Colorado Republican Caucus - February 7th - Who cares?

Politics & Elections
1

It’s meaningless. There will be a straw poll, for what that’s worth. Delegates committed to a particular candidate will not be selected until April.

The February 7th caucus will select delegates to the district conventions. These delegates are not committed to a candidate; they don’t need to declare a commitment until late March. It is the district convention on April 13th, and the state convention on April 14th that select committed delegates to the national party convention.

2

As a fellow mile-higher, I hope you are going your support to Newt…

3

It’s a closed caucus.

4

That’s the same thing that happened in Iowa. That’s pretty much how caucuses work. Iowa won’t actually hold their state convention to pick delegates for the national convention until June 16th.

5

Yeah, but I thought that the delegates chosen at the Iowa caucus were committed to a candidate. Am I wrong?

6

If I recall the Iowa process correctly, the voters choose delegates at the precinct level. Those delegates go to a county convention, where they choose delegates to send to the district convention. At the district convention, the county delegates choose delegates to send to the state convention. At the state convention, the delegates vote for delegates to send to the national convention.

The delegates probably declare their preference at each stage–in their place, I would provide an ordered list of preferences–but as far as I know, they’re not officially committed to voting for any particular candidate. The race can change substantially between the precinct caucuses and the state convention; candidates can drop out, or positions (or scandals) come to light that change people’s minds. It can change still more before the national convention. It doesn’t make sense for a delegate to commit to voting for a candidate who may not even be in the race by the time the next meeting happens. (That’s not to say caucus processes necessarily make sense, of course.)

7

What, you didn’t join the Republican party last summer so you could join in the fun?
Me neither. I am still kind’ve pissed off about operation chaos and several people I know that switched parties to caucus for Hillary, thus I keep telling them that I am caucusing for Newt. Juvenile, I know.