New Jersey Straw Caucus: Edwards wins, Obama 2nd, Kucinich 3rd

In Roselle Park NJ, over 200 Democrats gathered to vote with their boots, literally. Edwards, Kucinich, Obama, HRC, Biden, & Richardson supporters got up from their chairs and walked around the room forming separate groups.


HRC lost the straw caucus in NJ last night, in the 1st round. As well as Biden and Richardson. 19 of 21 state chairs support HRC, this support does not translate into boots on the ground, not in NJ.

Final results

1. Edwards 43% (76 votes)
2. Obama 38% (68 votes)
3. Kucinich 19% (34 votes)



Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson-Coleman and NJ Democratic Chair
Joseph Cryan




John Bartlett counting John Edwards' supporters in the final round.





Bluejersey dot com is reporting "Clinton Campaign Stumbles Big in New Jersey"



State Party Chairman Joseph Cryan 2nd from left, and Congressman Steve Rothman on the right.

Last night was the unofficial New Jersey Presidential Caucus, sponsored by Blue Jersey, NJ for Democracy, and a wide range of other progressive and Democratic organizations. The event was well attended by grassroots activists and party leaders from all across the state, and was a real test of organizing for the campaigns.

The room was packed (200+ people, literally standing room only for much of the night) and buzzing with excitement. Netroots candidate and soon to be Congresswoman Linda Stender and state party chair Joe Cryan got the room fired up, calling for Democratic unity after the primary season ends and delivering strong condemnations of the Bush Republican record.

Next, the campaigns rolled out their big guns in the surrogate department, trying to convince caucusers to support their preferred candidates. Notably, Senate President Dick Codey spoke for John Edwards, Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman spoke for Hillary Clinton, and Congressman Steve Rothman spoke for Barack Obama.

After each of the campaigns had a chance to present the caucus officially began. And that's when the surprises started.
rhymeswithferriero :: Clinton Campaign Stumbles Big in New Jersey
Quickly, let me explain the basic process/rules in place last night. There were three rounds of caucusing with viability thresholds after the first and second rounds to allow candidates to continue to the next round. Any candidate who didn't have support of at least 15% of the caucusers was considered unviable in the first round and was eliminated; the second round threshold was 20% of caucusers. There was a bit of a twist after the first round, as any unviable candidate was free to try and court supporters from other unviable candidates and try and re-form and compete in the second round. In the third and final round, the top vote-getter of the remaining candidates was the winner (which turned out to be Edwards 43%, Obama 38%, Kucinich 19%).

I, along with most people in the room, was stunned to see what happened when the actual caucusing took place. Hillary Clinton's campaign, after a robust effort, narrowly failed to meet the 15% viability threshold and was eliminated in the first round. Determined not to be knocked out, the Clinton organizers aggressively courted supporters of other unviable candidates (Biden and Richardson, mostly) to try and reorganize and make it through the second round of caucusing to the final round. Once again, after intense outreach, the Clinton camp missed the 20% viability threshold-- again, by just a handful of votes.

New Jersey has been called Clinton country by all manner of pundits, noting that she's locked up much of the Democratic establishment's support as well as her leads in the polls here. So, a lot of people came into the night expecting a Clinton win. The actual results were astounding: Clinton failed badly not only in the expectations game but in basic, bread and butter organizing.

MORE :http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6372