Today is the big grass roots Tuesday in Minnesota. Most voters flock to the final elections, but once you've participated in the caucus system, it becomes very apparent what "grass roots" means. The organized votes cast at the caucus level can change an entire party platform, and everyone knows, the caucus votes determine who the rest of the nation will vote for at the presidential election.
If, like me, you've not lived in your current location long enough to know where your caucus meets, you can find the Minnesota locations at this web site. If you've never been to a caucus, you might be surprised at how small the group of decision makers really is.
The morning after the caucuses, and nearly 200,000 Minnesotans took the time to caucus! It must have been the combined efforts of "Real Estate Snippets," "Our Saint Paul," & "St. Paul Real Estate" that drove them to the caucuses. I observed many young people at our caucus at Monroe Community School, first-timers, all, and the old-caucus veterans smiling very wide indeed at the line stretching out to the street from deep within the school.
Posted by: Jack Boardman | February 06, 2008 at 04:08 AM
Jack, you don't think the young people are getting "educated" about how important caucuses are? It seems like ancient history when I actually went as a delegate to the third district convention many years back. I had no idea how important being at the precinct meetings was until there were 35 people writing proposals for the presidential platform. Proposals that went to the state convention! I was shocked. I had figured thousands of people went to the precinct meetings back then, but I was wrong. We were happy to get 50!
Posted by: Bonnie Erickson | February 07, 2008 at 12:13 AM