Training for the big leagues

Wading through democracy, stumbling toward the convention

By CARA BAYLES

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Look sharp, raging Democrats! Thursday's the deadline to declare candidacy as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The Massachusetts Democratic Party hosted delegate trainings in all 10 congressional districts over the past month, and the last Boston session occurred two weeks ago at the Asian Community Development Corporation in Chinatown. There, party officials took two hours to elucidate the election process to a room of 75 would-be delegates competing for seven seats.

City Councilor at large Sam Yoon was among many local politicians in attendance. "This is always an exciting process," Yoon told the crowd. "But we'll look back on this year and say politics in this country were never the same." Throughout the training, Yoon jumped from his front-row seat to clarify points. "There was the community organizer in me, that was thinking, 'People are jazzed up, this is important,'" he later told the Dig. "And I think some of my math teacher instinct kicked in also. People get frustrated with what they can't understand, but it becomes exciting once they master it."

But before party officials began the lesson, hands shot up, squirming with burning questions. "Why does our district have four positions for females and three for males?" "How do you determine how many delegates a candidate gets?" "What's an alternate?"

Louis Elisa, long-time democratic activist, explained: A district gets six or seven delegates, depending on its 2005 census population totals. Every district has one alternate, who can replace a delegate in an emergency. In every other district, the gender designation of the alternate switches, keeping the gender breakdown even. Elisa insisted the position of alternate was important. "In 1988, every head was critical," he recalled, referring to the hotly contested delegate allocations for Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson.

Elisa explained that the number of delegates assigned to a candidate is determined by the Massachusetts primary results (February's Super Duper Tuesday). "If you want to get elected as a delegate, you send in a form of intent by the 13th. The candidate's campaign will want to know who you are," he said. "Delegates have to be registered Democrats." The opportunity for party enrollment passed with the voter registration deadline on January 16th.

Two caucuses—one for Clinton's delegates, one for Obama's—will convene in each district on April 5th. Mel Poindexter, the delegate selection committee chair, encouraged candidates to bring an entourage; union members, church groups ... as long as they're registered Democrats.

"It's a numbers game. He or she who brings the most people to the caucus will win," Poindexter said.

Councilor Charles Yancey suggested collaboration. "Find three other delegates for your candidate in your district," he said. "If you can each bring 200 people, and promise to work together, that's four times as many votes."

Poindexter said some delegates will be selected by the Democratic State Committee, so candidates who lose the caucus have a second shot, particularly those meeting diversity needs—the party has affirmative action goals for race, physical disability, age (anyone under 36 qualifies as "youth") and sexual orientation. The State Committee elections will occur May 10th.

Last Saturday, Sam Yoon was elected as an add-on member during the State Committee's reorganization meeting. Though the training occurred a week before Yoon's victory, he was targeted by ambitious candidates hedging their bets. "People were giving me their resumes," Yoon says. "I kept telling them, 'I'm not even on the State Committee yet!'"

Alex Goldstein, the party's communications director, was proud of the two-hour crash-course in democracy. "We want everyone to be involved and stay involved," Goldstein told the Dig. "But it can be a very cryptic process to someone not familiar with it."