And I’m not talking about Texas or Ohio either.

Next Thursday, February 28th, in communities all across Missouri, Democrats will gather in caucuses to select delegates to represent us at the Congressional district level. The delegates at the congressional district meetings will choose the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August. (I know – it reminds me of winning spelling bees, too.) You can find out the process to become a delegate here, and the location of your caucus here. Doors open at 6:30 PM and close promptly at 7:30 PM. Those who arrive after 7:30 may observe, but will not be allowed to participate.

Just to be clear, these caucuses are not like the caucuses in places like Kansas and Iowa. They do not set the percentages of delegates to vote for a presidential candidate; that was decided by the state’s primary vote (Michael’s recent post explains this in detail.) These caucuses are the first step in deciding the actual people who will stand for a particular candidate in the national convention. They are also a place to meet and network with fellow local Democrats. Oh, and chances are that your local caucus will NOT resemble this one. It stands a better chance of resembling this one, but only if you can persuade the entire caucus to relocate to a bar. Good luck with that.