Mar. 8, 2004
Get Ready to Caucus
By J. Barlow Herget
RALEIGH - Loudmouths like television’s Chris Matthews and thoughtful journalists like the Washington Post’s David Broder won’t be here as they were in Iowa. But like Iowa, North Carolina Democrats will select their presidential preferences this year in caucuses rather than through the traditional May Primary Election.
The change is one of the side effects caused by the Republican legal challenge to the legislature’s third redistricting plan adopted last November. The redistricting lawsuit remains in court, and without approved legislative districts, there can be no election. So, the State Board of Election postponed the May 4 Primary to July 20.
That’s only six days before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Boston on July 26, and that’s not enough time to select delegates to the convention. Traditionally, delegates are apportioned based on the primary election’s outcome. For example, if Sen. John Edwards would have won 80 percent of the vote, he would have been assigned 80 percent of the state’s “pledged” delegates.
The actual, pledged delegates are then selected by elections in each of North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts. This year, North Carolina will have 107 delegates, 90 of them to be apportioned by the outcome of the caucus voting. The remaining 17 “super delegates” are comprised of the state party’s leadership such as Gov. Mike Easley and State Party Chair Barbara Allen.
Without a presidential primary, Democrats will meet—at their own expense—at designated voting centers across the state. Each county will have its own voting station. Larger counties will have more than one place to vote; Wake County, for example, will have four. Scott Falmlen, the party’s executive director, says the centers will be announced this week.
On Saturday, April 17, registered Democrats who want to participate will come to the centers and cast their ballots. Voting will take place for four hours, from 8 a.m. to noon. You must be a registered Democrat and the deadline to register is April 9.
Party officials believe the ballots will be counted quickly and the results will be published before the end of the day. Because former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and North Carolina’s Sen. John Edwards have “suspended” their campaigns and not withdrawn from the race, their names will remain on the ballot along with expected nominee Sen. John Kerry and fame chasers Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rev. Al Sharpton. There’s also a box for “uncommitted.”
Following the caucuses, Democrats will elect the 90 individual, pledged delegates at the traditional congressional district meetings as in the past.
The Republican National Convention is much later in the summer, Aug. 29-Sept. 2. The state party, however, chose not to put any presidential candidates on the primary ballot because there’s only one qualified, President Bush. The party will select the actual 67 delegates as usual, at the district and state conventions, according to Party Political Director Bill Peaslee.
While Edwards and Dean have conceded to Kerry, by suspending their campaigns rather than ending them, both candidates will be eligible for federal matching funds to help pay for campaign debts, and their names will remain on primary and caucus ballots. Dean, for instance, won 58 percent of the vote in his home state on Super Tuesday’s vote, March 2, weeks after he had retired from the campaign.
The excitement has seeped out of the Democrats presidential primary campaign and that is sure to affect the caucus balloting. State Party Executive Director Falmlen predicts only five percent of registered party members to show up and vote. “It will be the ‘true blues,’ about 100,000,” he says.
Still, North Carolina’s caucus elections are likely to provide a final hurrah for favorite son Sen. John Edwards. He endured a year of home front criticism for his ambitious and time-consuming presidential campaign, but many North Carolinians including some of his earlier critics, came to admire his positive campaign style and spellbinding message.
As one of the signs proclaimed at his farewell rally in Broughton High School’s gym here, “John Edwards, you made North Carolina proud.” It was a case of the “hometown boy done good” after all. Don’t be surprised if he’s the winner on April 17, instead of John Kerry.
Barlow Herget served two terms on the Raleigh city council and is host of "State Government Radio Newsmakers."
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