The Mat-Su Democrats were warned by the state office that we might get 300 people for this evening's Presidential Caucus. We conservatively rented a space that would seat almost ten times the number who showed up for the 2004 caucus - the recently built, but soon to be seedy Grandview Hotel on the Parks Highway.As the numbers swelled, the local public safety net went into alert. The entrance to this hotel from the highway is insanely dangerous, and the roads are slippery, the winds today limited visibility. The backup of cars on the Parks Highway drew the Wasilla Police and the Alaska State Troopers. The Fire Marshall managed somehow to get through the jams and into the hotel, where he promptly declared the whole thing what is was - a HAZARD TO THE POWERS THAT BE!
At about 6:05 p.m. we managed to get the sardine-packed crowd moved from the hotel to Wasilla High School, one of the few buildings within 50 miles big enough to accomodate the biggest gathering of Democrats in Valley history.It took about 40 minutes to move the event. When I drove into the WHS parking lot, it looked like a Colony-Wasilla basketball game crowd, from the number of vehicles. We had been told at the Grandview, that we'd locate to the cafeteria. You couldn't even fit the people newly registering as Democrats into the cafeteria.
I was happily surprised to see so many women and men in uniform in the crowds. Diane Benson hadn't encouraged our staff to bring handouts, but I had stuffed a bunch of Veteran for Benson buttons into my thick parka. They rapidly disappeared.
I saw a few people I hadn't seen for a long time. What a rush this whole thing was becoming. Not just to me, but to some jaded party pols from the old days when the Northern Midwest Alaska pioneers and Depression-era colonists dominated local politics in the Valley.
I talked to five friends who I was surprised to see, because they have been perpetual, unrepentant Republicans. But here they were. Most expressed feelings of outrage at what our dominant political party has done to our state. Others, to what the GOP has done to our nation or to the world.
Finally, everyone was signed up, and seated in the gym, in groups based on their state legislative district. Then we were given pep talks by representatives of the five candidates still signed up here - Clinton, Edwards, Gravel, Kucenich and Obama. I spoke up for Mike Gravel, even though I certainly wasn't going to stand for him, because Gravel is an example of why outraged people are motivated to resist this crazy GOP-dominated paradigm destroying the USA.
Then we voted. I went up and sat next to my wife for a while. But I was drawn - throughout the night - at how many people of color were at the caucus. I noticed a USAF E-8 sitting in the next row up, along with his family. He'd nodded to me earlier as I was handing out a Veteran for Benson button to a grizzled WWII Vet. I moved up, sat next to him, and introduced myself.
This Jamaican American was intensely interested in this raucous caucus and all the mayhem we'd been watching, as it gradually calmed to why we were there. I didn't know which candidate he'd chosen, nor he mine.
When I saw the Clinton people raise their hands, I thought, "That's a lot!" Next, they called for people to raise their hands for Barack Obama. My new friend and I raised our hands, along with about 3/4 of our district cohort. We smiled, shook hands.
Update - 11:35 p.m. - Steve at What Do I Know? covers the Anchorage mayhem.