The Nevada Caucus: notes from the sausage factory

Kirk Caraway
January 19, 2008, 4:01 AM

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A wise person once said you don't need to know how sausage is made to enjoy it.

I went into my first Democratic presidential caucus with this thought in mind. I was about to look inside the guts of democracy. It would be the first real presidential caucus for Nevada, and no one knew how it would turn out.

Unlike sausage, the nitty gritty of choosing a candidate wasn't as sloppy as I and others had feared.

I arrived at my caucus location Carson High School about an hour early. I expected a lot of confusion as the entire concept of a caucus is pretty much a mystery to anyone outside of Iowa.

But the countless phone calls and mailers from the campaigns had everyone pretty well informed. The crowds grew and some stations ran short of registration forms and ballots. But new ballots were made from blank paper, and the caucusgoers retreated to their precinct areas.

The turnout projection for my precinct was 80, but 105 showed up. Word was spreading that the turnout was surpassing even the optimistic estimates.

Unlike just casting your ballot, everyone had to sit down and listen to the rules, then break up into groups for their candidates. I met several of my new neighbors in the Sen. Barack Obama group. Seems our street was pretty divided between Obama and John Edwards, just like my household.

Once we split up, the groups were counted. Any candidate who didn't get 15 percent was declared nonviable, and those people could either choose another candidate or remain undecided. In our precinct, there were no nonviable candidates, which made it a little boring. Edwards had just enough votes to stay viable, and the rest of the room was split almost evenly between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The fun group was the bigger precinct next door. It had twice as many people, and only Obama and Clinton had enough votes to remain viable. That meant the scramble was on to claim the supporters of Edwards and the other candidates. There were some who tried to cajole and argue their case, and some just chanted their candidate's name. Now this was sausage time.

But after it was all over, it was all neat and tasty, at least in my corner of the world. Late word from the Obama campaign was that they were looking into some irregularities in the Las Vegas area, with some sites closing their doors early, lack of registration forms, etc.

From my vantage point, at least Nevada didn't embarrass themselves.

Statewide, Clinton was declared the winner with Obama a close second. Where I am in Northern Nevada, Obama actually won, which I think is reflective of the area's more conservative rural nature. Clinton won by pulling out Clark County, where the establishment Democrats are strong. It's hard to say Obama really lost considering the margin.

But you can't say that about Edwards, who may end up with a measly 4 percent. Trailing second place Obama by 40 points pretty much dooms his chances of going forward. I thought he would do a lot better than he did. One poll had him with 27 percent. That just goes to prove how bad the polls were for this race.

So now it goes forward. Nevada kept the Hillary campaign alive, didn't hurt Obama too much, and sent Republican winner Mitt Romney onto Super Tuesday to really muddle the GOP race.

In the end, Nevada's caucus doesn't look as if it will be decisive, but at least we had our say.



• Kirk Caraway writes for Swift Communications, Inc. He can be reached through his blog at kirkcaraway.com.

• Complete caucus coverage