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September 23, 2011 09:40 PM UTC

GOP To Move Up Caucuses?

  • 28 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31’s Eli Stokols reports, tough to see a downside:

Colorado Republicans will vote Saturday morning on a resolution to move its presidential caucus up to February, just one day after the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.

GOP Chairman Ryan Call told FOX31 Denver that no decision has been made yet but that the idea seems to be gaining support.

“There seems to be an emerging consensus within our leadership that likes the idea of moving up,” Call said…

“It’s to make sure Colorado’s voice is part of the discussion,” Call said. “We understand we’re not Iowa or New Hampshire, but we feel Colorado is in a unique position as a targeted swing state and that our voice in selecting that party’s nominee is an important voice.”

While the caucuses in Colorado do not bind delegates to the convention, moving the date up would give whoever wins early bragging rights in a state considered key to winning the general election in November of 2012. It will certainly have the effect of increasing the attention our state receives from GOP candidates between now and the caucuses–the question is, will that attention early in the cycle make Colorado more winnable for the GOP in the general?

Because that’s what it’s all really about of course. A poll follows.

Will a high-profile caucus in Colorado make the state more winnable for the GOP in November of 2012?

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Comments

28 thoughts on “GOP To Move Up Caucuses?

    1. – the only way to “save Medicare” is to kill it

      – the unfunded Medicare drug plan that was a giant giveaway to big pharma has nothing to do with the deficit

      – sure, debt was 140% of GDP once before and you seniors or your parents paid it off, you can do it again

      – we should continue spending more on weapons and two wars than the next 20 nations on earth combined, even if we have to cut Social Security to do it

      – it’s not your fault, it’s the illegal, gay, poor unwed mothers without AIDS

      Yeah- the GOTP should go big in Colorado or go home.

  1. Give local & state candidates less time to organize their caucus delegates.  Those delegates are elected to the county assembly.  Good luck getting a moderate Republican on the primary ballot if they haven’t had time to organize at the caucus level.

    On the presidential – I doubt it makes a bit of difference.

    1. The more candidates still int he field, the more the candidates will be trying to prove they are crazier right wing ideologues than the other.

      If the field was more winnowed down, candidates could play to the purple tendencies in CO rather than the nut-fringe wing jobs.  

      I hope Michelle and the guy selling the $9.99 pizzas are still in the mix!

  2. If the GOP moves up their caucus date, that cuts short the amount of time that County Clerks have to redraw their precincts.

    They cannot even begin this activity until the congressional and state legislative districts are set int stone, which does not happen until December. Then they would have to have it done by 30 days prior to the caucus (first couple of days of January if the GOP moves up the caucuses).

    Best case scenario with an early caucus is that County Clerks get 3 weeks to re-precinct. For the smaller counties that may be easy enough, but for the densely populated counties, it is a tedious process and they will be burning the mid-night oil to get it downe in time.

    1. 1) Most states have primaries.

      2) Of the few states that still do caucuses, most are binding in that the results of the caucus dictate the number of national delegates each candidate gets.

      Colorado is non-binding. It is a vote taken at the state convention in April/May that dictates the number of delegates each candidate gets. All our caucuses are is an opinion poll that measures the feel of the party at that moment in either Feb. or March.

      That is how Colorado can move to such an early slot in the process without violating national party rules, but most other states cannot.

      There are, of course, some variation to this between the major parties’ rules.

  3. If we’re earlier and more important we’ll be hearing more negative ads attacking one another, because that’s what it always comes down to.

    The general will be a negative-fest, and having heard the negatives against the eventual R nominee once before, hearing them repeated will have more of the ring of truth

    1. bingo!

      The GOP circular firing squad will do the work for us.  We will both be able to benefit from the reinforcement of which you speak, and publicize their inevitable chasing of each other off the right end of a Flat Earth in the General.  

      I too hope they move it up.  Spreads out the fun in the calendar that way.  

  4. More exposure to more extreme, fringe candidates, for more time helps Dems.  “Anyone but Obama” only works until you look at their choices.

    But more exposure to a likeable candidate who has swing-vote appeal would help them.  Not sure who that is yet, but we’ll see.

    1. to who’s still in the game.  Right now they are chasing each other rightward, so it’ll be interesting to see how quick whomever is nominated can tack back toward center.  If it’s some one who’ll choose to do so. I think Perry is really stumbling.  A repeat performance of his latest and he has a good chance of ending up like other ‘sure things’ of yore.

      1. The TP darlings are eating each other up.  Romney has proved popular here among Colorado Rs before but his ability to maintain appeal and enthusiasm in the presidential election, vying for our only nationwide elected office, remains very much in doubt.

        He may be vanilla enough for a middle tired of the endless political wars, the still slightly exotic Mormon issue notwithstanding, but he has a very hard time projecting macho strength, on the one hand, and not projecting cluelessness about how ordinary Americans live on the other.  

        Bush may have been raised as a privileged, rich, aristocratic scion but he had no trouble projecting the regular guy thing (if regular guys hang out holding hands with Saudi princes) and had the right to wear a flight jacket if he wanted to.

        And even though Bush is a reformed drunk who doesn’t indulge, that didn’t stop people from feeling as if he was a guy they could knock back a beer with. Even if Romney wasn’t Mormon, it would be very tough to picture him as the guy on the next barstool at your favorite watering hole.

        In the end, a lot can happen in the next year that could push this one way or the other in the general, regardless of the R pick.

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