PDHblog
This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

I hardly know where to begin. The turnout last night was insane. Unheard of. Probably will never happen again. Amazing. Plenty more adjectives come to mind.

Maybe it is because I am exhausted (didn’t get to bed till 3am after helping tally the votes at HQ) and still in shock that I survived the onslaught of turnout in my district… But I am actually quite emotional when reading the results today. It is not often that I feel moved to tears of joy when reading about politics. Like I said, probably best attributed to lack of sleep.

That said, I am very happy about how things turned out last night. In District 20, where I am the chair, we had over 1000 people turn out to vote. Four years ago, even with a large influx of Kucinich voters (including myself), there were 128 ballots cast in the District 20 caucuses. Last night, 1028 ballots were cast. Statewide, over 37,000 votes were cast. That has never happened before, and I think it is safe to say it will never happen again. The factors that combined to create the huge turnout last night are unlikely to come together in the future. A candidate with a history in Hawai‘i. A national race so close that Hawai‘i “matters.”

A few thoughts on what all this may mean…

First, the turnout. This is mentioned over and over, but for good reason. Typically people don’t even know the Democratic caucuses are happening. A small number of Party regulars show up and do their thing. While I have always tried to be an informed voter, I didn’t know about the caucuses until I worked on the Kucinich campaign 5 years ago. We helped increase the turnout in 2004 to what was touted as the 2nd largest turnout Hawai‘i had ever had. In 2004 just over 4000 votes were cast. The largest turnout for Hawai‘i, until last night, is quoted at 5000 when the Rainbow Coalition turned out people for Jesse Jackson in 1988 (Bart, correct me if I got this date wrong). Last night, approximately 37,400 votes were cast. That is simply amazing. I am sure there were several that wanted to vote, but couldn’t due to the crowds. More votes were cast in the 2nd Congressional District (rural Oahu & neighbor islands) than in the 1st. Was that due to more congestion at 1st CD sites? That would be my guess.

Why did so many come out to vote? The simple answer is Obama. But that glosses over the more nuanced reasons behind those votes. Yes, they largely came out to vote for Obama. Nearly 9000 people came out to vote for Hillary Clinton too… that is nearly double the previous maximum for the whole state! I think that one of the main reasons why so many people braved the long lines to cast their ballots is simply that they are fed up with the Bush administration. They do want “change” and they want to have a say in what form it comes in. That bodes well for the general election. My feeling at this moment is that McCain doesn’t have a chance. He is going to get steam-rolled.

Which brings me to the topic of Republicans. They were there last night too. As Bart points out in his post, the Democratic Party of Hawaii allows anyone who signs that Party card to participate in this process. I saw at least one prominent Republican at my site last night and I am sure there were more. My husband helped direct traffic last night and he said one lady kept circling the block… as she went by she asked him questions as she tried to decide whether it would be worth the walk and the wait. “What if I don’t want to join the Democratic Party,” she said. “Then you don’t have to participate. This is an internal Party vote,” he answered. I am not sure what she finally did, but I know she was torn as she asked the same question several times. Does this mean that Republicans were trying to skew the Democratic vote to give McCain an easier time in the general election? I don’t think so. I think they were there because they genuinely are sick of how their Party has been running this country for the past 7 years. They want “change” too. The “Reagan Democrats” gave President Reagan a mandate that allowed him to get things done. Pretty soon people will be talking about the “Obama Republicans” that may do the same thing for Obama.

If it goes how I think it will, Obama will have a mandate that will allow him to really stir things up in Washington and across the country (and the world?). It is what he will do with that mandate that remains to be seen. It will be up to us to keep the pressure on to help guide the direction of that change. I mentioned this thought to my mother this morning. Her comment was, “Oprah will make sure that he stays on track!” I hope she is right. But it will be a challenge for all of us. Can we keep the Obama supporters involved? Can we have a nation of activists? I sure hope so.

I am sure there is more to add… perhaps I will post more later. What do you think?

Lastly, my favorite factoid from last nights results. Dennis Kucinich earned more delegates from Hawai‘i in 2004 than Hillary Clinton did in 2008. Granted, the number of votes were drastically different, but I still think that is really cool.