Inside the Democratic National Committee Delegate Selection Caucus

Thursday evening, Democrats from around the Third Congressional District gathered at North Haven High School to select ten delegates and an alternate to go to the Democratic National Convention which will take place later this year in Charlotte, NC.  As I arrived, I ran into a former chair of the Democratic Town Committee from Woodbridge.  Inside, I saw many familiar faces; elected officials and Democratic Town Committee members from Woodbridge, friends from various campaigns around the state; all the usual suspects.

I also ran into a woman from West Haven who had read about the caucus in the notice in the New Haven Register.  She had never been to a caucus like this before and wasn't sure exactly how things would play out.  It became pretty clear, pretty quickly.  A 'Unity Slate' was distributed listing five male delegates, five female delegates and one alternate that some group of people had united behind.  I found it interesting that the Unity Slate had a union bug on the printing, but no statement about who was responsible for the printing.

Prior to the convening of the caucus many people were politicking, talking about various campaigns.  Soon, everyone was writing their selections on the ballot, and the politicking resumed while the ballots were being counted.  In the end, the 'Unity Slate' was elected.  It included Matthew Brokman of New Haven, Marti Carlson of Guilford, Jayuan Carter of New Haven, Nia Holston of New Haven, Daniel Drew of Middletown, Tessa Marquis of Milford, Paul Wallace of New Haven, Lori Pelletier of Middletown, Gerry Weiner of Woodbridge, Carmen Reyes of New Haven with Walt Spader of North Haven as the Alternate.

Once the voting was completed and the results announced, there was a little more brief politicking and everyone headed home.