The Washington state caucus occurred today.

Turnout was incredible. Late morning in my neighborhood, a stream of lefty liberals, many with coffee in hand, strolled quietly toward the Immaculate Conception church—such as parishioners might have before they started driving en masse.

A line grew out the door of the social hall. Inside, people tried to fit themselves between the people and tables to complete the sign-up process. The hall was packed—standing-room only—and an elderly lady quieted the din to ask, "It's stuffy in here. Have you made any provisions for fainting?" Which they hadn't.

Perhaps 15 tables stood, representing that many precincts. Fifty people from my precinct attended, a few from my building. Our PCO (precinct committee officer), who also seemed to be the organizer for the entire event, is our next-door neighbor. What we know about his household: domestic disputes and subsequent police visits, trash bin poaching, and passive-aggressive vandalization of our property. I was kind of shocked to see him in a leadership role, highly organized and somewhat jovial (if shrill)—kind of an alter ego to the one I usually think he has.

Because our PCO was also an omnibus officer, our alternate PCO, a confident man emblazened with Kucinich stickers, led our caucus. Unfortunately, he wasn't clear on the rules and so our caucus was delayed while the older members of our group first refuted his directions and then sought definitive instruction from our primary PCO when the alternate wouldn't back down. I loved that people engaged critically in the process and spoke openly both about how the caucus would best proceed and who would be the best candidate.

Of those in our precinct, 25 voted for Dean, approximately 15 voted for Kucinich, and 5 voted for Kerry. The rest were undecided. Lobbying ensued. A Kucinich supporter (fervent, like the rest of his bunch) ventured to the Dean camp and tried to convert a few, be we wouldn't have it. Deaniacs managed to win three undecideds, and from somewhere the Kerry supporters wooed three more to their cause, which garnered them a delegate. A candidate must receive 15 percent of the vote from a precinct to earn a delegate. In my precinct, we gave two delegates to Dean, one to Kerry, and one to Kucinich. No one voted for the others.

I don't know about you, but I loved hanging with my neighbors and talking politics. My building-mate, Zarth, called it a byzantine process more than once, but I can't really figure out why he thought that. This process felt like the way politics should be: public, passionate, and neighborly.

In the end, it looks like Kerry took the state, which is as I suspected. I'm sorry to see Dean's campaign diminish and I'm puzzled, troubled by the media assassination. Nevertheless, like my neighbors, I wish for Dean (he is consistent, strong), but I'll support any opponent to Bush.

After, Andrew and I went to Firehouse coffee in Ballard to decorate Valentine's Day cookies. This was an event put on by Cookie, a cookie-making specialty store. You buy nude cookies by the half-dozen and they supply the decorations—meringue-based icing, sprinkles, glitter, etc. It was a happy thing to do on a Saturday afternoon.