Making sausage - the Minnesota Caucus
I participated in the Minnesota Republican Caucus tonight. I am in precinct 2-2A, and we met in the Blaine High School. (The Dems and those suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome were in another part of the high school.) There were only six people there from my precinct. We were in the same classroom as another precinct, and they had about ten people or so.
David Watkins facilitated our meeting. He was "elected" temporary and permanent chair of the meeting for the evening. Heidi Frederickson agreed to be the secretary for the evening.
David started us off at 7:03 pm by having us say the Pledge of Allegiance. He then read a letter from Sen. Coleman. The letter talked about the importance of grass roots efforts, and talked about some of things the US Senate and national Republican Party has achieved.
David then went through the explanation of legal requirements concerning the caucus. (By law it meets the first Tuesday in March of an election year, etc...)
We heard the term BPOU, which means Basic Political Organizational Unit. There are four levels. The caucus, the State Senate District, the Congressional District, and the State Convention. Tonight we were to elect delegates to the State Senate District convention, which for our district, 51, will be March 25 at the National Sports Center. (The 6th Congressional convention will by May 5-6 at the Monticello High School, and the State Convention will by June 1-3 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.)
We heard from a number of candidates and current office holders throughout the evening. We heard from Andy Westerberg, our district's current State House Representative. He is not running again. The two candidates for his seat, Brad Biers and Robyn West, came by and spoke with us.
We also heard from Pam Wolf, who is running for the state Senate.
We heard from Dave Clark, a member of the Blaine City Council. There was a short discussion with him about the proposed Minnesota Vikings stadium for here in Blaine, about four miles from my house.
Andy Aplikowski, better known to the MOB for his blog Residual Forces, is the current chair of the Senate 51 district, and he stopped by and spoke for a little bit, and played a taped message from Gov. Pawlenty.
We heard from a couple of the campaigns for the US House seat in the 6th District. (The seat is currently held by Mark Kennedy, who is running for the US Senate seat being vacated by the underwhelming Mark Dayton.)
There are four Republicans campaigning for the 6th seat. Two are Michele Bachmann and Jay Esmay, and we didn't hear from their campaigns in my room. The other two did stop by. Jim Knoblauch stopped by in person, and Linda Rumbeck stopped by on behalf of Phil Krinkie.
The rest of our time was spent electing precinct officers, and our precinct delegates to the Senate District convention in a couple weeks.
I agreed to be our precinct secretary. I really have no idea what kind of duties I might be tasked with. But, I'd like to get more involved in politics, and ya gotta start somewhere.
Our precinct is allotted 10 or 12 delegates, something like that, to the Senate District convention. Since there were only six of us, anybody who wanted to go could. We all indicated our willingness to be a delegate, so I shall do that. Among other things, that convention will pick delegates to the Congressional and State conventions.
And that was the evening. The world will little note, nor long remember what we accomplished there. But it's part of the freedom we have. It was just us lumpen citizens, in all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life, getting together to be a part of governing ourselves. There were no mullahs telling us what to do on pain of death. No soldiers herding us to predetermined outcomes. Just Americans free to decide for ourselves. May we always remember that such freedom did not, and does not, come cheap.
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A number of my fellow MOBsters also participated in their caucus, and wrote up accounts of their experiences. Ben from Hammerswing75, Leo the Psycmeistr, Doug of Bogus Gold, Kevin of EckerNet, and King Banaian of SCSU Scholars.
David Watkins facilitated our meeting. He was "elected" temporary and permanent chair of the meeting for the evening. Heidi Frederickson agreed to be the secretary for the evening.
David started us off at 7:03 pm by having us say the Pledge of Allegiance. He then read a letter from Sen. Coleman. The letter talked about the importance of grass roots efforts, and talked about some of things the US Senate and national Republican Party has achieved.
David then went through the explanation of legal requirements concerning the caucus. (By law it meets the first Tuesday in March of an election year, etc...)
We heard the term BPOU, which means Basic Political Organizational Unit. There are four levels. The caucus, the State Senate District, the Congressional District, and the State Convention. Tonight we were to elect delegates to the State Senate District convention, which for our district, 51, will be March 25 at the National Sports Center. (The 6th Congressional convention will by May 5-6 at the Monticello High School, and the State Convention will by June 1-3 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.)
We heard from a number of candidates and current office holders throughout the evening. We heard from Andy Westerberg, our district's current State House Representative. He is not running again. The two candidates for his seat, Brad Biers and Robyn West, came by and spoke with us.
We also heard from Pam Wolf, who is running for the state Senate.
We heard from Dave Clark, a member of the Blaine City Council. There was a short discussion with him about the proposed Minnesota Vikings stadium for here in Blaine, about four miles from my house.
Andy Aplikowski, better known to the MOB for his blog Residual Forces, is the current chair of the Senate 51 district, and he stopped by and spoke for a little bit, and played a taped message from Gov. Pawlenty.
We heard from a couple of the campaigns for the US House seat in the 6th District. (The seat is currently held by Mark Kennedy, who is running for the US Senate seat being vacated by the underwhelming Mark Dayton.)
There are four Republicans campaigning for the 6th seat. Two are Michele Bachmann and Jay Esmay, and we didn't hear from their campaigns in my room. The other two did stop by. Jim Knoblauch stopped by in person, and Linda Rumbeck stopped by on behalf of Phil Krinkie.
The rest of our time was spent electing precinct officers, and our precinct delegates to the Senate District convention in a couple weeks.
I agreed to be our precinct secretary. I really have no idea what kind of duties I might be tasked with. But, I'd like to get more involved in politics, and ya gotta start somewhere.
Our precinct is allotted 10 or 12 delegates, something like that, to the Senate District convention. Since there were only six of us, anybody who wanted to go could. We all indicated our willingness to be a delegate, so I shall do that. Among other things, that convention will pick delegates to the Congressional and State conventions.
And that was the evening. The world will little note, nor long remember what we accomplished there. But it's part of the freedom we have. It was just us lumpen citizens, in all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life, getting together to be a part of governing ourselves. There were no mullahs telling us what to do on pain of death. No soldiers herding us to predetermined outcomes. Just Americans free to decide for ourselves. May we always remember that such freedom did not, and does not, come cheap.
-----
A number of my fellow MOBsters also participated in their caucus, and wrote up accounts of their experiences. Ben from Hammerswing75, Leo the Psycmeistr, Doug of Bogus Gold, Kevin of EckerNet, and King Banaian of SCSU Scholars.
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