I finally decided to dip my toes in the political process earlier than a general election, and attended the Democratic (actually DFL) caucus in my neighborhood last night. This was the first caucus I’ve been to, but I’d read up on the process beforehand and went in with an idea of what to expect.
Here’s what happened:
Arrived at the church where the caucus was taking place. Noticed that the only signs on the lawn were for Obama. Inside the church, there were a bunch of signs for Obama as well as Franken for Senate lining the hallway, the stairs and the walls of the gym where the actual caucus meeting took place.
The volunteers explaining the process to first-time caucus attendees told us that all we needed to do was write down the candidate of our choice on a tiny blank slip of paper and tuck it into an envelope that some lady was walking around with. They said that was the extent of the process for the Presidential nominees, and that the process for Senate nominees and selecting delegates would take about an hour.
I signed in, wrote my candidate on the paper slip, and tossed it into the envelope as directed. They said, “That’s it, unless you want to stick around for the Senate portion.” I’ll say right here that I didn’t stay for the whole thing (the lighting in the room was that awful vibrating sickly yellow from old neon fixtures and gave me a massive headache).
Anyway.
What bothered me about the whole thing was all of the signage for a single candidate for President and the Senate. If there are going to be signs, shouldn’t all of the Democratic candidates be represented? Is that up to their campaign volunteers? Is it typical to have signs inside a caucus location in the first place? Is promoting a single candidate something specific to the Minnesota DFL party caucuses?
I’ve read everything I can find online about caucuses, but none answer those questions. Help me out here so I can be better informed next time.
oddly enough, there weren’t any obama signs at my caucus at saint paul, but everyone else had signs. But it’s a purely DFL political event, so I expected politicking. The caucus lies closer to the high school student council election than the presidential election on the continuum of elections. It only would have been unethical if people were tearing signs down or trashing other opponents in speeches, and I didn’t see any of that.
Of course I’m talking out of my ass here, since i don’t know anything about it. But the caucus is not a governmental process at all. Its a private (political) group, and pretty much can set its own rules and procedures.
Once again I’m clueless.
Yes, it was alright for caucus goers to bring signs and stickers, etc. My county chair received printed info from Franken and Ciresi (and Lori Swanson, for some reason), we put everything out on the tables by the doors. Heck, if candidates (or their surrogates) want to address the caucus, they are often allowed to try (it was a loud and busy night, and not too many people would have been able to hear). We are a small-population county, so we held all of the county precinct caucuses in the same reception room, just defined areas for each precinct to sit - we had about triple attendance as we had in 2004.
Ok, it helps me make sense of it to separate political party process from goverment process. Now that I understand that, I can see how the signs for Obama and Franken were there because attendees and/or volunteers put them up – I was taken aback thinking that there was some sort of endorsement of them by the DFL party over other Dem candidates.
The rules for primaries and caucuses are undoubtedly different, but when I voted at our primary yesterday, there was a sign that said any campaign materials were prohibited within 100 feet of the polling place. If you were even wearing a candidate button on your lapel, you had to remove it or cover it.
OK then, is it legal for a church to have political signage up at all? I’m not talking about allowing the bldng to be used for a meeting, but in general coming up to an election, can churches have signage for a candidate, or can a priest/reverend/whatever endorse a candidate from the pulpit? Wouldn’t that violate separation of church/state and make the church lose its tax free status? If not, why not?
filmyak:
That is part of what threw me off – at polling stations in a general election, signs are not allowed. I was expecting that to also be the case at a caucus, but obviously that wasn’t how it worked.
I am sure someone more knowledgeable (maybe Bricker?) could give a better answer, but my very-layman understanding is that the separation of church and state is more about the state than the church. It prohibits the government from establishing and enforcing a state religion, i.e. all citizens must be Catholic, or whatever. Churches, on the other hand, are free to support and endorse candidates that best align with their philosophies.
That’s not true at all. Churches who have been determined to have endorsed or spoken in favor of a particular candidate can and do lose their tax exemptions from the IRS.
Churches can have candidates come speak to the congregation if all candidates receive similar invitations. Pastors can promote specific “issues” and (I think) provide voter’s guides. But they cannot endorse one candidate over another.
If in this case, the signs were put up by the church or the church allowed them to remain on their property, that church is asking for trouble. They would not necessarily be targeted by the IRS, but they are certainly leaving themselves exposed to de-exemption.
I would have thought that if a church rents out a hall to a group, that group can put up whatever signage they use, and then take it down after the event is done. Shouldn’t raise an issue, because it’s not the church doing it. But that’s just my impression - would be interested to hear from someone who knows more about it.