Hillary Clinton speaks at block party in downtown Oakland last October.After the primary one local Chinatown activist asked me if I was going to the convention as an elected official; I told her that usually super delegates were Congressional or State reps and big city mayors. I knew there was a district process but didn't know much about it, she told me I should run so more Asians would be represented...didn't I always tell her that Asians needed to be involved?
So I went home and started reading the California Democratic Party website. The state of California went for Clinton 52% to 43%, in my Congressional District it was the reverse. This meant that of the 6 delegates from our area, 4 would be Obama delegates and 2 would be Clinton delegates. Party rules require an equal number of women and men, so there was really only one female seat for Clinton supporters. In the end Oakland had several other representatives from our district chosen as superdelegates, but that's another story. After some thought I added my name to the list on line; in the end there would be over thirty of us vying for 2 seats.
The process was fascinating. To win you had to beg all of your friends to show up within a one hour time frame. While many delegates win their seat with 40-50 votes, we knew it would be different in Oakland. Our goal was to get twice that number. We weren't told the location until one week before; it was Mills College on a Sunday in April between 2-3 pm.
I had never organized for an election with such constraints. Some veterans know they want to go to the convention and spend months organizing their friends and relatives. I had less than a week to mobilize over a hundred people to make a one hour window. I sent out an email to all my contacts, then got on the phones. This process gave me insights to how the caucuses in other states must work. We had to find transportation for those without cars. Many of my older friends had more rigid schedules and other commitments. We sent out reminder emails to those who committed to come, for some I should have also called. One person literally got stuck in the back-up at the campus gate caused by the rush of hundreds of voters; she turned around when her watch hit 3 pm without getting into the gates of the campus. My own son slept late from being on-call at the hospital and barely made it. Like most elections, about 70% of the people who told us they would come made it and voted.
Some people came to vote for a friend but didn't have a second person to vote for, so we literally put everyone through a gauntlet outside the Mill's gym. My husband and several friends helped us leaflet and talk to the voters. You had a few seconds to hand someone a leaflet and ask them to vote for you. Quick alliances among the candidates were made. After a frantic hour of campaigning, the dozen or so candidates who showed up gave speeches to an audience of about three people who stayed to hear the candidates and our family and friends. In the end it was exciting and fun. Friends who we haven't seen in months came. Over 300 people came to vote; I was the top vote getter with 117 votes. Steve Tidrick, an Oakland lawyer active in the Clinton campaign, is the male delegate and came in second.
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