Caucus first-timer finds chaos, satisfaction

SEATTLE - Helping choose the next leader of the free world was utterly chaotic Saturday but Lisa Loop gave it her best. "My legs are sore from standing for almost two hours to see Obama yesterday," she said, "so I didn’t know how much energy I had left for today’s caucus."

Loop, 46, a novelist, had brought her family to experience a Washington state Democratic caucus with her. This was a first for them all, and she was hopeful. "This city is full of articulate people who want to have their say," she said. "I’m very patriotic because my mother was an immigrant from Sweden. She used to cry whenever they played the national anthem."

Loop's first-timer experience has been repeated again and again across the country this election season as Americans show new interest in political processes that they have paid little attention to in the past. The lack of an incumbent candidate, or even a vice president hoping for a promotion, large initial fields of candidates in both parties, changes in election dates and a wide array of issues have combined to draw voters to polling places in record numbers.

In past elections, like elsewhere, Washington voters haven’t felt they had any real say in who was selected as their party's nominee; the candidates have been finalized earlier in the primary process. That’s why Loop and her colleagues never paid much attention before. Caucuses were for committee ladies, fat cats and activists. "Who did I know besides Joanie Caucus in Doonesbury cartoons?" Loop asked.

Her husband, Andrew Chapman, 45, wasn’t especially optimistic, and threatened to leave promptly if the crowd was too thick. This being Seattle, they clutched their Starbucks cups as they joined the throngs. Loop found her caucus location, Washington Middle School, in the middle of the city’s multi-ethnic Central District, by checking with the Obama Web site. One waggish neighbor planted a scribbled "Obama Parking Only" sign next to the asphalt. A tiny plane pulled a "Ron Paul" banner overhead.

Loop’s older daughter, Augusta, 12, found a friend and scampered off. Her younger daughter, Nora, 6, held her stuffed animal and clung to her parents as they melted into the crowd. The Democratic party knew to expect record numbers, and Dwight Pelz, the chair of the entire state party, was directing traffic himself.

A volunteer boomed into the masses, "Do you know your precinct number?" Loop had no idea, but found a neighbor who did. "What do we do?" asked her husband. "Is this only for Democrats?"

The family slowly made their way into the school’s cavernous, but packed lunchroom, where the temperature had risen dramatically from the crush of people. The mood was festive, though, and Loop found at least a dozen friends and neighbors in the varied crowd. Her husband gave out friendly air kisses once they found their precinct table, and joked that booze was all they needed for a real block party.

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