DNC caucus descending on N. Idaho

Political operatives from 13 Western states will be meeting at the Coeur d’Alene Casino this weekend, providing local residents with a glimpse of something almost as rare in North Idaho as a Kootenai sturgeon.

Democrats. (Yeah, there used to a lot more of them around these parts, too.)

The Western States Caucus will be bringing Democratic National Committee members in for about four days of confering, conversing and otherwise hobnobbing with their brother wizards.

Some might ask why, in a state that’s among the most Republican red in the nation, based on the presidential election results or the ratios in the Legislature, where Democratic caucuses could be held in phone booths, if there were any such receptacles to be found.

But Barack Obama won the state’s caucuses last spring, and the party has hopes that the West will become “the new South,” Aleita Huguenin, the chairwoman of the caucus said.