The Republican Party Locally

I've gotten involved in politics. At the lowest level. In March, Colorado held caucuses, and Steve and I attended ours. I was prepared to "run" for precinct leader in our area. AND I WON. Okay, okay. So, four of us showed up at our caucus meeting. Only two of us wanted the position, and...there are actually two precinct leaders in each precinct. So I felt pretty good about my chances even before we voted.

At this same meeting, I also became one of 2 delegates to the county convention. That worked pretty much the same way. Then I got invited to the meeting where we picked our state assembly delegates. This meeting taught me that we need more sane/intelligent people going to Republican meetings.

After opening the meeting, we immediately began the nomination process. People could nominate themselves or others. After about 5 people had been nominated I decided to ask...so where is the state assembly, when is the state assembly, how long does it last, what is done there? And, no, there hadn't been a memo sent out that I missed.

After the nominating process was over, we were told to pick 5 of the nine people to attend the state assembly. So, everyone begins feverishly writing on a peice of paper. After about 30 seconds I decided to ask...how am I supposed to decide who to vote for when I don't know any of you, and I don't know which candidates you are supporting? The leader of the meeting looked a little embarrassed and then asked everyone to speak for 1-2 minutes about why they wanted to go to the state assembly. The first woman gave me a life summary, grandchild count, and how many times she'd gone to the assembly before. The second woman told me about how she and her husband always go and how it's a great weekend getaway. The third...no I won't go on telling you. Each of them spoke directly to me, not the whole room, and most of them had to be prompted to tell me about which candidates they were supporting. And, no, these people did not all just know each other except me...I asked later.

Then we voted. There were lots of ties, so we voted again. Then we voted again. Very exciting.

Then lather. Rinse. Repeat. We got to do it for the state assembly alternates. This time I threw my name into the mix. No one asked me who I was, who I supported, why I wanted to go to the assembly. I could have easily been a democratic infiltrator! So I became a state assembly alternate. And no one even asked how many grandkids I had. Go figure.

And on and on it went.