5CD caucuses discussion.

1. These are only partial totals that I have (sent via the Weed campaign):

   CountyEwertWeedUncommitted
   Albemarle6311
   C’ville City5120
   Green + Nelson0100
   TOTAL11531

   Figures weren’t in from Martinsville/Dansville or others. But it’s looking like a Weed victory, if not already then by the final caucuses.

   I was at the Albemarle County caucus. There was no sniping between the candidates’ representatives (Al Weed’s daughter Julie and on the other side someone whose name I’ve forgotten, but he is a “recovering Republican”, former career military, has known Bern Ewert for decades). Ewert’s rep gave a good solid plea for a “big tent” Democratic approach to victory, meaning a centrist candidate, and got a warm reception even though his candidate’s supporters were way outnumbered. I hope that’s some augury for healing of rifts and cooperation in the general election campaign.

2. Argh! The preview showed a nice HTML table, but the tags must have gotten stripped after submission. Counts should be:

   Albemarle: 6 Ewert, 31 Weed, 1 uncommitted

   C’ville: 5 Ewert, 12 Weed, 0 uncommitted

   Nelson + Greene: 10 for Weed

   Total pickup: 53 Weed, 11 Ewert

   Martinsville/Danville counts and some others not yet in

3. Last P.S.: the numbers above are delegate counts, not actual votes from caucus attendees. (For example, there were about 200 people at the Albemarle caucus; delegate totals were assigned proportional to votes cast).

4. More caucus reports:

   http://dpressure.blogspot.com/2006/04/monday-night-caucuses.html

   http://jlmcharlottesville.blogspot.com/2006/04/caucus.html

5. Am I late? Is this the David Sewell thread? :)

   Just kidding David, thanks for the info.

6. Al Weed’s Delegates from Charlottesville from Curt (thanks):
   Brian Carr Helena Cobban Francis Fife Paul Gaston Angela Gleeson Curt Gleeson Jennifer McKeever Katherine McNamara Nila Saliba Joan Schatzman Anna Scholl Michael Snook

   Elected alternates:
   Virginia Germino William Hendricks David Lee Tatyanna Patten James Ruffner Matthew Zogby

7. Has Bern conceded yet?

8. Jennifer – thanks for posting that – first I had heard.

9. Is this the David Sewell thread? :)

   Comments 1-4 is the reason why I like forum software that lets you edit comments so you don’t have to do this kind of thing. Ah well.

   ATA: I’m not sure it would make sense for Bern to concede even if Al’s total is over the 50% mark. Nomination by caucus is not the same as election by primary vote–who knows what can happen between now and May 20. And the rules governing delegates may be arcane enough to permit delegates to switch candidates in certain cases. But folks who are older-timers than myself in 5th District politics will have to speak to the theoretical possibility that someone with a majority of committed delegates at the end of April might not get nominated at the May caucus.

10. From the State Party Plan :

    Section 15.3 Declaration of Candidate Preference

    “… For state conventions, the Central Committee may determine whether delegates to a state convention will be bound to vote in accordance with their announced candidate preference on one or more ballots.”

    Of course, the Fifth District Convention is not a “state convention.” There is nothing in the Call to Convention of the Fifth District or the Draft Rules that indicates that a delegate is bound to cast his or her vote for the person for whom he or she expressed a preference in the local caucus.

    In theory, therefore, Bern could go to the Al supporters and say, “Come on — you need to rethink this. Switch to me.” I doubt that it would be very successful — form what I know of most of the Weed supporters, they are pretty passionate.

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