Convention Results

     Linda and I had an interesting adventure at the Snohomish County Republican Convention on Saturday.  Fortunately, it was a positive experience overall, but I have a new found respect for the stamina of political junkies.   We arrived at about 8:30 a.m.  Linda finally had to bail out at about 5:30 p.m. due to a compassionate service obligation. I stayed until the bitter end of the 44th Legislative District Caucus and finally left the building at 10:50 p.m.  Politics is not for those lacking in either patience. Linda commented that she found it reassuring that so many people were involved in trying to protect and uphold the constitution. I  have to admit that I really enjoyed being in a room with so many people with whom I share so much in the way of basic values.

   The county convention was held at Snohomish High School.  There were over 1200 delegates plus quite a few alternates and guests.  We started out in the main gym and had the opportunity to listen to a number of candidates for various state and federal offices. The first order of business was selecting a permanent chair of the convention.  This process took much longer than it seemed that it should have taken. After that and some political posturing regarding the rules we were sent off to various locations for our legislative district caucuses.  The main purpose of the county convention is to select delegates for the state convention.  In turn at the state convention, those delegates will chose the delegates for the national convention.  Since we don't have a presidential primary in Washington State at present, this was an important chance to have a say as to who should be the Republican candidate.

      Selecting a few delegates may sound like a simple task, but it was wonderfully complex.  Everyone was seeking to select delegates who would support their particular candidate. Our legislative district, the 44th, was by far the largest with over three hundred delegates.  As a consequence we had to select the largest number of state delegates and it took us longer than any of the other legislative districts.  It was almost 11:00 p.m. before we completed the last vote to select the alternate delegates.  While the process was exhausting, I thought it turned out pretty well.  While I didn't necessarily agree with the particular choice of candidates of many of those present, I admired their perseverance and passion to try and effect positive change in our society. I felt like we are definitely on the same side.  Linda and I are supporting Mitt Romney. At the end of the day, Romney had the lion's share of the delegates from our district so it was easier for me to feel like it had turned out well.

   We got our second pullet egg today so as of April 1 the tally is Ducks 108, Chickens 2. It was darker brown than yesterday's chicken egg so we may have two hens starting to lay.