George,

Mailings from Bern Ewert in the past several weeks may have created confusion about the nominating caucuses. Ewert's mailings have stressed prefiling. Indeed the latest mailing included a prefiling form. This creates the impression that one must prefile in order to participate in the caucuses. That is not the case. Any Democrat may participate in the caucuses by simply showing up.

The purpose of the caucuses is to chose delegates to a district convention in May. Charlottesville is allotted 17 delegates (and 8 alternates); Albemarle is allotted 38 delegates (and 19 alternates).

Other localities throughout the 5th districts have been allotted a certain number of delegates and alternates as well. The number of delegates (and alternates) that each candidate wins from these localities depends on the proportionate number of their supporters who show up at the caucuses. ("Uncommitted" delegates may also be chosen if a number of "undecided" people show up at the caucuses.)

For example, if 200 people show up at the Charlottesville caucus on April 24th, and 90 are Ewert supporters, 80 are Weed supporters and 30 are "uncommitted", the following number of delegates would be "won".

Ewert 90/200 x 17 = 8
Weed 80/200 x 17 = 7
Uncommitted 30/200 x 17 = 2

(Consult the Rules if you are curious about rounding procedures)

After the above calculations have been made at the meeting on April 24th, those participants who support Ewert would caucus and elect 8 delegates (plus 4 alternates); the Weed supporters would caucus and elect 7 delegates (and 3 alternates) and the "uncommitted" would caucus and elect 2 delegates and 1 alternate. Here is where prefiling comes in. In order to be nominated as a delegate one would have to have prefiled. The Ewert caucus would chose among those who had prefiled for Ewert, the Weed caucus would chose among those who had prefiled for Weed, and the "uncommitted" would chose among those who had prefiled as "uncommitted".

Now if 100% of the people who showed up on April 24th were Ewert supporters, Ewert would be entitled to elect 17 delegates and 8 alternates -- 25 in all. The likelihood of such an outcome is highly improbable, so why is Ewert sending out mass mailings in order to line up a whole slew of prefilers? And, in the process, confusing many prospective attendees about whether or not they have to prefile in order to simply attend the caucus?

One further comment about the latest Ewert letter: Ewert says that Al Weed is a 4 time loser, but 2 of those times were at NOMINATING conventions, not general elections. Not a fair comparison. To the best of my knowledge, Bern Ewert is also batting .000 in winning elective support: he failed to be nominated for City Council in 2002 and is 0 for 0 in facing the general electorate.

David RePass (electronic mail, April 18, 2006)