Democracy for Vancouver

Olympia Time has a post of Cheryl Crist’s email about the Democratic Party Nominating Convention held in Napavine on Saturday. In her email Cheryl says:

Many PCO’s that I thought would be there for me stayed away or didn’t find their way to the right room. The nominating convention was not held in the gymnasium as was indicated on the postcard that some PCO’s received. I did not receive one (I have been a PCO since January) and neither did Chris Sterns and other progressives. I know nothing about how it was determined who would be invited by postcard.

Here is the result we were given: PCO’s who voted: 83. Votes for Baird: 59 Votes for Crist: 24 The weighted total was 422 to 115.

I was one of the people that were supposed to drive 3 hours just so that I could vote for Crist, who I strongly suspected would not get the majority. Certainly there were many others like me who had better things to do on a nice Saturday morning. The process is flawed and I give much credit to Cheryl Crist for her graceful endurance.

That Brian Baird, a 4 term sitting U.S. Representative, could get 59 people to make the trip to Napavine, many of which were probably attending the Convention for other reasons, is not a surprise.

What is surprising is that 24 people did show up and vote for Cheryl Crist because as she states in her email:

Many PCO’s that I thought would be there for me stayed away or didn’t find their way to the right room.

So now we have a nominee, Brian Baird, and we have a non-nominee, Cheryl Crist, either of whom we will be voting for in the August primary. And the purpose of the Nominating Convention the Primary Election is what again? If 59 Democratic party activists are going to sway you to vote for either of these candidates in the primary, then I suggest that you not even bother to cast your vote at all. After all, they know better than you, right?