone conversation. I actually got a positive impression of her by just listening to what impressed her about a group of people. Citizens ought to get out of their houses once before the night of the election.
The Boulder County Convention was held in Longmont's Skyline High School on Saturday, March 15. A very sweet and knowledgeable woman (girl, actually) led me through the steps I needed to take should I want to secure an alternate delegate seat. Every location I needed was clearly marked and if, at any time, I needed to re-locate, I was directed to my new destination by loudspeaker. And yet, most people sitting around me in the bleachers of the gym kept muttering, "This is so unorganized." "They don't know what they're doing." "This is chaos." "I wish they would have organized this." "This is running so late." (It was 2:00 p.m. I was driving out of the parking lot at 3:00 p.m.. The convention was scheduled to run until 3:45 p.m.)
Granted, there were a lot of people. We all knew that this race has produced the most voter response in years. Yet, everything was still planned just as it had to be. The only difference was - THESE PEOPLE IN THE STANDS DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WAS WAS GOING ON. They are used to being in control of their day, and for that day, they were in the hands of a political process that's been going on since the Democratic Party held its first Democratic National Convention in 1832.
Unlike years past, most delegates showed up this year to cast their vote because the race between Barack Obama and Clinton is very competitive.
Of the vacancies that were available, first choice went to any alternate from the same precinct. Then, any alternate from the same U.S. Congressional District(2 or 4) and same Colorado House District (10,11, or 12). There were approximately 40 open Obama seats and 20 open Clinton seats available for close to 300 alternate delegates.
Again, I just couldn't get upset, like many around me did, that it wasn't turning out exactly as they expected. Many Americans were enthusiastic and interested enough to be here. Many of them were supporting Hillary. Why the irritation?
Jeanette Wagner grew up in East L.A., where her father taught U.S. Government for 30 years. She received her BS in Biology from the University of California at Irvine, along with one year of graduate school at UC Irvine's Medical School. She has lived in Colorado since 1991, the last 12 years in Boulder. She worked for Bill Ritter’s campaign, and is currently an alternate delegate to her county convention where she has pledged her support to Clinton.