Posted on 03/03/2012 4:34:00 PM PST by entropy12
Kennewick About 1,500 people were turned away from pooled Benton County caucuses in Kennewick by event organizers after rooms at the Three Rivers Convention Center reached capacity this morning.
Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/03/03/1849623/politics-hundreds-turned-away.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy
(Excerpt) Read more at tri-cityherald.com ...
Those 1500 were Santorum supporters. Romney is behind this.
Washington Caucus, extracted from Huffpost:
12% reporting
CANDIDATE VOTES PCT. DEL.
Mitt Romney 1,272 30.9%
Ron Paul 1,116 27.1%
Rick Santorum 991 24.1%
Newt Gingrich 556 13.5%
Others 177 4.3%
Starting to sound like the SEIU is running the GOP primaries.
Any evidence of this claim?
True. And Newt is now blasting Santorum so that he can get a few more percentages to his last place finishes is just allowing Romney to win these things. His strategy gets worse by the minute.
In 2008 our Republican caucus drew about 280 people in our Washington State legislative district. So we decided to rent a school cafeteria with a fire marshal’s rated capacity of 400 people. To our amazement, 900 Republicans showed up. We had to hold our caucus in shifts with a time limit that the building be vacated by noon. That tells me there is a tsunami on its way.
This is actually great news. The event organizers expected 2000 to show up and 3500 showed up? We may be looking at taking over the Senate, keeping the House and send 0Bama back to Chicago.
Caucuses must be eliminated in future cycles. They are antiquated, corrupt, prone to error and systemic mismanagement, and a total embarrassment to the party.
This cycle alone we have endured the chaos of caucuses and Iowa, Nevada, Colorado, Maine, and now perhaps Washington.
Eliminate all caucuses and transition to primaries. Tremendously more participation by the voters and remove the stranglehold of the Establishment.
DELEGATE RACE AS IT STANDS NOW: Romney- 154, of those 36 are non-binding= 118 solid Santorum- 69, of those 52 are non-binding= 17 solid Gingrich- 33, of those 3 are non-binding= 30 solid Paul- 26, of those 18 are non-binding= 8 solid POPULAR VOTE TOTALS: Romney- 1,749,677 Gingrich- 978,229 Santorum- 932,508 Paul- 463,176 All information found at Real Clear Politics
Washington Caucus
13.8% reporting
CANDIDATE VOTES PCT.
Mitt Romney 6,101 35.6%
Ron Paul 4,203 24.6%
Rick Santorum 4,203 24.6%
Newt Gingrich 2,028 11.8%
Others 580 3.4%
They decided that the first people who showed up would vote in the presidential preference straw poll and then pick their precinct reps (I am an alternate). The next group would get to vote in the presidential straw poll; but, the reps for the next step in the process had alread been chosen. They just didn't expect this kind of turn-out.
Are those the same Ron Paul supporters that showed up in Iowa, Florida, and Nevada?
Washington usually has BOTH, non-binding caucus and then a full primary (open, sigh) but this year they cut out the primary due to budgetary problems in state.
Right now Ron Paul has a better chance of beating Romney.
Newt a distant fourth in a three way race.
Washington Caucus, extracted from Huffpost:
12% reporting
CANDIDATE VOTES PCT. DEL.
Mitt Romney 1,272 30.9%
Rick Santorum 991 24.1%
Newt Gingrich 556 13.5%
N E W T O R U M !!! ..Almost 38%
Wake up, Newtonians, my friends! Unite now with fellow conservaive, Rick Santorum or you are only helping Willard the Lib!
I am thrilled to see the voter turn out in my state. This caucus process is not a formally organized event. It is primarily a local event organized by local activists. It was probably impossible for them to guess that voter turn out would be so much larger than in 2008. If one does not want to be disfranchised from voting, one should take part in organizing the event, instead of just showing up, or at least show up early. I showed up 1/2 hour early and had no problem getting in.
Washington Caucus
27.7% reporting
CANDIDATE VOTES PCT.
Mitt Romney 6,101 35.6%
Ron Paul 4,203 24.6%
Rick Santorum 4,203 24.6%
Newt Gingrich 2,028 11.8%
Others 580 3.4%
You won’t be so cheerful when those people who were turned away don’t bother to show up for the general election.
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