Meeting the right person can change your life and spark a new path to follow. For long-time Queen Anne resident Suzi LeVine, that person was Barack Obama.
By the time she was 4, the notion to care about the state of the world had been embedded into LeVine. But it wasn't until she met President Barack Obama in 2005 that her political wheel turned on full-speed.
"I was just deeply inspired by his energy, intellect, by his vision," said LeVine, who moved to Queen Anne in 1997. "I called my husband ... and said I met Barack Obama, and when he runs for president I'm going to do everything in my power to get him elected."
And LeVine did. She learned about caucuses - the process of selecting the party candidate nominee for office - became involved with the Democratic National Convention, and she started writing a blog, Suzi's Political & Educational Observations and Experiences,to help foster Seattle's interest in the caucuses.
From January 2007, LeVine's involvement escalated to working almost full-time on the campaign even though she was, and still is, working full-time at Microsoft as the communication director for education.
LeVine's energy and ability to organize people led her to be elected as a national delegate, so she was able to attend the Democratic National Convention. While many consider their role completed when their ballot is counted, LeVine felt compelled to continue to promote Obama's agenda for change.
"I have continued to focus on bringing about the change we elected, recognizing it's not going to come in a quantum shift," LeVine said. "It will be incremental. It takes time, patience, persistence and a lot of people."
As a vocal supporter of the administration's agenda, LeVine was quickly tagged to be on the Democratic Change Commission - a group organized to recommend changes to the Democratic Party's 2012 presidential nominating process. LeVine is one of the 35 members to make up the committee.
The Change Commission - sparked by a national convention resolution - addressed the issue of timing for primaries and caucuses, the concern of caucuses being disenfranchising to the average citizen and reducing the impact of unpledged delegates.
Addressing the issue of unpledged, or "super," delegates might sound foreign, but it has a significant impact on the Democratic presidential nomination.
An unpledged delegate - either someone currently an elected official or past elected officials, like all past vice presidents - designates their vote to a party candidate independent of caucus results.
Super delegates made up 19 percent of delegates in the last election, making it a substantial influence that party candidates will cater to - as opposed to focusing on the people's votes.
"If you're a candidate and you need to win, it becomes an out of proportion constituency," LeVine said. "They become more important than half of the states in the country because of the number of delegates it would yield."
To balance this "outsized representation" and reduce the impact of unpledged delegates, the Change Commission proposed to eliminate the category entirely. The proposal would make all unpledged delegates into regular pledged delegates, as well as a National Party Leader at the National Democratic Convention.
Though the Change Commission outcomes have no bearing on the electoral process, the impact on the nominating process is huge, according to LeVine.
"The fact that throughout the campaign, no matter the will of the voters, super delegates could have overturned voters was just despicable," LeVine said. "This change ensures people that their vote has the weight it should have. It ensures every caucus goer's representation has equal weight."
The Change Commission's recommendations will be reviewed by the Democratic National Committee, and LeVine feels confident the elimination of super delegates will be approved.
Three years ago, LeVine didn't know what a caucus was and now she's become an agent of change and she plants to continue fulfilling that role.
"Three things: if people see an issue it is their responsibility to do something about. The second is that people should be aware of the value of caucuses," LeVine said. "And three is, if we want to make change happen we all need to work together collectively ... It's important people know it doesn't just end with electing the guy, it keeps going."
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