Caucus Schmaucus

Tuesday February 5, 2008, was nationally known as ‘Super Tuesday’. All precinct caucuses throughout states were being held. Precinct caucuses are held every two years. A precinct caucus is the smallest subdivision of our state where a group of people gather around a particular issue, candidate, and/or political party. It’s the start of the political process, and also the start of electing delegates. Now, I have no preference, and I wouldn’t consider myself a part of any specific political party, but I thought my first time attending any caucus, whether Independent, Democratic, or Republican, would be an interesting experience. However, it turned out to not be worth my while. I attended the Republican precinct caucus which was held at St. Francis Elementary School. When I first walked in, I signed up according to which precinct I was involved in. I live on the west side of St. Francis, so I was a part of Precinct 2. Precinct 1 was the East Side of St. Francis, and the town of Bethel was another precinct. We sat down on the cafeteria benches, according to which precinct we fell into. The cafeteria was just a mess full of people, and nobody knew what they were doing because for the majority of us, this was our first time. The chair was a tall, thin man, named Dan. He really seemed to have no idea what he was talking about, even though he had been the chair for the last 8 years, or for 4 caucuses. Since hardly anybody ever showed up to the precinct caucuses before, I don’t think he was prepared to answer a lot of the questions he was being asked. The only public speaker that came to talk to us was Rob Eastlund. Eastlund is Representative of District 17A, or Isanti and Anoka Counties. Eastlund talked about different issues such as the economy, taxes, health care, education, illegal immigration, gas tax increases, and barely touched global warming. After Eastlund spoke about some of his point of views, Dan was there to speak again. He read several letters, one from Michelle Bachman, congress woman of the 6th district, another from Tim Pawlenty, our governor, and lastly a letter from Norm Coleman. Afterwards he opened nominations to each Precinct, for secretary, permanent secretary, chair, vice chair, and tellers/counters. Since this was almost everyone’s first time attending a precinct caucus, nobody had a clue who should be nominated, and what to do after that. Once someone is nominated, that person has to accept. If they accept, then someone has to motion to close the nominations. Then the chair says, “All in favor of that motion say aye,” and everybody repeats, “aye”. Then he says, “All parties opposed, say nay”. If everybody is in favor of the motion then the person nominated becomes what he was nominated to be for the next two years. However, the chair really didn’t cover what their roles included, and the fact that they may have fees to pay, until after they were nominated. When it came time to vote, the people nominated to be the tellers/counters, came around with a sheet of paper that had the names of the Republicans running for presidency. I made the choice not to vote, because I don’t know a whole lot about these people, and I also wouldn’t consider myself a Republican. I left shortly after the chair read off the votes. I didn’t feel that it was a very beneficial experience. Everybody was new, and I don’t think anybody was prepared for all of the people that were going to show up. Though this experience wasn’t the greatest, I hope to stay involved in politics, and continue to research all of the presidential candidates, so that I can vote in November.