| Political caucuses across state Tuesday |
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By Joel Stottrup It’s Minnesota’s turn Tuesday to have some influence in one of the most watched political campaign years for selecting a new president and other government officials. Voting turnouts in states who have had presidential primaries so far has been high. On Tuesday Minnesotans can attend caucus meetings, starting at 7 p.m., to offer resolutions for party platforms, select delegates for the next caucus convention level, and make non-binding straw votes for presidential candidates. Feb. 5 is being called Super Tuesday because 15 states will have presidential primaries and seven states (Minnesota being one) will have caucuses. The following are the meeting places for political caucuses for the Princeton area. All the caucus meetings will start at 7 p.m., with registration usually taking place a half hour before that. The following locations are for the Princeton area DFL and Republican caucuses: DFL – Princeton Middle School for city of Princeton and the townships of Princeton, Greenbush, Bogus Brook, South Harbor, Baldwin (both precincts), Blue Hill and Santiago. Republican – Mille Lacs County Historical Society’s Great Northern room for the Mille Lacs County portion of the city of Princeton, and the townships of Princeton and Greenbush. The Sherburne County portion of the city will meet at Zimmerman High School, along with the townships of Baldwin, Blue Hill, Orrock, Livonia, and the city of Zimmerman. Why attend? Doug Dahl, chairman of the Mille Lacs County Republican party, and Jeff Strand, a director on the Mille Lacs County DFL board gave their reasons last week why someone might attend one of the caucus meetings Tuesday. The media are most interested in the outcome of the straw vote presidential candidates, but the most important result of the caucus meetings, Dahl said, will be the selection of delegates. The ones selected at this most local level, will attend the party’s county party convention. From there, delegates will be chosen for the district party convention. Delegates will be chosen at the district level to attend the state convention, and it will be from there that delegates will be chosen for the national convention. It’s at the national party conventions where a candidate is picked to be on the ballot for president. But Dahl did agree there is a strong public interest this year as to who will get nominated from each of the major parties for president. But attending a political caucus is something to consider because “our basic form of government is a representative republic,” Dahl said. It is a chance, Dahl said, to “speak your mind and influence who the elected representatives are going to be and that is more powerful than a vote.” Dahl added that the steering committees that organizes a caucus does a lot of planning and work. Therefore, he said, “we want to see a lot of people come out and make their opinions known. That’s why we do all this, to get people, all the people out.” The political caucus “is the first step,” said Strand, with the DFL party, in the process of putting someone on the ballot and forming planks in the party platform. “It’s your voice,” Strand continued. “Your voice is finally heard by someone. We can sit home and complain, but to get something done, that’s the first thing that can be done, go to the caucus.” Strand added that he and other DFL party leaders at the Mille Lacs County level are expecting a “very good crowd” at Tuesday’s DFL caucus. This time, the DFL party has rented an extra room besides the media center at the middle school in case the crowd size demands the extra space, Strand said. “A lot of people want change so bad,” said Strand. “The economy is hurting and there are health care issues, the war in Iraq. They are building permanent bases in Iraq. That’s absolutely wrong. We shouldn’t be there and shouldn’t have been there in the beginning.” Dahl, with the Mille Lacs Republican party said this about the issues. “Obviously, the whole question about the threat of Islamic extremism and how we meet that threat,” Dahl said. “The war in Iraq. Border security is a huge issue and spending at the federal level, earmarks particularly. The tendency of people in Congress to earmark money, to try to get money to send to their districts. It is a hugely corrupting aspect of the federal Congress.” Comments (0)
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Princeton Union Eagle
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