Personal Colorado Caucus Experience

I went last night and "caucused" as they call it. There were about 12 precincts in our district, and the whole district met together at the beginning to listen to speaches from the local candidates and representatives of the presidential candidates (each got one minute). Then we broke into precincts, where we heard from precinct representatives for each presidential candidate (this time they got 2 minutes) and then did our "Presidential Preference Poll"--the non-binding straw poll that was reported by all the media. Once that was done, we nominated and elected delegate to the district and county conventions, where that will be winnowed down to delegates to the state convention, which will further get narrowed down to 33 delegates to the national convention.



Here's my insights:

- Only Romney and Santorum had representatives at the district level. I was stunned that Paul didn't have anyone there to give a one-minute spiel.

- In our precinct, we had reps for Romney and Santorum, and one old lady got up to defend Gingrich--no, really---an old lady got up and stumped for Gingrich....I couldn't believe it.

- Voting in our precinct went 16-13-11-5-1 for Santorum, Romney, Gingrich, Paul, and Perry.

- Despite the straw poll, 8 of our 12 delegates from our precinct are Romney voters--the preference poll is non-binding and caucus goers and nominees to be delegates are informed that they vote however they want at the conventions. So while Santorum got the non-binding poll, Romney thumped him in the delegation.

- When I asked Santorum supporters in our precinct to articulate a reason why Santorum was qualified to lead the nation other than "he's the most conservative," no one could articulate a reason other than "he's been in Washington long enough to know how it works," which was met by murmurs of disapproval.

- The impression I got was that at least in Weld County (one of the most conservative counties in the nation), the recent Susan Komen and Obama v. the Catholic Church developments really gave Santorum the edge as those topics are in his wheel-house.

- I like the caucuses better than primaries, and I hope they keep them. The media whine about how inefficient they are and cry when results aren't instant, but last I checked, we are doing this for the people of Colorado, not so that Anderson Cooper can get to bed by 10 PM. The media needs to shut it about slow returns and realize that some things are more important than meeting news channels' self-determined broadcast schedules.

Snocythe, were you one of the Romney delegates elected to the district convention?



I heard the same thing happened throughout CO and MN. Santorum won't end up with many delegates in either state (and probably not Iowa either). I've been trying to get the GOP in Arizona to abandon the primary (it costs us $3.4M and we lose half our delgation the the national convention because we hold it early) but I don't think they'll ever listen. They think the Mormons up in Mesa or the libertarians will take over the party if they do.



The Romney machine will go after Santorum in the weeks ahead. And there is plenty of fodder. Santorum certainly hasn't been vetted and once people realize who they voted for I think they will be glad they didn't select delegates at the national convention for him. That said I'm not sure Romney will end up with a majority of delegates by the time the convention rolls around. I don't think he can win any states in the south and he's now shown he can't win the caucuses like he did last time around. If he loses Maine to Paul I'm not sure where he goes from there. Maybe if he can get 40+% of the delegates before the convention by taking the Northeast and mid-atlantic states and the west and then try to convince another 10% when they arrive.

Yes, I am one of the precinct delegates, but I have no delusions of going beyond the county caucus.



What I appreciate about the non-binding caucus process is that it allows voices to be heard and influence the race, but the delegates get the benefit of seeing the campaigns play out a bit longer rather than being stuck with a January whim.



I bet a good number of Republicans in New Hampshire wish they had a nonbinding caucus instead of a binding primary that has pegged two delegates to Huntsman.

good read. Thanks for sharing.

I have a question about caucuses. Sno, if as you say, Santorum got more than Romney but the delegates were 8 of 12 for Romney why did they bother with the caucus? I am not criticizing I am really wondering.



I do appreciate your explanation in these matters.

nuk13 wrote:
I have a question about caucuses. Sno, if as you say, Santorum got more than Romney but the delegates were 8 of 12 for Romney why did they bother with the caucus? I am not criticizing I am really wondering.



I do appreciate your explanation in these matters.

The voting for the candidates is merely a "straw poll" to take the pulse of the general public. The caucus ideal is to vote for someone who will represent you and your ideals come April or June when the state conventions are actually held.



It allows for a much more flexible, rational allocation of delegates. Just think about the poor saps in South Carolina who are seeing their delegates wasted on Newt Gingrinch because their delegates were pledged before Gingrich was fully vetted/exposed in the Florida debates and before Santorum got a real hard look?



The people in my precinct voted for me because, although I prefer Romney at this point, I was honest in telling them that I have no qualms voting for Santorum if I feel he proves himself more qualified or more capable of ousting Obama.



