Hundreds of downtown Olympia, WA, residents overflow site
Originally posted in the Olympian
Hundreds of downtown residents overflow site
WENDY CULVERWELL THE OLYMPIAN
Carl Flowers is a former Texan, a health care worker, a Vietnam veteran and a John Kerry supporter.
He smiled slyly as his neighbors crowded into the basement of The United Churches of Olympia on Saturday morning for the Democratic Party precinct caucuses.
The president, he observed, has energized voters.
"This is like a whole bunch of people sold a bad car by the same guy getting together," he said. "But, unfortunately, there's no lemon law for bad presidents."
Such was the tone as Flowers and his downtown Olympia neighbors took up the matter of whom to support in the Democratic race for president.
Organizers predicted a high turnout, but few expected that hundreds of people would jam the church basement, where six precincts met.
The crowd overwhelmed the room and sent the 45 people who reported to Flowers' precinct, Olympia's 4th Precinct, in search of their own quarters. They found it in a comfortable teen room off the kitchen.
David Scherer, precinct committee chairman, said the 4th Precinct's downtown neighborhoods are home to students and young voters as well as older residents living in apartments near the water. There were even a few boat-dwellers in the crowd.
"The nice thing about (Precinct) 4 is you get a nice cross-section of the community," said Scherer, who switched his support from Wesley Clark to Dennis Kucinich by the end of the caucus.
Many participants were first-timers, committed, as Patrisia DiFrancesca put it, by a desire for "regime change in Washington (D.C.)" DiFrancesca wore a blue T-shirt proclaiming her support for Kucinich and walked with assistance from a cane.
A former hospital chaplain, she has been disabled since a car accident six years ago. She said she watches CNN and public television in physical therapy.
She chose Kucinich because she likes his plan for universal health care and his position against the Iraq war.
Still, she's pragmatic. "I'm not going to sell out quickly. But, like everyone else, I'm for anyone but Bush."
In the teen room, participants from the 4th Precinct divided by candidate.
Dennis Kucinich drew the largest group. A feisty group representing people of all ages, they caucused on tired sofas below inspirational sayings such as this Muslim proverb: "There are three kinds of people ... the immovable; the movable; and those that move."
Howard Dean's small group gathered next to the fireplace, under a purple Teletubby doll, and discussed how Dean's wife's absence from the campaign signals his support for women's rights.
Kerry supporters sat next to pianos and talked about the Bush administration's fiscal policies.
The undecideds discussed their indecision by a bookshelf.
Clark and John Edwards were quickly eliminated as delegate-worthy candidates, drawing far less than the minimum 15 percent needed.
Kucinich supporters were vocal, not only for their candidate, but in their disdain for the Republican leadership.
"I'm so tired of turning on my TV and seeing this idiot, this blank-faced person, representing our country," said Karen Nelson, an Olympia innkeeper.
Jenny Jenkins, who videotapes meetings for Thurston Community Television and plays in a band, Encyclopedia of Fun, said she's shopping for the candidate who won't move to the political center between now and November.
"I want George Bush to lose," she said.
Michael Arend wants George Bush to lose, too, but he voted for consumer activist Ralph Nader in the 2000 election and said he will desert the Democrats again if need be.
"If they again go centrist, I won't vote for the Democratic candidate," he said.
He was encouraged by the turnout and variety of opinions Saturday, he said. "They should do the whole presidential election this way."
In the end, the downtown Olympia precinct allocated two delegates each to Dean and Kerry and three to Kucinich.
Subscribe to this blog's feed