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Growing up in Vegas I never actually lived in the “city” of Las Vegas. This means that I never had a chance to vote on the mayor or city council. Also, I just missed out on voting for the president there because I turned 18 right after Clinton’s second term. So now the primary in Nevada is a Caucus and of course I don’t live out there anymore. But, I was able to talk with some friends and family about the experience of going to a caucus. Reading up on the process it seems like it would be pretty interesting but perception and reality are two different things.

So, I emailed two of my “insiders” who went to the Caucus…one Democrat and one Republican (of the ten or so black Republicans in Las Vegas half are in my family or I grew up with them. LOL!). I just asked them general questions about the day. It seems that the Dems had it really organized. On the other side it seems that things didn’t go as smoothly as you would expect.

But, below are the answers to the questions I sent them. This is purely for insight into the process for those in states, as myself, who only have a regular primary:

The Democratic Experience from a Voters POV - Dem.

What were your first impressions when you went to the caucus?

It was very positive. There were volunteers for both Barrack and Hillary with campaign stickers outside the entrance doors. I encountered the Barrack volunteer first, took a sticker, and he directed me to the location were my precinct was meeting. Then I encountered the Hillary volunteer she gave me directions, too.

What were the demographics (in other words…any black folks except yourself)?

There was diversity, but it was majority white. I saw two black Prescient Captains.

What actually happens in the Caucus for those who don’t know?

You register with your prescient, sign in and receive a voter registration card. My caucus was in the gym of Silvertri Middle School. There were campaign signs all along the belchers along with your prescient number. You were to sit with your prescient in the section with the folks who supported your candidate. The registration was set to start at 11am. I arrived about 10:45am and registration had already begun. I sat next to a young black woman with a couple of children. I even called a couple of people to come join me at the caucus. Each prescient had a Captain and it was his/her job to direct folks where to sit and make them feel welcome. The Prescient Captain for my group had called me that morning to remind me of the caucus time and meeting place. I also had a call from the Hillary campaign from Boston informing me of the caucus meeting. By 11:45am registration was over, the doors closed and the process began. A man introduced himself as the temporary Headquarter Captain. The first order of business was to take a vote for someone else who was interested to lead the proceeding. This man said he did receive training on how to run this meeting. As a group we agreed he should keep the position. He had two welcome letters one from Pres. Bush and one from Sen. Harry Reid to read to our group. We voted not to listen to the letters but proceed. We were instructed not to fill out our ballot until the end. We sat close together with the folks that were voting for the same candidate. As we were sitting chanting starting, first someone starts chanting Hillary, then someone starting chanting Obama. Actually I like the one the Obama folks got going, “Obama08, be part of something great!” The atmosphere was very spirited, a lot like a pep rally. Once we were divided in our groups, each Prescient Captain for each candidate took a physical count of the people in attendance. A candidate had to have at least 15 people to receive delegate votes. There were 98 people in attendance and 3 choices. Folks for Edwards had less than 15 votes. They could choose to vote with Hillary or Obama or not be counted at all. Of the five Edwards’ people, one vote went to Hillary, four went to Obama. The votes were taken 3 times before the final number were decided. It ended up being a tie with Hillary and Obama each getting five delegate votes. We then filled out our paper ballots. The next order of business was to choose 10 people to actually cast the votes for our prescient at the State Assembly meeting. Five Hillary people raised their hand, and six Obama people raised their hands. Since there were to be only five Obama representatives, we were asked by the Headquarter Captain to give a 2 minute speech expressing why we wanted to go to the State Assembly. The first volunteer called on to speak changed his mind and now there were just five. But in order to be fair, the Headquarter Captain thought we should still continue with the speeches. A few people said they need to leave; it was now after 12:30pm. An older white man gave a short speech stating he was a lifetime democrat and he belonged to a local political group. I gave my speech next saying I was a librarian with the Clark County School. It would be my privilege to represent my prescient because Obama was a man I believed should be our next President. I wanted to be a part of history. The others didn’t speak, the meeting was dismissed. The volunteers went back to the registration table to fill out a form registering to be at the State Assembly.

Was everyone given a chance to talk?

Yes.

Was it an open forum or very controlled?

It was very controlled and very organized.

