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Badger Paul
01-31-2008, 04:15 PM
Caucus fever hits Kansas: Obama, Paul leading among FHSU students

Thursday, 31 January 2008

Andrew Bauer - The University Leader

For the first time, Kansas will have its presidential caucuses early in the primary season. This means that for the first time, Fort Hays State University students, along with other Kansans, will have a chance to influence the presidential selection process.

Kansas has found itself in a position of significance this year. The 2008 caucuses are different from other years because Kansas usually runs its caucuses later in the election cycle.

“In this election, you’ve had a weird situation,” said American Democracy Project adviser, Chapman Rackaway. “Our caucuses, when held, are later in the primary season, so people in the past have just waited around until leaders emerge.”
Although they are both referred to as caucuses, the Democrats and Republicans have very different rules for how things are run.

The Republican caucus in Hays will be Saturday, Feb. 9, at the VFW Hall, 2106 Vine St. Check-in will start at 9:30 a.m., and the meeting will come to order at 10 a.m. Participants must have been registered Republicans as of Jan. 26.
Once the caucus is called to order, representatives for each candidate will be called forward to give a short speech supporting their candidate.

“There will be a call for representatives, but they have to be authorized representatives,” said Hays Republican Party chairman John Pyle. “You can’t just walk up there and say ‘I’m the representative for John McCain.’ You have to be designated, somehow.”

After the speeches, voting will be cast by secret ballot. Then, the results are sent to the state office. Whichever candidate gains the most votes statewide will receive the support of 36 delegates at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 1 through Sept. 4.

Although it will be very early in the election season, Pyle said that the Kansas Republican party deliberately decided not to have its caucus on Tuesday, which is the opening day of the primary season known as Super Tuesday. This is in an effort to generate more interest among candidates in Kansas.

“When it gets closer and closer and those delegate votes get closely spread, there are going to be four days right there that those two or three leading contenders, if they could pick up 30 delegate votes, (Kansas) would be important,” Pyle said.

In contrast, the Democratic caucus is run differently. The Hays caucus will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the VFW. Since the event will be on Super Tuesday, Kansas will join 22 other states—including Missouri, Colorado and Oklahoma—in selecting its candidate for the Democratic nomination. Those who wish to participate can register as a Democrat at the door.

Once the caucus begins, supporters of each candidate will gather into groups to be counted. If a group does not have the support of at least 15 percent of the people present, its candidate will be considered nonviable and will no longer be acknowledged. The people in these groups can either leave or join another group.
Once only viable candidates are left, nine delegates will be portioned among the supporters. Then, these delegates will attend the caucus for the first congressional district on April 12. At this event, the delegates will elect new delegates to represent their pledged candidates at the National Democratic Convention in Denver, Colo., Aug. 24 through Aug. 28.

Ellis County Democratic Party chairman Glenn Staab acknowledged that the Democratic caucus is somewhat more complicated than the Republican caucus.
“John (Pyle) asked me how we came up with (our system), and I said I don’t know, but that I assumed alcohol had to be involved,” Staab said jokingly.

The Kansas Democratic Party hopes that such an early caucus date will generate interest from candidates and participation among party members. According to the Wichita Eagle, the last time a Democratic presidential hopeful visited Kansas, prior to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s Tuesday visit, was in 1960. However, this attention deficit is beginning to change.

“This is the first presidential election since I’ve been in office that has gotten this much attention from the candidates,” Staab said. “Usually by the time Kansas has our caucus or primary, the race is settled.”

Obama generated a lot of excitement at his campaign stop at Butler County Community College in El Dorado. Thousands of supporters waited in line in freezing temperatures to see the presidential hopeful in the packed gymnasium.

“On the Democratic side, Obama has brought out young voters you haven’t seen since Bobby Kennedy,” Staab said. “All of our caucuses and primaries (across the nation) have seen record turnout, and they attribute that to the Obama campaign bringing excitement.”

Staab added other reasons to get excited over national politics in Kansas, pointing to Kansas’ Democratic governor, Kathleen Sebelius, and her viability as a potential running mate.

“It’s pretty exciting for Kansas because Sebelius has always been on the shortlist of potential vice-presidential candidates,” Staab said. “Sebelius has a lot of potential to be vice president.”

Sebelius’ name was suggested by pundits in 2004 as a possible nominee for vice president. She also has been named the best governor in America by Time magazine and has been listed by Newsweek as “one to watch.”
Sebelius endorsed Obama’s candidacy on Tuesday.

However, Staab said there is no information available indicating who is likely to win the Kansas Democratic caucus.

“I don’t think any candidate has put Kansas in their column yet as a done deal,” Staab said.

Similarly, Pyle said there is no indicator on who has the support of state Republicans.

“We just had our state convention in Topeka, and nothing is being said about who anyone feels is in the lead,” Pyle said. “It’s just really up in the air. Nobody wanted to express who they thought was up yet.”

A clear-cut candidate also has not surfaced among the student body at FHSU yet. However, Rackaway has made some observations on who at least has the most active supporters.

“The two candidates that students seem to be getting behind…is Ron Paul and Obama,” Rackaway said. “With young Republicans, (Paul) appeals to the Libertarian streak in them, and Obama is the youngest and most vibrant person out there.”

However, Rackaway was quick to note his methods are not really scientific.
“The way I note that is through the highly technical process of looking at Facebook,” Rackaway said. “But again, I haven’t really heard a lot from anyone.”

Students supporting Ron Paul have been seen as a particularly vocal group. Seniors Matthias Goodley and Brent Voss along with sophomore Cole Ginther have campaigned for Ron Paul while trying to get people of all political affiliations to register to vote.

“If you’re going to the Republican caucus, you have to be registered before the deadline,” Goodley said. “If nothing else, it’s good for the process.”
The three acknowledged, however, that there would probably be little interest in the caucus.

“I don’t think very many people are going to show up,” Voss said. “I don’t think the notion that Kansas is going to have a caucus has been broadcast very well.”
Voss also acknowledged that Paul’s chances of winning the Republican nomination were miniscule.

“In a way, I’m disappointed, but mostly I’m satisfied,” Voss said. “From the beginning we realized that the message is more important than the candidate.”

Sarge
01-31-2008, 04:32 PM
Good luck all,

Just in case you are not reading the main threads, here is some ammo on what the long war is doing to our troops. It might start to wake people up. It is hitting the wires big time today.

I hope you all can get the message across. The rate is only going to increase with McCain and the rest wanting a longer war. The troops are strong but they are human and it is breaking up their families.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=107563

RoyalShock
02-05-2008, 10:03 AM
I got a call from my dad last night that Wichita State held a mock primary/caucus and Ron Paul won on the Republican side. He saw this on a Wichita TV channel.

Crickett
02-05-2008, 10:35 AM
Any Precinct Leader is authorized as such from the campaign. The speechmaker just needs to sign up at the HQ website and that is his authorization.