I caucused in the 7th senate district of Kansas last night. I arrived about 6:40 pm, hoping to get in the doors by 7 pm. When I arrive at the church, the location for the Democratic caucus, I was shocked to see a long line winding through the parking lot and down the street! It seemed to go on forever. I had to park three blocks away and hustle to get in line. We stood in freezing weather for about 90 minutes. The volunteers kept us informed all the while, and when the church was full, we were redirected to a synagogue across the street. There must have been several hundred in the synagogue alone. The organizers had to keep copying registration forms all evening long to meet the demand.
There's something in the air, folks! It's both magical and electrical. I've never seen anything like what I saw last evening and I've been voting since 1972.
Large Turnout Overwhelms Democratic Caucuses In Kansas<snip}
Party officials had predicted between 10,000 and 11,000 people would participate. But an intense national race between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton brought more than 33,000 participants to 50 caucus sites across the state.
<snip>
"I've never seen anything like this," said former state Rep. Ed McKechnie, a short-line railroad executive. "It's pretty incredible."
Democratic Party leaders immediately faced questions about whether they had prepared well enough for the event. Past caucuses hadn't been competitive, occurring after one candidate had sewn up the nomination; in 2004, only 1,300 people participated.
"In hindsight I would love to have had large auditoriums or gymnasiums, but we got the best we could get at the time," said state Chairman Larry Gates. "In Kansas City, schools had their venues committed. We relied a great deal on churches, and some of them were not as big as we would have liked."
Many Democrats, like McKechnie, took the crush of people in stride. At the Topeka middle school caucus, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius drew loud cheers when she told participants about the large turnout in other sites.
"I knew people were excited," Sebelius said before the caucus began. "It's the first time that I can remember in my political life in Kansas that we've had any say in who the nominee might be in a realistic way."--more--
The Dems are going to win in November!
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