How was your experience?

It was a great experience and I’m glad I was there, Was it what you expected? I didn’t really know what to expect but I was very interested and even changed my personal plans so that I would be there on January 19th. I definitely would attend another caucus.

The Democratic Experience from a Voters POV - Repub.

What were your first impressions when you went to the caucus?

First Impressions: Unorganized, wack and could have been done over the Internet

What were the demographics (in other words…any black folks except yourself)?

There were a few black folks, majority white.

What actually happens in the Caucus for those who don’t know?

You sit on the side of the candidate you want to support. If that candidate doesn’t get at least 15% support they are nixed.

Was everyone given a chance to talk?

Not everyone needed to talk. Only those who wanted to convince others, who were supporting a different candidate, could state their case.

Was it an open forum or very controlled?

The Dem Caucus was very open. The Republican Caucus was more controlled.

How was your experience? Was it what you expected?

On a scale of 1 - 10. I would rate it a 4. It wasn’t what I expected.

I have been really interested in the primaries going on tonight in Iowa. As I get information about the polling results I will update my reactions to it tonight. It is funny how so much energy and time is spent on just 7 electoral votes coming out of Iowa but winning this state is big in the primaries because it sets the tone.

7:30PM Central Time - John Edwards is leading after 2 precincts reporting - Edwards 42%, Clinton 33%, Obama 25%. - Huckabee leading on the republican side at around 33% and Romney has around 25%.

All I can say is that if all the other states go to Edwards and he wins the nomination on the Democratic side…

7:49PM Central - Now how Stupid is this…I thought that it was just a straight vote like any other caucus but in Iowa these “cow-tippers” are living in the 1800’s…

Democratic way to vote in Iowa Caucus

When the Democratic caucuses begin at 7 p.m. CT sharp in school gymnasiums, libraries, churches, farm houses and other locations in the 1,781 precincts across the Hawkeye state, step one will be to stand up and be counted.

“What you’ll do is get up out of your seat and you’ll go walk to the corner or space by the wall designated for the candidate of your choice,” Chelsea Waliser, an organizer for Sen. Barack Obama, told potential caucus-goers during a recent Obama rehearsal caucus.

After this first step, party officials will determine if a candidate meets the 15 percent “threshold” requirement.

Supporters of candidates making up less than 15 percent of the vote in a particular precinct will have the option of making their vote count by voting in the second tally for a “viable” candidate — one who got at least 15 percent of the vote on the first tally.

It is particularly interesting to watch what happens between the first and second tallies at the Iowa Democratic caucuses, as viable candidate camps vie for the votes of the unviable. It’s one of the few times in American politics where voters directly interact with each other.

During the “persuasion” time in between tallies, the precinct captain for the viable candidates sends a person over to each group that failed to meet the threshold to convince them to support their candidate. Once everyone has decided where to vote, a second tally is taken, and the results are then sent to Democratic state party headquarters — not electronically but via ordinary mail.

The Iowa Democratic Party keeps the total vote tally a secret and only releases the percentage of delegates won by each candidate, so it all comes down to how many delegates each precinct has, not the popular vote.

Republican way to Vote in the Iowa Caucus

By comparison, the rules governing the 1,781 Republican caucuses, which are held on the same night as the Democratic caucuses, are pretty simple. The Republican caucuses will use a secret ballot, and, since there is no viability threshold, each vote is simply tallied and the number of votes each candidate gets is reported to party headquarters.

What are the Democrats doing out there. Article link

8:01PM - NBC News is saying that Obama has a slight lead on the Deomcratic side and Huckabee on the Republican side. The minister vs. the chosen one…yes sir. When I heard that Obama had the lead you already know how I was feeling (and I hate to tip my hand about who I’m supporting this year but you already know)…

8:19PM - NBC News is reporting that Huckabee is the winner in Iowa on the republican side. That is not bad for an old Baptist preacher that probably had a fraction of the money Romney has. I still credit his win to talk radio. Everytime I listen to one of the talk radio shows during the day it seems like they all favor Huckabee but Republican’s can only keep pulling the “Christian Card” for so long. Being a Christian myself, I don’t identify my faith with politics because neither party can represent Christian values when you look at them. But, I’m in the minority because most people who call themselves Christians vote Republican. (But I bet if you polled nothing but black Christians that wouldn’t be the case)

8:55PM - Everyone is reporting that Obama has taken Iowa but it is very close (37%, 30% Edwards, 30% Clinton). How crazy is it that Clinton looks to have come in third…I know Bill is probably thinking about how can we get the law changed so he can run for a third term. Anyway, I think Obama vs. Huckabee is what this country needs. Two different candidates who are nothing like Kerry/Bush. It is still early but 2008 is going to be interesting.

