Participate in party caucuses
1 comment for this page [ View ]Saturday, March 8, 2008
Introduction
Lisa Johnson explains the organization’s approach to citizen involvement
Lisa Johnson explains the organization’s approach to citizen involvement, part 2
Pat Rusk discusses voter involvement
Pat Rusk talks about how the 2007 voucher battle may affect the 2008 elections
Pat Rusk explains her views on the caucus experience
This could be the election year that Utah politics gets an infusion of moderate Republican and -- dare we imagine it? -- Democratic winners in races for the Legislature.
That's the goal of a self-described bipartisan coalition of organizations urging Utahns to become involved at the grassroots level. They hope that by educating people about how to participate in the March 25 statewide party caucuses, the Legislature may begin to mirror Utah's population -- a little moderation may seep in.
It's only a theory, but it may be correct: Utahns for Public Schools, the chief organizer of the anti-school vouchers movement in 2007, is playing the role of organizer/educator in this effort. Utahns for Public Schools members are guessing that voucher-supporting lawmakers so badly misjudged voters' wishes on that issue they stirred previously somnambulant Utahns, prompting them to become involved in the voucher-referendum process.
This is critical, since most legislative elections in overwhelmingly Republican Utah are decided at county and state party conventions. If a candidate wins more than 60 percent of the delegates' votes, they become the party's nominee in that race; if they get less than 60 percent, they must face off in a June primary election to determine the nominee. Then it's on to November, where the GOP holds sway in most districts.
Since so few voters participate in respective party caucuses -- as little as 2 percent, by one estimate -- they have an out-size influence on the eventual general election -- their votes actually matter more than those casting ballots in the primary and/or general elections. That's why attendance at party caucuses is so critical to the eventual political makeup of county and state leadership.
Regardless of your political affiliation, you should become involved. The more people who are involved, the better, more responsive our government will be.
And it's simple:
* Find the address of your precinct caucus meeting (see the list of Web sites below).
* Ask your friends and neighbors who would support you, who would nominate you to become a delegate (or precinct officer, since they sometimes are delegates to the conventions) and vote for you to accompany you to the neighborhood party caucus meeting.
* Once there, you will elect delegates to the county and state conventions.
If elected as a delegate, you'll serve for two years. You'll help to fashion your party's state platform. If you've been elected in response to your pledge to support a particular candidate, you should do precisely that.
We hope all voters will consider taking a couple of hours on Tuesday, March 25, to attend their party caucus meetings.
Even if you're perfectly satisfied with the way Utah's and your respective county's governments are being run, it's an opportunity to have input into the process.
For information on the location of your caucus meeting:
Davis County Democrats: www.utdemocrats.org.
Davis County GOP: http://daviscounty.utgop.org.
Weber County GOP: www.wcrgop.org (due to be posted on the Web site in about a week).
Weber County Democrats: www.weberdemocrats.org.
Box Elder County Democrats: www.utdemocrats.org (not yet posted when we last visited the site).
Box Elder and Morgan counties GOP: According to the state party's Web site (http://home.utgop.org), "Contact your county leadership. All caucus locations are determined at the county level. The information is expected to be posted on their Web site two weeks prior."
Morgan County Democrats: www.utdemocrats.org.
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The more moderate Republicans we get at the caucuses THE BEST representation of our overall REPUBLICAN BASE of voters we will have as delegates. The less voters involved in the caucuses, the more likely we will have the ultra right LIBERTARIANS running our legislature once again.