The Lincoln "Super Caucus" was held on Saturday morning at 10am at the Lincoln VFW. The towns of Burlington, Chester, Enfield, Lincoln, Lowell, Howland, and Winn all met in the main hall of the VFW in a room that had more than enough tables to seat the
approximately 32 caucus goers. 4 New Hampshire and 4 Maine Ron Paul
activists were also present to PLASTER the drive leading into the Caucus
site with Ron Paul signs and also greeted them as they came through the
door. We also had Ron Paul literature available to present to
interested parties. (Note...please be nice...) The Delegate position's
that were available were as follows: Burlington 5 (2 people
represented the entire town), Chester 5 (2people represented the
entire town) Enfield 7 (1 person represented the entire
town) Lincoln 17 (21 people represented the entire town) Lowell
5 (2 people represented the entire town), Winn 5 (4people represented the entire town)
Each town clerk was represented at a table for each town. It is
their responsibility to ensure that the attending caucus goer is
registered in that town and is a registered Republican. Certain
restrictions apply depending on your current registration status, but
you are able to register there. Once the registration was complete, the
clerk would leave and each town was left with the other caucus
goers.
The Penobscot County Republican Chair (Traci Gauthier) called the
group to order and explained how the process would work. Basically, all
of the information that was needed to run the individual town caucus
was provided in a packet to the town chair. The town caucus would come
to order, and you would need to nominate and second a DELEGATE (or
DELEGATION) CHAIR and SECRETARY. The Chair is able to fill unfilled
Delegate and Alternate positions up until 28 February 2012. Any
unfilled town positions after that date can be filled by the State
Committee. Having a Ron Paul supporter in this position is VERY
valuable. The SECRETARY will record the minutes of the meeting and be
responsible for collecting the names of the appointed delegates. She
also mentioned that the associated dues were $25 for DELEGATES and
ALTERNATES and $30 if you just want to attend the State Convention. The
money goes towards the actual convention and was needed to be paid to
the Town Chair "ASAP". It would be best to have your money then.
She then opened the floor to anyone that wanted to speak on behalf of a
Candidate that would be running for office. One lady from Lincoln spoke
on behalf of Olympia Snowe and I spoke on behalf of Ron Paul. No one
else elected to speak on behalf of any other candidate. Traci then
opened the floor to a gentleman running for office in Maine and another
current member of the Maine Congress to address the group.The caucus
then began for each town.
I was amazed at how simple the process actually was once I saw it in action. The first order of business was to elect the positions already mentioned above. There was a simple "I nominate Jon Smith for Delegate Chair" and, that of course, had to be
followed by a "I second". Once the positions were filled, they
discussed the DELEGATE positions that were available for that town that
needed to be filled. For a larger town, like Lincoln, the Chair simply
asked who wanted to even BE a delegate and those that were interested
raised their hands. For today, everyone that WANTED to be a DELEGATE,
there were positions available! In fact, not all of the allotted
positions were even filled! Now, the DELEGATE CHAIR can go out and fill
those vacant positions up until the 28th of February!
The next item of business was the NON-BINDING PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE POLL. This is
basically a vote on who each caucus goer would like to see get the
Presidential nomination and carries NO weight, other than to assess the
possible direction of the DELEGATES. This simply was done by each
caucus goer by writing a name on a piece of paper and passing it in to
be counted. The Maine GOP has wanted to keep the results of these polls
a secret so they can announce the results on 11 February 2012 in
Portland. If your Delegate Chair is smart, they will announce the
results to the caucus goers. This makes the process more transparent
and prevents for the possibility of manipulation, especially if we
demand to see the town breakdowns on the 11th of February. For Lincoln,
the results were as follows: Ron Paul 9, Mitt Romney 4, Newt Gingrich 4 and 2 undecideds.
Lessons Learned:We need more participation at the CaucusesBe prepared to speak. If you aren't a good public speaker, don't do it!
Sign waves and representation at the caucuses is a MUST!