Some people watch for crocuses to mark the beginning of spring. I watch for caucuses to mark the real beginning of the campaign season.
This year the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention will be held on June 2 in Springfield. Democrats will attend a candidate for US Senate to replace Scott Brown.
Attend a caucus in your town or ward. Support great delegate candidates, or run to be a delegate to the state convention.
If you have not been involved with your local Democratic Party, this is a great way to start. I’m finding many communities where the “usual suspects” are saying that if new people are interested, they will step aside to encourage new people to become involved. In other places, many regular delegates will be running but there will be opportunities to run for alternate. Most alternates attend the Convention, sit with other delegates and have the same experience as delegates. Often alternates become delegates.
Caucuses will continue until February 26. Most will happen on February 11, but others will be held over the course of the next two weeks.
I thought I would make this an open thread about caucuses on Saturday. If people want to play, tell us about your first caucus.
I remember my first caucus. Back in 1982 the caucuses were hugely attended and big news while Mike Dukakis and Ed King were in a rematch. What I recall is sitting with a neighbor who was encouraging me to join the DTC in my town. I had no idea what she was talking about. How things have changed!
of people attending our caucus. It’s not competitive. We have 4 delegates, and most people don’t want to go.
Although most of our attendees are retired (thank God for our “senior” citizens, without their work, our town would have no one to do anything), we had two new folks under 40.
We also had a kid come from our state senator Gale Candaras’s office, our new second precinct’s state rep. John Scibak, a guy campaigning for Andrea Nuciforo who’s running against Richie O’Neal, and friends from Belchertown who are working with us on the Register of Deeds campaign of Mary Olberding. We signed nomination papers for all of the above and Elizabeth Warren, whom everyone on our DTC is enthusiastic about.
I went to 11 caucuses today and then to a post caucus gathering. Well, actually by the time I got to several locations the caucus was over but I visited with folks. And seven caucuses were at the same location. But I had a blast. Two more caucuses tomorrow and then a break until a Thursday caucus. Generally well attended and high interest. All the delegate slots were filled and almost all the alternates. I was very pleased that my work for Elizabeth Warren paid off. A number of people came to caucuses who would not have come if it were not for local folks and people like me calling.
I was at the Hingham DTC meeting today. Both May and Davis spoke, (I can’t remember the last time the only speakers on Caucus day were contesting the same seat). Anyways, I was so impressed by Steve May. His passion is evident. The races at the top of the ballot are all about change. I just can’t imagine people falling over themselves to vote for Elizabeth Warren on one hand, and then voting for Davis… Ultimately, Steve is from Hull and Davis is from Fidelity.
I haven’t been to the last couple of csucuses, but it appreared the turnout was very good, if not high. All the delegate, alternate etc. slots were filled. Most exciting was the fact that people to were coming to their first caucus decided to be delegates because they were so inspired. There was a decent mix based on race, age and gender attending and elected.
Best of all: Everyone was an Elizabeth Warren supporter!
The only bad thing was that a lot of folks arrived late – even after the grace period and could not vote. I think that everyone could have done a better job of explaining the rule. So if you haven’t had your caucus yet, please make note.
The majority of caucuses for our Senate District were yesterday. Not only were all the delegates elected Warren supporters but there was no sign of any opposition support or undecided’s.
Jim King did attend the Marlborough caucuses and spoke well, stating his case, but did not appear to bring local supporters to the caucus or change any votes.
Other than a few isolated pockets of support, it looks like it could be a sweep for Elizabeth Warren.
Does anyone have information to the contrary?
Decent turnout, especially in Ward One. Lt. Governor Tim Murray, Congressman John Tierney, State Senator Tom McGee and State Reps Steve Walsh and Bob Fennell all attended. Nomination papers for Warren and King were passed around. Strong Warren support with the room. Vast majority if not all Delegates were Warren committed.
In Lexington we had a good turnout, with several first time delegates motivated by Elizabeth Warren winning some slots. 100% of our delegates (including myself) are committed to Elizabeth Warren and we had absolutely no visible presence of any other senatorial candidate. No nomination papers or speakers in support of the other two candidates. If you didn’t know better you would think she was completely unopposed in the primary based on the Lexington caucus yesterday. Have their been any caucuses that have elected ANY delegates committed to anybody else ???
