What are your thoughts about Washington state?

[free.alive]

How's the campaign doing? what about the Meetup organizers. Is there adequate visible support? How is progress with the party coming along? What suggestions/criticisms/complaints/requests/compliments should be passed along to staff, organizers and volunteers? What things are or have worked really well and need to be continued or resumed?

This info should be collected and passed along to key people who can get things done and make decisions. Ideally, that would be every Washington supporter, but organizers and staff would be good enough?

Oh, and we should start these threads on each and every state!!

[colecrowe]

It rains a TON.

But seriously. I drove thru Washington the week before xmas. It was awesome. I really believe that is Ron Paul's best state. Just wearing my button I started up conversations with half a dozen already-supporters and converted like five people. His signs are everywhere--north, west, south--urban, small town, rural. Look at the map: http://ronpaulgraphs.com/donors.html

They are a caucus state, which can often be good for us I think, really good if the turnout is low. It's Feb 9th I think.

[jasonjasonjason1]

aa

[jasonjasonjason1]

aa

[free.alive]

colecrowe -

that's encouraging!

Well it's caucus and primary, but the caucus is the big deal (although it actually gets one less delegate!)

The campaign needs help here. The Meetup organizers need all the help they can get. A lot is happening, but it never seems to be enough.

[The Minister]

I know that the Vancouver BC meetup group is working hard to get Point Roberts for RP

Apparently it's worth two delegates alone, strangely. Considering that only about 1300 people live there then that should be easy enough to accomplish. Consider it took 10,000 in Iowa for as much

[ceakins]

It rains a TON.

But seriously. I drove thru Washington the week before xmas. It was awesome. I really believe that is Ron Paul's best state. Just wearing my button I started up conversations with half a dozen already-supporters and converted like five people. His signs are everywhere--north, west, south--urban, small town, rural. Look at the map: http://ronpaulgraphs.com/donors.html

They are a caucus state, which can often be good for us I think, really good if the turnout is low. It's Feb 9th I think.


Actually we are a 50/50 state. Half Caucus and Half votes. We basically get to vote twice if we want to show up at the caucuses.

[Agent CSL]

Washington has a caucus and a primary. I'm in the Snohomish vicinity. Not many signs around here, sadly. I've got 8 signs left to put up. I'm going to put up 3 soon, then save 3 for the caucuses, then another 2 signs for the primaries just in case they get taken down.

I want to start a food drive that was mentioned in another thread. So if anyone in the Everett-Snoho area has experience in doing stuff like this, I wouldn't mind being contacted. :)

[jasonjasonjason1]

aa

[free.alive]

3 delegates go to the party leadership

18 delegates are elected from the caucuses→county conventions→state convention process

19 delegates elected from the results of the primary (I think each campaign gets to select its choices for delegates, but I'm not sure)

In 2000, roughly 60,000 people showed up to caucus for both parties. 1.3 million people voted in the presidential preference primary.

However, this is an open primary state and you don't have to register with either party at all.

Also, the dems don't use the results of their primary - just their caucus.

[exer51]

I think we're doin' ok. I just signed up and took over a precinct after having helped a few others with theirs. I'm about to go apeshit. Seattle is one of the leaders in the country for the most precinct captains. There are a lot of motivated and energetic meetup leaders. Chip, Larry and Molly are great. I might take over the Ballard group too as the guy who runs it doesn't live in Ballard anymore.

I WILL WIN MY NEIGHBORHOOD. The Battle For Ballard has begun, and it shall end in a victory for Ron Paul... If it doesn't I might cry :(

Only thing that pissed me off.discouraged me was literally like 16 hours after the sign bomb ALL the signs I put up were gone except like 3. But whatever. They were there for morning rush hour :)

[exer51]

3 delegates go to the party leadership

18 delegates are elected from the caucuses→county conventions→state convention process

19 delegates elected from the results of the primary (I think each campaign gets to select its choices for delegates, but I'm not sure)

In 2000, roughly 60,000 people showed up to caucus for both parties. 1.3 million people voted in the presidential preference primary.

However, this is an open primary state and you don't have to register with either party at all.

Also, the dems don't use the results of their primary - just their caucus.

Encouraging. I know Maureen said we had over 8K people registered with the official campaign(might have been King County only I don't recall), sooo if only 20-25K come out for the Republicans in the caucus(it HAS to be less than half of the total since the Dems dominate here) then we could do some damage. Hell even if only HALF them came out it could be a 15 percent for Paul. We've still got a month+ to go too!!! The primary might be though though.

[oldjersey]

Hello. I wrote this email and have been sending it to my friends, especially those in the Democratic Party. Please personalize it and send it to your Washington state friends and family.

************


Ok, so as most of you may or may not know, the Washington State 2008 Presidential primaries are on Feb.19th. Basically, you either go to your polling site or vote via an absentee form.

Here is the little known fact, the Democratic Party in Washington state has never used the results of the primary to allocate delegates.. They allocate all of their delegates from the Democratic caucus results on Feb. 9th.
( see 3rd page, second paragraph of http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/pdf/2008PP/PP%20MFQ%20Updated%20August%202007%20Final.pdf )

The Republican party allocates 51% of their delegates using the primary results, and the remaining 49% of their delegates using the caucus results.

In Washington state, you do not state your party, meaning there is no state-wide party registration. When you go to the polls or use your absentee ballot to vote in the presidential primaries, you are only allowed to select a candidate for single party. If you choose a candidate for each party, your vote does not count at all. More importantly, if you select a Democratic candidate, your vote does not count at all.

So basically, in Washington state, your primary vote only counts if you select a Republican candidate. It is with this fact that I ask you to select Ron Paul as the Republican nominee. Voters can participate in both the party caucuses and the Presidential Primary as long as they participate on behalf of the same party. If you don't plan on participating in the Democratic caucus, please vote for Ron Paul in the Republican primary on Feb.19th (or on your absentee
ballot).

Ron Paul is the ONLY Republican candidate who wants to end the Iraq war.

Do you really want to risk one of the other Republican candidates making it to the general election?

Please forward this to your Washington state friends and family.

Please visit http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ for more information on Ron Paul

[stewie3128]

It's four days after Super Tuesday. If we have a respectable showing on Feb. 5th, we'll do very well in WA. If we're in a bunch of 4th and 5th place finishes on Super Tuesday though, WA voters won't consider him viable enough to vote for.

Feb. 5th will be precedented by the campaign's performance in NV on Saturday, so we'll have a good indication in a few days.