Larimer County Republicans Ready for Caucuses

By Austin Briggs

     The Larimer County GOP has been gearing up for the Feb. 7 caucuses by offering workshops for caucus organizers and volunteers.

   

 Approximately 120 people showed up Thursday night for a training session at Loveland Classical Schools. Wielding a microphone and standing on stage in front of the assembled crowd, Jerry Patterson addressed the high energy group of Republicans.

  

  The internal vice chair for the Larimer County GOP, Patterson guided the enthusiastic crowd through the necessary steps for running a successful caucus.  This included verifying voter registration, counting votes, and the method for reporting the results to district captains.

   After the presentation the crowd broke into smaller groups and spent 30 minutes running a practice caucus.

  

  “What do we do if someone shows up without their registration?” shouted one volunteer.

     “What if someone shows up and they turned 18 after the cut-off date?” yelled another.

  

  Patterson jumped from group to group answering questions and talking to the precinct chairpersons.

  

   According to the Colorado GOP website there are over 3,500 precincts in the state. Sixty of those sites are in Larimer County.

   

   “I had to take this last week off from work it’s been so hectic,” quipped Patterson. “I’ve barely slept the last few weeks getting all this organized.”  He explained that there are still a few small issues to address like verifying voter registration and securing a couple more precinct sites but most of the heavy lifting has been taken care of.

     

 Compared to the process four years ago, Patterson noted the difficulty of organizing this year’s caucuses because of Congressional redistricting.

  

 “It took a long time for them to finally settle on district lines and it changed everything. We only had a little over two weeks to find locations for our caucuses,” explained Patterson. “People need to know that they’ll have a different precinct this year. They need to get online to look up their new precinct number.”

      

     After weeks of turbulence in the Republican presidential primary the nomination is still up for grabs. In an interview with Westword magazine earlier this month, Colorado Republican Party chairman Ryan Call argued that this year's Colorado Republican Caucus will be more important than ever, in part because the date was moved up to Feb.  7 from Mar. 6.

     

     Patterson shared that sentiment. “There’s definitely an intensity out there. People are fired up and want to help out.  They want to see Obama out of office and Colorado is a swing state.”

  

  Although a lot of people focus on national politics during election years, many city and county seats are filled as well. Gail Zirtzlaff, who is a precinct chairwoman in Larimer County, says that it’s just as important for people to attend caucuses to elect candidates at the local level.

   

 “People don’t realize that the grassroots, local stuff affects our everyday lives more than who’s president,” said Zirtzlaff as she took a break after running a practice caucus. “The sheriff, county commissioners and mayor are going to have more of an impact on us than anything else.”

  She says an advantage that caucus states have over primary states is that candidates are more likely to show up at precinct meetings to ask for votes. “You get to meet the candidates in person,” explained Zirtzlaff.

  

 To participate in the Republican caucus, county residents must be a registered Republican Party voter since no later than Dec. 7 2011. The Democratic caucuses will be held on Mar. 6.