Who knows what will change between now and April, and that's the reason non-binding caucuses, for all their inefficiency, are preferable in my book to binding primaries.

Thanks. I see your point.



Next question, why do I have to log in all the time now. I've been on cougar corner for years.

As an update, we had our "district" meeting on Saturday where the precinct delegate elected 26 delegates to represent our district at the state convention. Santorum "won" our straw poll at the beginning of the month in the district 42% to 33%. However, in the discussion at the district meeting, most were of the mind that Santorum is blowing it. Not only is he alienating moderates with his "social conservatism" (a number of women who had voted for Santorum at the beginning of the month now said they would never vote for him), but the hypocrisy in his approach was even alienating to the more conservative voters. As one guy said, "I voted for Santorum because he said he was a true conservative who would stand up for the socially conservative values. Now I find out that he thinks something hurts women, hurts society, and hurts America, but he votes for it anyway and decides to fund it. It was birth-control in this instance, and I can care less about birth-control. But any politician who claims something harms a specific gender, harms society, and harms America but goes ahead and votes for it and throws our tax dollars behind it is someone without a backbone, someone who talks the talk but won't walk the walk. The conservative values and convictions of a candidate like that are worthless to me since what he says doesn't match up with what he does."



So, while Santorum won the district back on the 7th by 9%, the delegates who got elected were 18 Romney, 5 Paul, and 3 Santorum.



My guess is that this will work out the same across the country as people look at Santorum more critically and start asking themselves "how is he qualified to lead other than being more conservative?" and as they start evaluating his actions against his words, and as he starts calling Obama an islamic extremist and declares that academia and business has been overrun by Satan. He's starting to make Ron Paul look optimistic.

I'm beginning to think the GOP might get to Florida in a few months and just not vote in anyone to run against Obama.



Just let him have it. They'll say. Maybe make him donate his massive campaign warchest towards paying down some of the Titanic debt he's incurred.

Sno, are you going to the state convention as a delegate? And were the alternates the same ratio as the delegates? You're down in the Springs right?

I am a delegate to the convention. I am not from Springs--I am up in Weld County straight east of Longmont in the flatlands in the town of Firestone. Convention is week after next.

I'm interested to know how it goes, I've heard conflicting reports on how Colorado the delegates are breaking down.

How'd it go sno?



I heard the total after the convention Friday and Saturday was Romney 13, Santorum 8, Paul 13 with three unpledged national delegates. I also heard Romney's campaign (or at least the establishhment GOP) had a really underhanded disinformation campaign in effect Saturday.

The Romney campaign muffed Friday, and somewhat got it back together on Saturday. What happened was Paul had a slate of delegates--18 names you could vote for, and that was it (there were some "lone wolves" for Paul that threw their name in, but not enough to make much of a difference). Romney really had no designated slate of candidates so he ended up with what seemed like a hundred people who wanted to go to Tampa. The result Friday was that a number of Santorum and Paul people coalesced behind the 18 names and focused their votes there while the Romney people fractured their vote between the hundred or so names stumping for Romney. Friday night the Romney faction got the word out that unless you were on the Romney slate, to please not nominate yourself or anyone else to Tampa, and that got things turned around Saturday where Romney landed most of the delegates.



As for any disinformation campaign, I have no idea what you are talking about as far as the Romney campaign. I did see a number of Ron Paul people on Friday handing out pamphlets titled "Mitt Romney Under Investigation By the Mormon Church" that had nothing about any investigation by the church, but rather detailed the drive by an anti in Utah to get the FBI to investigate the Church's investment arm Ensign Peak Advisors because he thinks President Monson and Bishop Burton are embezzling. The only mention of Romney in the pamphlet? "Because of his success and history in the field of finance and his ties to the Mormon church, we believe Mitt Romney may also be involved." I don't know how you get "Mitt Romney Under Investigation By the Mormon Church" out of that.



The takeaway from this is simply that the Romney campaign needs to make sure that they have a slate of candidates for each caucus state's convention and discourage the "tourism candidates" who want to go to Tampa and be a delegate, but only serve to fracture the vote. I think they got a bit cozy with the number out of precinct, district, and county conventions and took their eye off the ball.

Word on the street is the Romney people copied the design of the Paul/Santorum slate and changed the names on the slate for Romney supporters. They then put Santorum and Paul buttons on and handed them out on Saturday after they got smoked on Friday.

I didn't see any of it, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that if that did happen, it didn't come from the actual Romney campaign. That sounds more like rumor to make people feel better about how Saturday turned out and to give hope for the future. Even the Ron Paul people here in Weld County didn't hear about anything like that.