I was a first-time attendee at the Belmont caucus today and was pleased to be one of the delegates elected. Lots of positive energy there, with a very hotly contested race for the eight female delegate slots. All elected delegates stated that they were Warren supporters — even the candidates who weren’t elected delegates were pro-Warren. I did meet a guy gathering signatures for DeFranco, but he didn’t seem to be collecting very many in what seemed like an extremely pro-Warren crowd.
If you’re a newcomer, I strongly urge you to consider going to your caucus. There were lots of veterans of town politics at my caucus, but they were very nice and welcoming to a new guy. I was encouraged by the Warren coordinator for Belmont to run for delegate and I won! See you in Springfield!
Lots of enthusiasm at the Pembroke caucus on Saturday. We had more folks wanting to be delegates than slots available, which hasn’t always been the case in year’s past. There were also some new faces this year which is also a great sign.
Representatives for Congressman Bill Keating and Elizabeth Warren spoke as well as yours truly.
Great to see lots of local Pembroke town officials in attendance, including numerous Planning Board and Board of Selectmen members. Not to mention some tasty flapjacks from Planning Board chairman Matt York.
Bump this diary back to the top each of the next two weekends so that we can see reports from future caucuses as well.
Went to my first caucus since 1986 (at least). My wife wanted to go for Warren and that seemed like a thing to do. The Ward 4 caucus was well attended and folks were quite friendly. It wasn’t particularly contested, everyone seemed to be for Warren, but they needed to fill out the slate. They asked me and I said yes so I’m going to my first convention in 26 years!
Kind of turned my head around. Back in the ’80’s where I was (Ward 21) we had quite the battles around the caucuses. We’d organize for weeks before and try to balance the slate between the sides. Being an unknown walk-on just didn’t happen, even for the issues conventions.
1981 Issues Convention — Progressives working with Tom Gallagher in Allston Brighton work with MORAL to elect slate to Issues Convention from Ward 21 to defeat anti-choice plank. We overwhelmed Kevin White’s local machine at the caucus. They freaked, broke all the rules, and much to our surprise got spanked by the State Committee. At the emergency caucus they didn’t show up, we swept, went to the Convention and kicked butt.
But I forgot to change my registration from U to D in time. Can I attend and watch the process or will I be turned away at the door?
Thanks!
The caucuses are open to all. A few years ago the rules were ambiguous and subject to interpretation. Now they are very clear, but some chairs are not familiar with them. If you have any trouble, the Democratic Party usually has people available during prime caucus time and they can be called to get clarification.
I will post my caucus story later tonight.
Our caucus was lead by ward committee vice chair and school committee member Mary Jo Rossetti. Ward Alderman and committee chair Bob Trane was not present, though most of the other political notables of the ward were there. The Elizabeth Warren folks discretely handed out little sheets of paper with a slate of names. The women on the slate were elected unopposed, but there were several men in the ward who were interested in going to the convention who were not on the slate. As it turned out, everyone interested was a strong Warren supporter, and one of the non-slate delegates who gave a particularly good speech, was elected. (There were no mics, so a strong stage voice, which only some of the candidates had, was important.) Interestingly the slate candidate who was not elected (and ended up becoming an alternate) was Sean Fitzgerald, who is a local political fixture, presumably because people felt it would be better to give some new blood a chance to go to the convention.
Despite what Kate said, I was not allowed to vote, though I did observe and made myself useful signing nomination papers of several different candidates, from US Senate all the way down to Register of Deeds.
When I said all are welcome, I was responding to your question:
Can I attend and watch the process or will I be turned away at the door?
All are welcome to observe, but only people registered by the deadline can vote or run for delegates.
A few years ago there were some committees who did not allow those who were not registered Democrats to observe.
I was never told to leave or made to feel unwelcome.
Our delegation is 36 (including our committe chair) with 5 alternates.
We had over 200 people attending.