With long lines at Democratic locations, and no poll for president for Republican caucus-goers, this spring’s political party caucuses in Colorado left a lot to be desired. But, that does not mean that they should be abandoned.
Caucuses are organized by the two major parties, not by the state or any other government, and differ in their organizational details. Their purpose is for a couple of hours at the neighborhood level to engage and energize like-minded individuals within broad political ideologies. In anticipation of the November elections, they create the opportunity to push forward candidates who have at least a minimum amount of support and to do the same with issues. Caucuses provide representatives to the two parties’ county conventions and eventually to state gatherings.
Democrats turned out in force, energized by the surprising challenge that Sen. Bernie Sanders is giving Hillary Clinton. With signing in and rule-reading, Democrats generally had insufficient time for the substance of the evening, candidates and issues. In La Plata County, the contested primary race for district attorney was mishandled, requiring the party to move both candidates, Christian Champagne and Ben Sammons, forward at its county convention held last Saturday. The two will compete in the primary in June.
Republican turnout in La Plata County was generally much lower as a result of the state party’s decision a year ago not to begin to commit delegates to a presidential candidate at the caucus level. That will occur at the state level, which can be interpreted to mean that party regulars at that level know best, and that caucus-goers have been disenfranchised. Will state Republicans repeat that decision four years from now? We doubt it.
In Montezuma County, where the Republican Party is effectively the only party, those caucuses were well-attended even with no contested local offices nor presidential poll taking. The presidential race has energized that party.
What would improve future caucuses is better preparation and more publicity. Signing in should be better staffed, and caucus chairpersons could likely use some hints in how to move along the required agendas more quickly.
Caucuses ought to appeal to a larger slice of the electorate than they do now, but their infrequent occurrence and changing leadership require proper preparation. Democracy is often awkward and clumsy, but it should not be excessively so.
