National Presidential Caucus Set for December 7, 2007

June 22.2007

Americans to initiate thousands of caucus groups across the nation to deliberate in advance of “National Primary”

Sausalito CA, — To help Americans prepare for the onrush of a de facto “National Primary” slated for February 5, 2008, when two presidential candidates may suddenly emerge as “finalists” based on the front-loading of State primaries, a consortium of partisan, bipartisan and non-partisan interests have initiated the first-ever National Presidential Caucus, wherein thousands of local, self-organized, web-enabled, and face-to-face gatherings across the country will convene in caucus on December 7, 2007.

Especially in this critical election cycle, citizens need more and better ways to prepare for the very short, intense official voting period beginning with the Iowa Caucus on January 14, 2008 through what’s been coined by the media as the “National Primary” on February 5, 2008. Part mass straw poll, part mass focus group, the National Presidential Caucus will advance discussion and deliberation on the issues and candidates in greater numbers, in greater depth and in person.

The National Presidential Caucus builds on the phenomenon of ‘03/’04 election season where the Internet enabled nearly 5 million self-appointed citizens to organize and participate in tens of thousands of local political “Meetups”, Town Halls and House Parties.

“It is a challenge to overstate the importance of who will be chosen as the next U.S. President,” said Don Means of Digital Village, Coordinator of the National Presidential Caucus. “Our democratic process, as currently practiced, has proven unsatisfactory to the great majority of Americans. Even with hopeful new signs of Internet-enabled participation, our national elections remain essentially poll-driven, mass media campaigns and little more than an ugly spectator sport, though one with enormous stakes.”

Citizen-led and open, the goals of the National Presidential Caucus are to:

• Help the country better prepare for the vital business of selecting its next president, not in haste, but through 1000’s of informed face-to-face discussions and thoughtful deliberations.
• Foster deeper and more meaningful access to the country’s political system toward the goal of helping revitalize American democracy.
• Create a new voice for those willing to participate in person.

Open Call to Participate

Registration for the National Presidential Caucus is scheduled to officially open on Labor Day at http://www.nationalcaucus.com, followed by a preliminary Straw Poll Caucus on October 26th, 2007. The National Presidential Caucus main event will commence in thousands of cities and small towns on December 7, 2007 across the nation.

Americans everywhere are invited to participate and join the National Presidential Caucus locally by starting or finding a local gathering at http://www.nationalcaucus.com, where they will be able to find support services for organizer registration, searchable group listings, general notifications.

The National Presidential Caucus is open to all civic and political organizations that wish to take part as a special event or as part of their regular activities on the condition that the meeting be publicly accessible.

“Local libraries are especially invited to serve as Caucus venues and help folks engage in important civic deliberations,” said Don Means. “Internet-enabled Libraries would be ideal for supporting registrations and for posting Caucus results and uploading pictures, blog posts and even video clips from the meetings.”

The National Presidential Caucus also encourages participants to use any and all web services to ensure a successful caucus, including Meetup, Facebook, MySpace and other web-based meeting & social organizing tools, as well as YouTube, the recommended online video platform for the initiative.

The National Presidential Caucus invites the support of groups and individuals like Politics Online, Stanford University’s Center for Deliberative Democracy, University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, Democracy for America, Unity ‘08, The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, and others.

CONTACT:
Myles Weissleder, for the National Presidential Caucus
myles [at] mylermedia.com // 415-332-3205

Internet Caucus Will Permit Voters An Early Say In '08 Election
Matt Stearns | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - On Dec. 7, what should every good American be doing? Joining friends and neighbors, debating issues and picking a suitable presidential candidate. That's the vision for the National Presidential Caucus, the brainchild of some pioneering political pros from the Internet and their more traditional political scientist colleagues.

There'll be no delegates at stake, nothing officially sanctioned by state or party leaders. Just Americans using the Internet to organize local meetings, then getting together to think, talk, cajole and vote in living rooms, libraries and coffee shops across the country.

The idea has two goals: - To allow activists outside traditional early-voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire to have more input into the presidential selection process. - With Feb. 5 looming as a day when as many as 20 states, representing more than 60 percent of the U.S. population, will hold presidential primaries, organizers hope that the December caucus will help voters in those states focus on issues and candidates so they can make informed decisions on Election Day.

"Come Feb. 5, two finalists will be chosen," said Myles Weissleder, a spokesman for the effort and a veteran of the Meetup.com phenomenon of the 2004 campaign. "This is nine months before the general election. That's a real rush to judgment. Anything we can do to increase deliberation and discussion prior to this rush to judgment is good."

Details are still being worked out - what time the caucuses will be and who'll be allowed to participate - but plans now call for Democrats and Republicans to have separate caucuses as well as "open" caucuses for independents and others.

Several political scientists are involved to help set ground rules and study the results. Participants are being urged to use established social-networking Web sites such as meetup.com, myspace.com and facebook.com to organize their sessions.

There's also a dedicated YouTube channel. The advent of the Internet as a political organizing tool makes the national caucus viable, said Carol Darr, the director of George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.

"What's happening with the Internet now is it's easy for the class of people who are politically interested but have nonpolitical real-world day jobs to get involved," said Darr, an adviser to the caucus. "This gives the activists a say while it still matters, while there's still time."

The results of the caucus will be publicly reported, with enough participants _ organizers hope _ to garner media attention. Registration for the caucus and preliminary organization will start Sept. 4. There will be a preliminary caucus Oct. 26 to refine the rules and ensure that things go as planned. Organizers say they're not sure how many participants to hope for.

They point out that 5 million people participated in some sort of Web-organized political meeting in 2004, but say they'd be happy with "thousands" of individual meetings. And even if there's no official imprimatur, it's a useful exercise in democracy. "People will be better educated and better connected with their neighbors," Weissleder said. "It's also a worthwhile straw poll."