Party picks Paul at first caucus

For their first time being involved with Super Tuesday, members of the county's Grand Old Party didn't throw much of a party.

The Sanders County's first Republican caucus Tuesday at the Sanders County Fairgrounds pavilion went off without much bells and whistles and took just over a half an hour to declare Ron Paul the county's selection for the next president. Paul received 12 of the caucus's 29 votes, beating runner-up Mitt Romney by three votes. Five people voted for Mike Huckabee and Arizona Senator John McCain received three votes.

"We're treating this (the caucus) as a polling place. There's no political speeches, no political signs and no propaganda," said Mike Hashisaki, the chairman for the Sanders County Republican Central Committee. "We're going to vote and we're going to eat and we're going to leave," he added. Hashisaki said that there was no need to have political speeches or what he later called "arm twisting" because the 32 eligible voters had already made up their mind. "They should know who they are going to vote for by now," he said.

Unlike most of the 56 counties in the state, which treated the caucus as a celebration, besides the cake before the caucus, the Sanders County caucus was all business. "We're the only county in the state of Montana handling it that way," Hashisaki said.

Hashisaki started the caucus by leading the nearly 60 people gathered at the pavilion in The Pledge of Allegiance. Rep. Pat Ingraham HD13 led them in prayer and then they started voting. Hashisaki called each of the eligible voters one by one to the table, where they would have to show him a picture ID before filling out their secret ballot.

After filling out the ballot, it took Ingraham, Jennine Robbins, Candace Fisher and Patricia Bursell less than 10 minutes to tally and announce the results and that was that, people started stacking the chairs and filing out of the pavilion.

As business-like as the Sanders County caucus was, Hashisaki said it still stirred up a lot of excitement in the party. "It's really generated a lot of interest, if my personal phone calls over the last week indicate anything." said Hashisaki. "The last two days I've gotten about 300 phone calls, which is pretty amazing for a county this size."

"For the first time we actually have all our precinct committee positions filled, so that means people are taking an interest and people need to. That's how change comes," said Ingraham. Ingraham said she liked having the caucus in February instead of the primary in June because most the candidates are still on the ticket. "We've actually gotten to have some input when they're all on the ticket," she said.

Ingraham said what she also liked about the caucus is that the 25 Montana delegates have to vote for the winner of the state caucus on the first ballot at the Republican Convention. Before the caucus, the delegates could vote at their own discretion and did not have to vote for the primary winner.

The one problem Ingraham had with the caucus is that she felt not enough of the county's Republicans got to participate in it. "It would be nice if maybe more of us could be doing it, but I'm sure it's a work in progress," she said.

Hashisaki, who said that he had been chairman for the central committee on and off for 10 years, said that any Republican elected to a state or county office or a member of the state executive board were eligible to vote. He said members of the Sanders County Republican Central Committee and the man and woman of the county's 10 precincts were able to vote.

The Republicans limited the number of eligible voters because it was their first caucus, according to Hashisaki. He said he expects that the party will expand the number of voters in the future. He said he would like to eventually see all registered Republicans being able to cast a vote in the caucus. Hashisaki said the voters can still vote in the June 3 primary, but their vote won't have much impact on the Republican nomination.

Hashisaki said he was pleased with how the first Sanders County Republican caucus went. He said he was happy with the number of people that showed up and with 29 of the 32 eligible voters filling out a ballot, he was happy with the voter turnout. He said next year they might allow five-minute speeches for each candidate.

Sanders County was just one of 11 counties that selected the Texas congressman for the GOP presidential nomination, but that wasn't enough to give him the victory over Romney in the Montana caucus. The former Massachusetts governor received 38.34 percent of the 1,630 total votes and beat Paul by 225 votes, according to the Montana Republican Party's Web site at www.mtgop.org. Paul received 400 votes, which was 42 more that third-place finisher McCain. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee received 245 votes and Alan Keyes received two votes.