North Coast Democrats vie to be named delegates to national convention

Seeking a spot inside the Democratic Party’s national convention this summer, retired Sonoma County judge Patricia Gray beseeched family and friends to turn out on her behalf for a special political caucus Sunday in Santa Rosa.

Or, as the Hillary Clinton supporter joked, “I drug a lot of people down here, and it was not easy.”

Would-be delegates like Gray appeared Sunday in caucuses around the state. The gatherings are a key step in selecting the state party’s official representatives for the July convention in Philadelphia.

On the North Coast, caucuses for supporters of Clinton and Bernie Sanders were held in six locations.

Exactly how many delegates get to represent each candidate will be decided by voters at the June 7 primary. But which Democrats will be eligible to fill the available slots was decided Sunday afternoon in the caucuses.

At times, a relatively small number of fellow Democrats could make the difference in a process where party voters had to show up in person in order to cast a ballot. That meant that many of Sunday’s caucus-goers had personal ties to a delegate hopeful.

In Santa Rosa, just 211 registered Democrats turned out to the Carpenters Union Hall on Corby Avenue to vote for one or more of the 52 Clinton applicants, made up of 33 women and 19 men.

From that group, up to eight people - four women, three men and one male alternate - will go to the national convention from the 5th Congressional District, which is represented by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena.

A separate 5th District caucus for the same eight possible slots was held in Napa for 67 Sanders supporters vying to be delegates.

And for the sprawling 2nd District - represented by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael - the Sanders and Clinton campaigns each held caucuses in two cities, San Rafael and Eureka.

In that district, Sanders had 86 delegate hopefuls and Clinton had 65. Those applicants were seeking one of nine slots: four women, four men and a male alternate.

Who is actually named a delegate will be based on how many votes Clinton and Sanders receive in each Congressional district on June 7.

The state party plans to send a total of 548 delegates to the convention, including 317 selected at the district level.

In contrast, would-be delegates to the Republican Party’s national convention in Cleveland in July are picked by the candidates they wish to represent.

The Republican presidential campaigns will choose three potential delegates for each Congressional district in the state, and the party will allocate delegates using a winner-take-all process based on each district’s election results.

Around the state Sunday, the Democratic caucus doors opened for voting at 2 p.m. Party members could leave after casting a ballot or stay to hear brief speeches once the meeting began about an hour later.

In Santa Rosa, Thompson hosted the Clinton gathering and warned the audience of more than 100 that Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz would take America backward on issues like climate change, gun violence and abortion rights.

“There’s one person standing between them and the White House,” Thompson said, “and that’s our candidate, Hillary Clinton.”

Among those planning to attend Sunday’s Sanders caucus in San Rafael was delegate applicant David Axelrod, a Petaluma resident and Sonoma County Central Committee member.

On Friday, he said he appreciates Sanders partly because the Vermont senator “forces Hillary to be more left than she is wont to be.”

To Axelrod, the caucuses provide the chance to select “strong Bernie supporters.” He acknowledged a divided convention is unlikely but he still wants Sanders delegates who “aren’t going to throw in the towel on the second ballot.”

In Santa Rosa on Sunday, many delegate hopefuls said they wanted the chance to support Clinton and make a difference in an important election.

Melanie Jones-Carter, a Santa Rosa resident seeking to become a delegate, told the crowd in her one-minute speech that all those present had sacrificed a Sunday afternoon for something that matters to them.

After all, she said, “we could all be home watching the Warriors.”

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit