by Ian Lind
Honolulu Weekly, February 27, 2008

Hawaii Democrats are still buzzing about the historic turnout for last week’s party caucuses, but it remains to be seen whether the party will ride the huge wave of public interest in its presidential candidates to broad election victories in November or flounder in a flood of Katrina proportions.

Last Tuesday seemed like all good news for the Dems. There were traffic jams and long lines at most of the 53 caucus sites across the state as more than 37,000 people showed up to participate, nearly an eight-fold increase over previous elections, and far more than the 1,500 hardy Republicans who showed up for the earlier GOP caucuses.

Happy confusion reigned as thousands of new members waited to apply for Democratic Party membership, and it was often standing room only as rooms that in past years welcomed dozens of hard-core Dems were now crammed with hundreds of people eager to cast their presidential votes and make a difference. Basic supplies, from sign-in sheets and applications for party membership to ballots were quickly exhausted, forcing party volunteers to improvise as best they could.

“You walked in the door, saw your neighbors in line, laughing and talking and waiting to vote! How exciting is this? It’s like you’re part of a movement,” said Annelle Amaral, the party’s Oahu County chair.

It was, for Democrats, sweet chaos indeed, signaling not only the party’s potential to claim the White House in November after eight long years of George W. Bush, but also potentially long coat tails that could impact elections at all levels.

“As the majority party in Hawaii, Democrats have been pegged as being the defenders of the status quo,” said former state representative and Obama campaign organizer Brian Schatz. “But this shows there are a lot of independent voters out there who are starting to see the Democratic Party, not as they saw it in the 1980s and 1990s, but as Barack Obama's party, and this allows both voters and politicians to understand that the Democratic Party can be a change agent.”

“That’s good for state house members, council members, mayors, it’s good for everyone,” said Schatz, who is seen as a likely candidate for state party chairman.

But Democrats have to clear both practical and political hurdles before they can claim the spoils of this campaign victory.

First comes the practical problem of processing as many as 30,000 new applications for party membership to be sure that each of the applicants is a registered voter, a basic requirement. Amaral said party officers and volunteers must first check every application against existing voter registration lists. If the applicant isn’t on the voter list, then another check must be done after sufficient time has passed for recent voter registrations to be processed by state and county election officials. If they still aren’t registered, then a letter has to be sent advising the applicant to register as soon as possible. If registration can’t be confirmed, then the applicant won’t be added to the parthy’s membership rolls.

Then comes problem of filling various grassroots party offices. At an as-yet undetermined number of caucus sites, the overwhelming flood of participants washed out the possibility of doing any routine business beyond casting presidential preference votes. With standing room only in often hot, ill-ventilated school cafeterias and similar venues, crowd noise drowned out attempts to communicate official instructions and made it impossible to get to the routine business of electing precinct and district officers, and state convention delegates, who will decide on the party’s platform, rules, and other matters.

In other cases, most caucus attenders just voted and escaped from the crowded meeting rooms, abandoning the remaining business of party elections to the more experienced and ingrown party leadership who knew to stick around to the end.

This year, with such a tight race for the presidential nomination, the election of state convention delegates and party leaders takes on added importance. Both the state chair and vice-chair are designated as so-called superdelegates who will go on to the national Democratic convention, giving the sometimes routine election added importance. According to party rules, the state chair is elected at the convention, while the vice-chair is chosen by the new state central committee.

“With both Obama and Clinton campaigns now fighting over every single delegate vote, the alignment with one of the campaigns will be the major, perhaps the sole factor, in voting for party chair,” party activist Bart Dame said.

Just how these party positions are filled now becomes a key test of the party’s ability to accommodate new members and give them a real role in party affairs.

Amaral said she proposed that all party members be asked to another round of meetings next month to complete unfinished precinct and district elections, but the idea was turned down by district leaders who said they don’t want to be tied to a unified timetable or procedure.

Amaral said her plan would be most cost effective, but would still cost thousands of dollars in printing and postage costs for mailing notices to party members, money that simply doesn’t exist in the party’s budget.

Several party insiders told Honolulu Weekly that old-guard Democrats could try to take advantage of the unfinished precinct elections to take control of the process and elect convention delegates from their small circle of old friends, protecting their turf against the intrusion of thousands of new party members.

According to Dame, “in the past, when we had unorganized precincts, it has been an opportunity for part traditionalists to pick their people and have them be elected as delegates.”

Amaral and others think that would be a serious misstep that could jeopardize the caucuses huge political gains.

Her advice to party leaders: “When you do gather to elect precinct officers and convention delegates, include all these new people who have come in and create a process that is open, transparent, and accountable.”

-Ian Lind (www.iLind.net)