Kucinich finishes 2nd in nation's 1st caucus in Santa Cruz CA (seriously!)

[cryofan]

I am just pasting this in from another thread. I have to make sure the Kucitizens all see this!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Today Santa Cruz, California held the nation's first caucus. It's not quite Iowa, but check it out:

The non-biding caucus was sponsored by the Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee, the People’s Democratic Club, Santa Cruz County Democratic Women’s Club and North Santa Cruz County Democrats, and included a keynote speech from U.S. Rep Sam Farr and closing remarks from Assemblyman John Laird.

The hall was hopping. We had 2 live donkeys, bagpipers, and some great singing. After the entertainment, representatives for each candidate (except Lieberman and Sharpton) spoke to the crowd, and ballots were cast.

The results, from 441 ballots:

Dean 42%
Kucinich 29%
Clark 25%
Kerry 2%
Edwards 1%

Braun and Sharpton each had less than 1%
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There are no google news hits for the results, but here are some links to some articles written prior to the event:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Santa+Cruz%22+caucus.

And here is text from one of the articles:
Democratic groups plan countywide caucus today. Saying they are worried that early caucuses and primary elections in states such as Iowa and New Hampshire could decide their party's presidential nominee before Californians vote March 2, four Santa Cruz County Democratic groups have decided to ``pre-empt'' Iowa's Jan. 19 caucus.

The groups today will hold a non-binding, Iowa-style countywide caucus of their own at the Santa Cruz Veterans Hall.

``We wanted to give Democrats in Santa Cruz County a chance to make their presidential preferences known before voters in other states set the choice in cement,'' Julie Conway said. ``It'll be a cross between a caucus and a straw poll.''

The public is invited to the event. But only people who are registered as Democrats or have declined to state their political preference can vote.

[JohnKleeb]

1. very well done :)

I would have prefered to have won :) but 2nd place and 29% isnt so bad, hopefully we will have a repeat in Iowa :).

[diamondsoul]

14. 29%^ in Iowa means DELEGATES!

that's a good enough start for me! LOL

[Dookus]

17. heheh...

congrats to DK, but I live in Santa Cruz. I've been to Iowa. Santa Cruz is NOT Iowa.

This is an almost-preternaturally liberal town. Our city council voted to impeach Bush. Our mayor distributed medical marijuana on the City Hall steps after a DEA raid on a pot farm.

I love this town :)

[LWolf]

26. That's a fine start.

Now our job is to get some mainstream press. Before January 19th. People need to see his name up there in the top 2. An encouragement to all those who like him best "but." Suggestions?

[burrowowl]

2. Good eom

[xultar]

3. YEA Kucinich! I really like him!!!! Congratulations!! DK Camp n/t

[Skwmom]

4. Congratulations

I think Kucinich is a class act.

[maddezmom]

5. great show DK!

[Clark4VotingRights]

6. Yes! Good news for us. Bad news for those that like to pretend DK

is invisible.

I just listened to speeches from four candidates in Iowa.
They were all great. Yet Kucinich blew them out of the water.

[Desertrose]

10. I agree...Dennis was truly on fire!

It was intersting to see how many in the crowd were shaking thier heads in agreement....

Dennis is going to surprise a LOT of people....in spite of the "disappearing act " they tried to do on him.....its the message people want to hearm delivered by a man who tells it like it is!


Go Dennis!!!

Peace & hope
DR

[corporatewhore]

33. totally agree Up Yours Ted Koppel!!!

[edzontar]

7. Good for him!!! Maybe I should move there...

Anything beats Central PA--land of the ignorant!

[tinanator]

8. you better bring a lotta $$$$$$

The price of paradise is none too cheap. I'm actually somewhat disappointed in this, and somewhat impressed by Dean's showing, BUT, the real primary will be very interesting to compare to this.

[cryofan]

9. why are you disappointed? If it gets any coverage...

....it will be a big coup for DK

[tinanator]

19. This wont be a necessary "event"

He will clean clocks in real primaries. The reasons for my disappointment arent important.

[Dookus]

18. c'mon out, Ed!

