JCDems Need Caucus Help

One big differences between Democratic and Republican caucuses is that when Republicans have an incumbent president, they don't conduct a presidential vote. (That's not normally significant, except maybe in 1992.)

We Democrats, on the other hand, do the full show even when we're in the White House. Old timers of course remember the epic Carter-Kennedy battle of 1980, and a few of our locals are still miffed that we swept five non-Bill Clinton delegates under the rug in 1996. (We won't let that happen again; I'm sticking with the president but uncommitteds are welcome too.)

Lots of other fun stuff on deck, too: who doesn't love a good Johnson County Dems platform fight? And odds are strong that the delegates will be getting together again after the 2012 presidential election. Mid-term county supervisor Sally Stutsman is running for the Iowa House in open, solidly Democratic House 77. If when she wins, if a special election happens the delegates chosen on caucus night nominate the Democratic candidate in a special election.

But someone needs to run the show. I'll be chairing my caucus again, in Iowa City Precinct 10. (Because the date is so insanely early, we're caucusing in the old precincts, because the new ones don't kick in till January 15. One more thing that's Florida's fault.) We need some more people to chair in some more places.

In case you've been under a rock, the date is Tuesday, January 3. Sign-in starts at 6:30 and the show begins at 7. Our 57 caucuses will be clustered into eight locations, so someone more experienced will be on site to lend you a hand. Some of the proceedings will be conducted in a larger group, before we break into individual rooms for election of delegates and officers.

Here's where we need a hand.

At West High: Iowa City Precinct 9. (East of Mormon Trek, west of Teg)

At City High: Iowa City 5 and 11 (downtown; dorms and apartments east of river), Iowa City 23 (north of Rochester and east of North Dodge)

At the North Liberty Rec Center: Madison Township (northwest of North Liberty), Jefferson East (Shueyville) and Jefferson West (Swisher).

At Solon Middle School: city of Solon, Cedar and Graham Townships (Sutliff and Morse).

At Clear Creek Amana High School in Tiffin: city of Tiffin, Clear Creek township (rural Tiffin), and Hardin Township (Cosgrove).

At Hills Elementary School: Washington Township (Frytown), Pleasant Valley township (Sand Road south of Iowa City), Lincoln and Fremont (greater metropolitan Lone Tree).

Let me know if you can do one of these (jdeethATmchsi.com). If you're not in one of these, let me know anyway, because whoever is chairing your caucus could certainly use a hand. I know I could. If you don't know where you are, you can check here (lookup) or here (map of Iowa City)or just ask me. You can also stop by our central committee meeting tomorrow night at 7, at the old school district offices. (We need to move those in the near future...)

We're having a training session this Sunday, December 4, at 1 p.m. at the headquarters. Did you know we have a headquarters? 321 E. Market, across from the Bluebird Diner.