Sunday, August 28, 2011

Wyoming Republicans Opt for March Caucuses

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The Wyoming Republican State Central Committee met in Casper on Saturday for their summer meeting and the timing of the state party's caucuses was on the agenda. Recall that the Wyoming GOP chose to challenge the national party rules in 2008, and there was an open discussion during the committee's spring meeting over whether to repeat the early 2008 caucuses or stick with the new national party rules in 2012. Very little news has come out of the meeting yesterday -- at least in terms of the date of the caucuses. However, the broad message that has emerged -- from Wyoming Republican consultant Bill Novotny via Twitter -- is that the committee decided not to take on the national party by choosing to begin their delegate selection process in March.

Again, that is the general take home from the meeting, but as of now the specifics regarding the actual date are still absent. Given the minutes from the Wyoming Republican State Central Committee meeting in April, it appears as if the two alternatives were 1) hold earlier than allowed caucus meetings or 2) hold those caucuses on the second Tuesday in March. In this case, the second option was given the green light. There is nothing in the Wyoming Republican Bylaws (2010) that in any way codifies a second Tuesday in March date as the usual date on which the party holds caucuses -- presidential or otherwise. Beyond that, the statement from the minutes of the April state central committee meeting that mentions that particular March date does not specify whether that is a potential caucus day or just a barrier before which the caucuses should/must be held.

For the time being, then, FHQ will reshade Wyoming on our 2012 presidential primary calendar map, but leave the date unspecified until the actual date can be verified.


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