Politics & Government

Crowds Light at 48th District Democratic Caucuses

About 50 people from a Redmond portion of the district participated in caucuses at Redmond Junior High School on Sunday afternoon.

Sunny weather and an uncontested primary brought a light crowd to Sunday's Democratic caucuses at .

Approximately 50 people participated in the pooled caucuses for the Redmond portion of District 48—a stark contrast to the turnout at local Democratic caucuses four years ago.

"I was the precinct chair (in 2008)—you couldn't hear anything, it was so loud and crowded," said Erin Tidwell, who attended Sunday's caucuses with her 6-year-old daughter Vivian.

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On Sunday, most precincts had between one and three people, and some completely lacked representatives. State Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48) of Medina, who addressed the small crowd prior to the caucuses, said he was not surprised by the low turnout.

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"The nomination is not at all contentious...it's just not that big of a deal," he said.

But despite the unanimous support for President Obama, some of the participants said they were concerned about a general lack of enthusiasm in this year's election.

"You never want to relax too much because we've seen what can happen," said Dwight Rousu, a precinct committee officer who wore an Occupy Seattle T-shirt to the caucuses.

Hunter's opening remarks echoed that sentiment. He pointed to Republicans' proposed cuts for education and other social programs as a chief reason to be concerned about a potential change in leadership at the national level.

"We have to decide what kind of country we want to live in," Hunter said. "The Bush years were hard—let's not do that again."


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