Colorado GOP Executive Committee says "No voting on Presidential candidates at your caucus."

We'll hear more about this, but based on what I know now, here is what I think of this.

The Colorado GOP leaders last Friday met and discussed several issues. One was a rule change by the Republican National Committee that says if there is a vote on the Presidential candidates in any way, that vote has to be binding on the delegates.

This creates many problems, states are going to react and probably get this changed, maybe by the time of the national convention. But maybe not.

So the Colorado Republican leadership did the smart thing. They decided to no hold a Presidential candidate straw poll. They've gone back to the system that worked so well in the past for Colorado Republicans.

The straw poll came along after Colorado had the disastrous experiment with a Presidential primary.  When Colorado voters had the good sense to go back to what had worked so well since 1912, the straw poll was an attempt to drag the primary home, sort of a take-out primary.

That's not the way it worked in the past.

Delegates will get elected and they have to first attend their precinct caucus. Is there discussion about the Presidential race at the caucus? Of course. Delegates are elected to go to various nominating assemblies. Do those in their caucus know those delegates feeling about the Presidential candidates that night? Of course. But things might change. And some delegates will be elected who say it's way to early to make up their mind.

Sometimes there is a steamroller, the caucuses are all packed, only one candidate has delegates elected across the state. When that happens, the straw poll doesn't make any difference, either.

Seems to me the GOP has done the smart thing. We'll see.

I just posted this as a comment on the Denver Post article concerning this GOP decision. You can see a link to that article on our Colorado Caucus News Facebook Page  http://Facebook.com/Colorado.Caucus.News 

In our representative system we should be voting for the best possible people to go as delegates and represent us. Vote for the delegate or slate of delegates that will make the best decision on the floor of the convention based on full information. Sounds to me like this is a move to strengthen the GOP Colorado delegation. Should be good for Colorado.

Lesson Idea: Primaries and Caucuses | C-SPAN Classroom

Lesson Idea: Primaries and Caucuses | C-SPAN Classroom

"Keep the caucuses, ditch the primary.

Sebern: Keep the caucuses, ditch the primary http://www.coloradostatesman.com/content/996014-sebern-keep-caucuses-ditch-primary#.Vc6vZ9nK-Q8.twitter
Posted by Colorado Caucus News on Friday, August 14, 2015

The effect of leadership.

Iowa has leaders who help citizens understand the value of the Iowa Caucus. Colorado has, with a few exceptions, leaders who are silent or who actually are working to kill the system they have been entrusted with by the citizens of Colorado.

Important book makes strong case for the importance of the caucus in not just Iowa, but also Colorado and the other caucus states.

Why Iowa?: How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process by David P. Redlawsk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Extraordinarily well researched by political science professors at three universities, not a light read but vitally important in the debate about the value of the grassroots institution, what some see as the full flowering of what the founders of the country had in mind.

Makes a suggestion no on has picked up on, not mentioned in any of the reviews or interviews about the book that I have seen, it deserves to be widely discussed.

The suggestion is to have a caucus period at the beginning of the election season and then a national primary with the rest of the states.

Not an easy read because of it being crammed with important facts, but that is part of the appeal. This is solid research well presented, something that has never been produced by those who would kill the caucus. This follows on the heals of another that the authors credit, Grassroots Rules, Standford University Press which is equally enthusiastic about the caucus assembly system after taking a close look.

View all my reviews

Why the Colorado Caucus?

John Wren on Ch 9 talking about the Colorado Caucus a couple of elections ago:
http://archive.9news.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=71954119001