Democrats Caucus Today; Wards to Pick Delegates

Harvard students will join other Cambridge residents in party caucuses this morning to vote for delegates to the June 11 Democratic state issues convention and planks in the convention's platform.

"The current meetings are the first of their kind since 1969," Alice Wolf, chairman of ward seven, said yesterday.

Caucuses will be open to the general public but only registered Democratic voters residing in the wrad will be allowed to actually vote on the candidates and the issues, Dana M. Stein '80, an assistant ward leader in ward seven, said yesterday.

Students living in the Yard and the River Houses are in ward six, which will caucus at the Cambridge Community Center near Central Square.

Quad residents are in ward seven, which will meet at the Peabody School on the corner of Linnean and Walker Streets, Stein said.

In the past, about 25 people have attended each caucus, Stein added.

Wolf said yesterday "the caucuses are an attempt to revitalize the grassroots action in the party."

The delegates chosen at today's caucuses will attend the convention at Holy Cross College, and the convention will draft an "official and binding platform of the Democratic State Committee," Stein said.

The platform will not emphasize any particular issue, but will include planks on human rights, nuclear disarmament, energy policy and state and local finance.

Stein said he expects the caucuses and the convention to propose planks "basically consistent with the 1976 Democratic presidential platform." He added that the caucuses will consider ten specific planks suggested by the Cambridge city Democratic commission.

Voter registration lists indicate that approximately 1000 Harvard Democrats are registered in wards six and seven.

But Stein said ward leaders chose not to mail notices about the caucuses to Harvard Democrats because "so few were registered in the wards."

Cambridge Democrats will also convene on May 14 to endorse candidates for City Council, the city's School Committee, and other city offices, Stein added.