Random observations from local GOP caucus

[bae]

I attended the Republican caucus here this morning.

Attendance was 4x what I have seen at previous ones. And the crowd was much younger.

Support for the various presidential candidates was roughly:

- 30% Romney
- 30% Newt
- 20% Santorum
- 20% Paul

Various supporters all advanced quite reasonable arguments for their preferred candidates, no mud-slinging occurred, it was all very civilized. Nobody slung any particularly vicious mud at the Democrats either, it was a much more polite forum than, say, these forums at times :-)

Everyone expressed a willingness to pitch in and get behind whatever candidate was ultimately selected, even if it wasn't Their Guy/Gal.

Non-Romney supporters were overwhelmingly concerned that Romney was just a RINO, and wouldn't stand a chance against Obama for real. There was a strong "Romney is just The Machine's choice, not the people's choice" flavor in the air as well.

When it came time to elect delegates to the next-level caucus/conventions, an interesting thing happened - Paul supporters and Newt supporters all stepped forward to run for the spots, supporters of other candidates didn't seem fired up enough to participate to the next level, which requires more of an effort because of time and travel.

So all the delegates we sent up were Paul/Newt people, pretty evenly divided.

The main policy concerns brought up during the platform discussion were not social issues, nobody was particularly interested in them. The main issues were liberty, limited government, and fiscal responsibility. Nobody wanted free government cheese, very few wanted the government to "fix" the economy. There was widespread support for the government "getting out of the way of the economy".

We examined local voting registration records and patterns carefully, and decided that this primarily-Democratic county is only that way because the Democrats actually organize and show up to vote :-)

Interesting times.

With some luck, I'll be heading to Tampa later in the year, and will observe The Process In Action.

[Alan]

Interesting, although not unexpected, observations. Thanks for sharing and good luck in Tampa.

[iris lily]

...The main policy concerns brought up during the platform discussion were not social issues, nobody was particularly interested in them. The main issues were liberty, limited government, and fiscal responsibility. Nobody wanted free government cheese, very few wanted the government to "fix" the economy. There was widespread support for the government "getting out of the way of the economy". ..


yay! Glad to hear that report. Our caucus is March 24 and it is already poorly planned since --for the entire city-- they've got only a small room in a library. The Paul supporters will get there early and sit on the floor, no doubt. The Romney people will leave because there will be no chairs. The fire code will keep 2/3 of the attendees outdoors. I predict one giant cluster f---.

later edited to add:
I just checked on our caucus again via web because I was going to send off a letter to the planner to say: please, I beg you, get a bigger room. As it turns out, they've moved the location of the caucus to a very big room due to "anticipated high turn-out." yay!

[bae]

Ours was at the American Legion hall, and little old ladies made us pies and cookies.

Much more fun than a mail-in primary ballot!

[Gregg]

Ours was at the American Legion hall, and little old ladies made us pies and cookies.

Much more fun than a mail-in primary ballot!


Sounds more like Rockwell Republicans than Rockefeller Republicans.

[iris lily]

Yesterday the St. Louis Republicans met (one caucus for the entire city, and about 249 people came) and the Ron Paul people swept it, they were organized and had their chairman candidate ready and he was voted in (and ousted the usual Republican Central Committee person) but it was all orderly and done by reasonable people. Like bae's caucus, lots of younger people were there and most all of them were Paul supporters.

It was an odd procedure. We elected a slate of candidates but they were not supposed to tell the voters who they were supporting. I don't get that. Fortunately, all of the Paul People wore Paul stickers, all of the Santorum people wore neon tape, and Romney supporters had stickers. If Newt had supporters, they weren't a presence in the room.

They conducted the business in 1 1/2 hours which is a whole lot better than I feared it would be.

Out in the county, the Ron Paul supporters raised h*ll (perhaps justifiably so?) and were kicked out and some arrested, and that caucus closed without completing their business.

Missouri is new to the general caucus procedure and has some wrinkles to iron out.

[bae]

At our county convention yesterday, the Ron Paul people were the largest contingent, and had the most candidates up for election for state delegate. If they'd been a bit more organized and proposed a slate instead of splitting their vote up with too many candidates, every delegate going up from this county would have been a Paul delegate. I made the cut at least, and will move on to the Tacoma state convention in a few months.

Really a fascinating process to observe.