2008 Precinct Caucuses

Yesterday's (February 9) precinct caucuses were the first step toward the eventual election of delegates who will represent Washington State at the Republican National Convention.  The next step in this process is for the delegates that were identified yesterday to attend the Thurston County Republican Convention on April 12th.  At our convention we will go through the process of electing delegates who will represent Thurston County at the Washington State Republican Convention on May 29th through May 31st in Spokane.  The process is repeated again at the State Convention, where delegates are chosen to attend the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota on September 1st through September 4th.

At every step of the process the number of delegates is reduced.  In other words, every delegate selected yesterday will not go to the State Convention.  Likewise, not every delegate that goes to State Convention will be chosen to attend the National Convention.
 
Our preliminary count of the delegates that will attend the Thurston County Republican Convention is 546.  This preliminary count is mostly based on verbal reports.  Our credentials committee has not begun to process the paperwork from yesterday to confirm that each delegate is actually eligible to be a delegate.
 
Thurston County is allocated 49 delegates at the State Convention.  Three of those delegates are automatic delegates, the other 46 will be elected at the County Convention.
 
All totaled there will be 1422 delegates at the State Convention if every county completely fills its allocation of delegates.  Out of the 1422 State Convention delegates, only 40 will proceed to the National Convention.  Three of the 40 will be automatic delegates, 19 will be elected as delegates bound to a specific candidate based on the results of the Presidential Primary, the remaining 18 will be elected as delegates free to vote for whomever they choose.
 
With all that said, you can see we are quite a ways from this process being finished.  So at this preliminary point in the process, here is the presidential candidate preference for the delegates who were elected yesterday to attend the County Convention.
 
Huckabee
Delegates		 McCain
Delegates		 Paul
Delegates		 Romney Delegates Other
Delegates		 Uncommitted
Delegates
164 158 90 87 3 44

Here in Thurston County it was very competitive with Governor Huckabee coming out with a slight lead.  The state party tells me they will be announcing statewide numbers shortly.  Thank you to all who participated yesterday.

Thurston County Republican Presidential Caucuses
Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

If you aren't sure which precinct you are in, find your precinct here.

Caucus Locations - listed alphabetically

Thurston County Caucus Overview

Caucus Locations - listed numerically

Washington State Caucus Pamphlet

The following list of documents will be explained at training for Precinct Committee Officers which will be held on Tuesday, January 29th and Thursday, January 31st at 6:30 PM. Location for the training will be the Thurston County Courthouse, Building 2, Room 129. The address is 2000 Lakeridge Dr. S.W., Olympia, WA 98502-6045.