I'm in Santa Cruz - my parents live in Mifflinburg, PA.

It's better here ;)

[RevolutionStartsNow]

11. DK is VERY popular in Santa Cruz

Perhaps even more popular than this vote showed.

He is also the only candidate who has come here to speak.

[tinanator]

20. thanks for speaking up

Hadnt considered the sample source till you said something.
Cool.

[corporatewhore]

12. way to go DK !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[slinkerwink]

13. good news for Kucinich!

[Lisa0825]

15. Congratulations!!!

Although he isn't my candidate, I truly believe he is a good man. Congrats to him and his supporters!

[ThirdWheelLegend]

16. Great news!

That is superb, Democrats waking up possibly?

TWL

[SeveneightyWhoa]

21. So..

..is this as good as it gets for Kucinich? 2nd place, in a liberal town? Let's hope not.

[tinanator]

22. no

It wasnt an actual primary vote. The results will be different in the primary, just wait and cross reference.

[WI_DEM]

23. Good showing for Dean and DK

combined their votes come to 71% of total.

[LWolf]

24. Woo Hoo!

Of course I'm thrilled! Now I want to see those results in mainstream media. Maybe I can use the numbers in my phone calls to Iowa.

It doesn't surprise me. I'm not near Santa Cruz, I'm in southern California. Dennis has strong support down here as well, even though it's not as "liberal" as Santa Cruz.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

25. Clark came in third in Santa Cruz?

Notice that Santa Cruz gave basically nothing to any "known" candidates (sure DK's been around a while but he is new to most people).

Who would have thought, the most left liberal cities in the world are basically just saying "throw the bums out" incuments be damned.

[Quixote1818]

35. Poll good news for Clark

From the Clark Blog.


Clark a strong 3rd - behind Kucinich! In a staw poll by the Dem party organization in Santa Cruz, CA:

Dean 183
Kucinich 126
Clark 111


Why am I posting this? Because even though it seems frivolous, there's an interesting message in this activist straw poll. Santa Cruz is liberal as it gets, as the Kucinich number shows. Yet Clark is competitive even there.

And compare Clark's numbers to everyone else's. Kerry only got 10 votes, and poor Joe and Gep got zippo. What you're seeing here is Clark enthusiasm and boots on the ground. If we can do this well in a straw poll of Santa Cruz activists, we can whip Dean in California.

-- Rick Robinson

[Dolphyn]

27. Coverage in Santa Cruz Sentinel

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2004/January/11/local/stories/02local.htm

I'm very disappointed with this article. You have to read halfway down the page to learn that Kucinich did so well, let alone the fact that he had one of the "largest and most vocal contingents."

I thought the Santa Cruz press would do better. * sigh *

[cryofan]

28. Even more disappointing, no other media coverage at all on this

....poor ole DK, he been's down so long....and just keeps getting stomped on again and again....

[RevolutionStartsNow]

29. The Sentinel sucks

They are a conservative paper, which is amazing for this very liberal town.

Don't you love the last line in the article, where they quote someone as saying that they would vote for the devil over George Bush? Ugh.

They also neglected to mention the fabulous speech by US Representative Sam Farr.

[goobergunch]

30. That's a *non-binding* caucus (n/t)

[ThirdWheelLegend]

32. Polls are binding?

[corporatewhore]

31. Kick for the longshot wholl win the race !!!!

[stickdog]

34. Can you give us a breakdown of those results by

tiedye wearers and non-tiedye wearers and vegans and non-vegans? ;-)

[ThirdWheelLegend]

36. 100% real Progressives who want REAL change..

I believe that is the official breakdown.

TWL

[LWolf]

37. Exactly.

I wonder if other campaigns are busy breaking down support into categories like that; and what the other categories might consist of. Wait, I think I already heard about it. Something about guns, flags, & trucks....

[ThirdWheelLegend]

39. need to add to the above..

Oh those silly tyedye hippies who love peace and want to stop killing our troops and more innocent Iraqi civilians.

Aren't they just plain silly!

TWL

[Zomby Woof]

38. ZombyDKick