All photos by Carl Johnson – arcticlight-ak.com
Even though it was eight years ago, the chaos of the 2008 Alaska Democratic Caucus was still fresh in my mind as I approached West High School this morning to attend the caucus that would take part in delivering Bernie Sanders a dominating victory in Alaska over Hillary Clinton.
Early signs of trouble arose as I drove north past Romig Middle School, with lines of cars pouring in there to park as I headed naively north in the hopes of finding parking closer to the caucus site.
We ended up parking about five blocks away from the school, arriving at West High from the east and seeing a long line extending out from the front of the school and stretching toward Romig. A kind volunteer told us the line on the west side of the school was much shorter and moving quickly.
The line moved quickly, but the comfort provided by that evaporated once entering the school entrance. Inside was a mass of bodies so thick, it was impossible to tell where to go. Volunteers quickly approached us, told us three different directions to go, asked us if we had pre-registered to attend the caucus (“No, none of the information about the caucus said we had to pre-register,” I responded), we took our forms, and started to head toward our district caucus location. Unfortunately, it was on the far end of a mass of bodies that would send the Fire Marshall’s head spinning.
We waded through the Gauntlet, slowly but steadily wading our way through a mass of bodies too thick to suggest there was any plan involved in setting up this caucus. On the far end of the hall, we cleared the mass of bodies and found the table for our district. Only to learn that our real caucus site was actually back through the Gauntlet, in the heart of the largest congregation of people in attendance – the school auditorium.
Once inside, with nearly the full complement of Democrats in Anchorage in attendance, we heard speeches from elected office holders, those running for office, as well as the tribal leaders for the area (Lee Stephan, Chief of the Eklutna Village, spoke to the delegates to raucous applause). Then, the attendees were treated a series of videos from the candidates running for the Democratic nomination, in alphabetical order. First, the candidates were announced, with Hillary Clinton first, followed by Roque De La Fuente (the first time all of us had heard that name), and Bernie Sanders. When Sanders’ name was mentioned, the entire auditorium erupted in chaotic, energetic applause and shouting. That’s when I knew Alaska would go for Bernie in a big way.
With the Fire Marshall actually making an appearance and breathing down the neck of the organizers, they slowly disbursed the crowd to their individual district caucus rooms, but we in House District 28 stayed in the auditorium along with District 27. They had us sort ourselves by the candidates we supported. On the District 28 side of the auditorium, the Clinton supporters took point in the front section of seats, with several empty 
seats remaining, and the Sanders supporters took the rear, with many standing. If you are familiar with theater seating, the narrow sections are up front and the wider sections are in back. Even with the wider section, District 28 Sanders supporters ran out of seats. In contrast, on the District 27 side of the floor, the Sanders supporters dominated almost all rows, with the Clinton supporters taking only the last three rows on their side of the floor.
In the end, our District went about 250 for Sanders and 102 for Clinton, with 14 state delegates to Sanders and 5 to Clinton. From there, the rest was standard party organizing, with election of delegates for the state convention in May, election of district officers, and a vote endorsing a resolution to call for switching to a primary instead of a caucus system. Although, one suggestion was floated to, rather than having all of Anchorage’s districts meet in one location, have each district caucus at a location within its own district – not having over 5,000 people cram into one place that was clearly not designed for such an event. I was among many who supported that notion.
We would later learn that Alaska went nearly 81% for Bernie Sanders, with the highest block of Clinton supporters coming from south Anchorage – likely our district. And it was a margin of victory that would be repeated in Washington state (nearly 73% for Sanders) and Hawaii. And while the mainstream media seemed determined to downplay the victory for Sanders, the foreign media took note of the threat to Clinton’s seemingly inevitable coronation.
For a rare instance in presidential politics, it was nice to feel relevant for once. Not something we are accustomed to up here in Alaska.
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Carl Johnson is a fine art and stock nature photographer based out of Anchorage, Alaska. He focuses on Alaska and the Arctic, along with Alaska’s sister state, Hawaii. He has served as the artist-in-residence for three national parks. His first book, Where Water is Gold: Life and Livelihood in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, is being published by Braided River and is scheduled for release in early Summer 2016. You can find his photography and blog at Arcticlight-ak.com