Local caucus goes for Romney

By JIM MANN/Daily Inter Lake

An energetic crowd turned out for Flathead County's first Republican caucus Tuesday, with Ron Paul supporters dominating the crowd but not the vote.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the top vote-getter from those who were eligible to vote in the closed caucus - 91 Republican precinct officials and elected officials.

Out of 75 votes that were cast, Romney got 36, followed by Paul with 25, McCain with nine and Huckabee with five.

Similar gatherings were held in all 56 Montana counties, with Romney finishing on top statewide and earning the state's 25 delegate votes.

The entrance to Tuesday's gathering at the Outlaw Inn was lined with a gauntlet of Paul backers holding signs and handing out stickers and campaign materials.

Outside, a voice boomed from a speaker system mounted on a pickup truck: "Vote for Ron Paul! Your freedom is at stake!…Vote for Paul. Support the Constitution this country was founded on!"

"People are very enthusiastic and they are very involved," said Paul backer Clarice Ryan. "If people don't know who Ron Paul is after getting through this obstacle course, they aren't reading very well."

Dave Hart, the Paul campaign's state coordinator, estimated about 80 to 100 people showed up to support the congressman from Texas.

Addressing the caucus, Hart reported that the Paul campaign raised $88,000 in Montana, more than all three other Republican candidates, the closest being Romney with $41,000 in contributions.

"The people have spoken with their wallets in Montana," Hart said. "They want Ron Paul."

Caucus-goers got to hear from Paul himself in a telephone call aired over the public-address system. The candidate spoke about the need for restraint in foreign policy and domestic taxation, spending and borrowing and a need to reign in a federal government that has exceeded its constitutional authority.

There were press reports early Tuesday that Arkansas Gov. MIke Huckabee was scheduled to address Montana caucus-goers at 6:40 p.m., but the Flathead event was organized weeks ago to start at 7 p.m.

"We didn't know about that until this morning," said state Sen. Greg Barkus of Kalispell, who also is chairman of the Flathead County Republican Central Committee.

Local Romney supporters took the stage to speak in favor of their candidate.

Bob Chambers said he was friends with Romney when he was 13 years old growing up in Michigan. He told the crowd that the country needs a president who can shake up an introverted federal government, and Romney is the candidate to do it.

"This is a case where we really do need an outsider, someone from outside the Beltway," he said.

Dean Jellison, a veteran in Flathead County Republican politics, made an impromptu speech in support of McCain.

"He's the leader in the race right now," Jellison said, referring to national results. "So it seems that somebody ought to talk about him so here I am. I wasn't prepared to do this."

Flathead resident Richard Griffin took the microphone to urge support for Huckabee, saying the national press has mislabeled the candidate's supporters as being right-wing evangelical Christians.

Griffin described himself as a "lukewarm Lutheran" and cited a list of reasons to back Huckabee.

Griffin said he had spoken with caucus-goers who told him it was the first time they ever have attended any kind of political event.

"Please don't stop," he said. "Please stay involved. Don't make this a one-shot deal."

That is a hope of the Republican leadership statewide. The switch to a closed caucus vote on Super Tuesday was aimed at making Montana more relevant in the presidential primary process, and it was aimed at energizing Montana Republican politics at the precinct level.

"When we started this caucus, there was quite a bit of criticism," Barkus told a crowd where critics were present. "The issue here is that Montana as been somewhat irrelevant in the process because there hasn't really been a contested race by the time June rolls around."

As he spoke, television screens at the front of the room showed Montana caucus voting results unfolding on cable news networks for the first time on a Super Tuesday election night.

"What difference does it make if I vote?" a woman asked about voting on a presidential candidate in the June primary.

"It doesn't, really," Barkus responded.

Montana still will have a primary election June 3 that will decide state and local party favorites, he said, but it is only a "preference" vote for presidential candidates.

The reality is that by June, there may be only one viable Republican presidential candidate remaining on the national stage because other, larger states will have decided the outcome.

Barkus recalled the 1976 primary race when Montana Republicans narrowly split between Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. The Reagan campaign, he said, "did a number" in influencing party delegates at the state convention.

And those delegates were not bound to follow the popular presidential preference vote at the national convention.

"The entire delegation voted Ronald Reagan, even though the vote was split with Ford," he said.

By contrast, there are "winner-takes-all" rules for Tuesday's caucus, and Montana's 25 delegates to the national convention are required to support Romney.

Republican voters have questioned why the party held a closed caucus. Party officials have maintained it's necessary because the state does not have a voter registration system binding voters to stick with one party through the general election.

Without voter registration, Democrats could flood county caucus events across the state and then show up for their own party in the November election.

The national Republican Party would not accept Montana's caucus results without a voter registration law applying to Republicans and Democrats.

Barkus was asked why the state doesn't simply move its primary election to February.

The state Legislature considered doing so last year, Barkus said, but the change was defeated mainly by Democrats who were concerned about an estimated $1 million cost for changing the primary and concerns about establishing a protracted campaign season in Montana, running from February to November.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com