Whenever I find something online I like to give credit where credit is due. I found a site called KillerStartups where they go out and review different “start-up” sites on the net. They have a rating system similar to Digg where users can rate how they think a site will perform. Anywho, one of their reviews was for a site called Glassbooth.

Glassbooth gives you an independent assessment of where you stand with all the 2008 candidates. I love sites like this because you just answer the questions on the issues and then you can see how your answers stack up to all the different people in the race. I took this right off of their “about” page:

Glassbooth is a nonprofit organization that is creating innovative ways to access political information. An informed and interested democracy is a powerful thing. As an organization acting in the public’s interest, we are very serious about our core principles:
Integrity

All information used in the Glassbooth process is of the highest accuracy and integrity. No process is perfect though. Please get involved and shoot us an email if you want to add or comment on any of our content.
Nonbias

We believe Glassbooth’s success is contingent on nonbias in our process. We have worked closely with partners and experts to insure our language is in no way misleading. Again, feel free to email us with suggestions as to how we can improve.
Nonpartisan

Glassbooth does not affiliate with any political party, political organization, or ideology…we can’t and we won’t.
Transparency

All information used by Glassbooth will be available for the public to view and scrutinize. We are not Google…we want you to know why your results are delivered the way they are.
Insight

Glassbooth is always learning and adapting to how people are using media and interacting with information. We are constantly adding new features to the site so check back often.

One feature that I really liked about the site is that you can look at every issue for each candidate and see their stance for that issue. There is also a link to the transcript/article when they said it. I was actually pretty surprised on where I thought different candidates were on a position (e.g. I didn’t know McCain flip-flopped on abortion…he was originally pro-choice but now he is pro-life). Overall, I thought is was a good information site. Check it out and see where you stand. Later on in 2008 I may post how my survey turned out but I will say I lined up with the candidates. I will say I had a mixture of both parties have the highest comparison to me @ 70%.

Hillary Clinton has a new plan out to give a $1000 tax to every household making under $60k/yr. This is a dollar for dollar tax credit that would go to anyone contributing to a universal “American Retirement Account”, which would be sometype of 401(k). The credit would range from $500-$1000 depending on household income upto $100k. If you make more than that…I guess you get no love.

The idea to pay for the plan is to raise taxes on estates over $7 million.

Instead, she said, her plan for what she called “American Retirement Accounts” will provide “universal access to a generous 401(k) for all Americans.”

She outlined a program in which the government would provide a “matching refundable tax credit — dollar for dollar — for the first $1,000 of savings done by every married couple making up to $60,000 a year.”

Families with incomes of up to $100,000 would receive a smaller tax break to spur them to contribute to a personal 401(k).

“This means tens of millions of middle-class families will get matching tax cuts of up to $500 and $1,000 to help them build a nest egg for retirement,” said a fact sheet distributed by the campaign.

OK. Cool. I’ll take a tax credit…except what about the folks who make over $100k/yr. I’m not saying where I fall (less than 60, 60-100, or more than 100) but that is a pretty low cutoff. $100k is not rich by any means anymore, in fact that is just middle class.

When I first read the headline I thought this was a good idea but now I’m not feeling it at all because you are cutting out so many folks who could actually use the tax credit. My thing is just make sure when I’m 59 1/2 I can get this social security that comes out of my check every other week. Republican or Democrat…I just want to know that will be there because I could be putting that in my own stock account (FYI…if you don’t know about GNK you better learn baby!!! I got in 11/16/06 and I’m up over 140%)

At a cost of $20 billion-$25 billion a year, the plan is Clinton’s largest domestic proposal other than her plan for universal health insurance. The Republican National Committee criticized her level of spending

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