Large turnout for local caucuses

Local Republicans packed the Public Works conference room full on Saturday, Mar. 3 in order to participate in the 2012 Republican caucus. Caucuses are held before Super Tuesday, Mar. 6, and conduct straw polls in order to gain an understanding of presidential candidate support throughout the state.

Super Tuesday is the day that a significant amount of states host caucuses or primary elections in order to choose the candidate for the state. The state’s that participate in Super Tuesday generally vary from year to year.

Othello also hosted an Adams County Republican caucus on Saturday at the same time as the Ritzville caucus, 10 a.m. until noon. Both caucuses hosted Republicans from a variety of precincts, or wards, and acted as a central meeting point.

Caucus meetings vary based on precinct, some meet like the Adams County caucuses were held, and others may choose to meet at an individual’s house to conduct the same meetings. During each caucus, a straw poll is conducted and is used as a nonbinding vote for each individual participating in the caucus.

The caucus meetings begin promptly, and a chairman for the event is nominated. Mike Kline served as the Ritzville caucus chairman, and he began the meeting with describing what a caucus is and the proceedings that would take place.

After the initial introduction to the event, members are split into precincts and during this time, opinions and issues are discussed between those in attendance. The outcome for each caucus is that the precincts nominate four Republican presidential candidates.

The candidates listed on the tally sheet for the straw poll are Newt Gingrich, John Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. Voters also had the option to vote as undecided or to write-in a candidate.

The straw polls help to give individuals an idea of how each presidential nomination is doing. Straw polls also help raise awareness for candidates about what specific area they have a strong following, and can help decide where to visit on their campaign trail.

After each precinct is separated into their appropriate groups, the individuals in that group elected delegates and alternates from each ward that would attend the Adams County convention on Mar. 31 in the American Legion Hall in Ritzville. Adams County has 64 delegate positions available, and ranges from one to three delegates per ward or precinct.

Heidi Hunt, elected secretary for the event, recorded a head count of 36 people in attendance at the event.

Kline commented that he believes that is probably the biggest turnout recorded for the local caucus.

“The caucus has more publicity now than in the past,” said Kline. “Legislature chose to do away with the primary election in the state for president. Doing away with the primary puts a lot of pressure on the caucus.”

In May of 2011, the state Legislature approved the plan to eliminate the first primary presidential vote in order to save the state taxpayers an estimated $10 million. The state primary, held in August, remained unaffected by this vote.

Many attendants agreed that the decision to attend the caucus partially had to do with the loss of the initial primary vote in Washington. Marsha Smith said she attended the event to learn how a caucus functioned, find out how she could become involved and to have the opportunity to vote, since the first primary had been eliminated.

Another major concern for those attending the caucus was the uncertainty on how things might change due to the new redistricting boundaries. Audrey Schaible said, “Redistricting makes me nervous, we’ve been district five for so long. That and the fact that there is not a primary have made people interested in what is happening.”

Within each precinct, the members discussed political platforms and issues that they would like to see continue on to the county convention. The delegates chosen from each precinct can bring up and discuss these issues when they attend the next convention as representatives of their precinct.

In total, 32 of the Republicans in attendance at the Ritzville caucus on Saturday placed a vote in the straw poll. Othello also saw a large turnout and had 71 votes cast by individuals attending that caucus.

The two separate caucuses are pooled caucuses, meaning all votes and results from the events are combined.

Adams County had a total of 103 votes cast, 58.3 percent voted Romney, 27.2 percent voted for Santorum, 8.7 percent for Paul, 3.9 percent voted for Gingrich and 1.9 percent voted for other or undecided.

The statewide results show a total of 50,764 votes and Romney leading the straw polls with a total of 19,111 votes, or 37.6 percent. Paul received 12,594 votes, 24.8 percent, which is closely followed by Santorum who received 12,089 votes totally 23.8 percent. Gingrich received 5,221 votes, 10.3 percent, and 1,748 votes, 3.4 percent, were cast for other.

Since all primaries and caucuses have now concluded nationwide, Washington’s official nominations for president remain as Romney, Paul, Santorum and Gingrich. Voters in Washington can expect to receive a ballot in August of this year for the final election for president.

For more information about the Republican caucus and results from across the state, visit the Washington State Republican Party’s website, http://wsrp.org.