“I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat!”
Will Rogers, American humorist and columnist
More than 50 Maine municipalities won’t be holding a caucus today.

Democratic voters in those towns are out of luck because the state party wasn’t organized enough to find conveners.

It is absolutely appalling.

There’s still a six-man race for the party’s nomination. Sen. John Kerry and former Gov. Howard Dean have impressive campaign operations in the state, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich has visited a half-dozen times. Wesley Clark has garnered the support of several prominent members of state government, and Sen. John Edwards’ populist appeal surely plays well to the Mainers who’ve heard it.

The race is up for grabs. This is one of the most competitive and interesting primaries in recent memory. And, as the Sun Journal reported Friday, many people will be shut out of the process.

Democratic organizers are still trying to rebuild their network of local activists that faded when the party switched to presidential primaries for 1996 and 2000 campaigns. Maine just switched back to the caucus system this year, and, they say, is still shaky as it tries to recover.

That’s a flimsy excuse. And perhaps it’s time to re-examine the move away from the primary system.

In 1996, more than 90,000 voters went to the polls. In 2000, when there were two-man races in both parties, 160,000 votes were cast. This year, even with the addition of absentee caucus ballots, we’ll be lucky if 20,000 people take a few hours out of today to attend a caucus.

Maine led the nation in voter participation in the general election in both 1992 and 1996 and came in second to Minnesota in 2000. Almost 70 percent of registered voters head to the polls when it comes time to pick a president.

We understand the need of political parties to expand their numbers of activists, but this debacle shuts people out of the process and leaves it in the hands of a few party insiders.

There’s still a chance that turnout today will shock us all, that tens of thousands of excited Democrats will spend part of the afternoon participating in democracy at high schools, libraries and legion halls.

But, in at least some places, there’s no place to go.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.

If Will Rogers were alive today, he’d feel right at home in the Maine Democratic Party.


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