Commentary: GOP caucus a 'smashing success'

by Jonathan Parker
| March 20, 2012 11:30 AM

On Tuesday March 6, Idaho Republicans made history by participating in the first ever Idaho Republican presidential caucus. In addition to making history, Idaho Republicans held the largest caucus in the nation in which over 8,000 enthusiastic Republicans cast ballots for the presidential candidate of their choice at the Taco Bell Arena in Boise.

After years of being ignored by Republican presidential candidates and the national media due to our late May primary (a time in which our nominee had already been chosen for us), Idaho Republicans finally got a chance to make a difference and play a role in the Republican presidential nominating process by caucusing on Super Tuesday.

When the governing body of the Idaho Republican Party, made up of the elected leaders of all 44 county Republican parties, met at the 2011 Summer Central Committee meeting in Moscow, Idaho and voted to make the change to a presidential caucus they had three primary goals in mind:

To be relevant and have a say in the Republican presidential nominating process;

To bring Republican presidential candidates to Idaho to discuss issues important to Idahoans and to campaign for our votes;

To strengthen and build the Idaho Republican Party at the grassroots level.

Based on these three goals, the caucus was a smashing success, especially considering it was the first time it had ever been done. By adopting a presidential caucus and holding it at the earliest possible date allowed by Republican National Committee Rules, Idaho Republicans finally had a say in who our nominee will be. Furthermore, for the first time in a long time, all four major Republican presidential candidates visited Idaho, campaigned for our votes, and discussed issues important to Idahoans. One candidate even discussed public lands issues, something that is largely ignored by the national media and the presidential campaigns, even though the federal government controls over 60 percent of the land in Idaho. Finally, due to the caucuses, over 60,000 Idahoans became familiar with their local Republican Party and are getting involved at the grassroots level; this is evident by the record amount of Republican candidates who filed to run for positions from precinct chair to the state Legislature this year!

Moving forward, there are things that can definitely be improved in the future. That is why we are inviting you, all Idaho Republicans, to get involved with your local Republican Party, not only to have a say in who our future Republican nominees will be, but also with how we implement and execute future caucuses.

To learn more about the Idaho Republican Party, and to get involved with your County Republican Party, we invite you to visit our website at www.idgop.org. Working together, we can make Barack Obama a one-term President and ensure that Idaho remains what America was meant to be.

Jonathan Parker is the executive director of the Idaho Republican Party.