Sue Lani Madsen: Make your voice heard by showing up for your party’s caucuses

Iowa likes to brag their caucuses are first in the nation, but here’s a little secret: This year Washington Republicans beat Iowa to the caucus room by two days.

Washington Republican caucuses will be Saturday morning. The heavily hyped Iowa caucuses will be Monday night.

But while the gatherings sound similar, it’s like comparing apples and corn. In Iowa, Republicans and Democrats traditionally gather to caucus simultaneously by county. Iowa parties usually hold what might be better described as a closed presidential primary on their state caucus night, taking a vote that binds delegates to their respective national conventions to support specific candidates.

Iowa will be the crash test dummy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, allocating its 40 convention votes according to the caucus primary results. Iowa Republicans will vote at the caucus site, Iowa Democrats will send in their votes by mail to avoid a repeat of the embarrassingly public 2020 app crash. It also lets Democrats sit on the Iowa results so South Carolina can go first, a Biden request after South Carolina resuscitated his campaign after a poor showing in Iowa in 2020.

National media will dissect the results and debate who has the bragging rights for a week, right up until New Hampshire votes on Jan. 23. New Hampshire voters will be faced with 24 Republican and 21 Democratic nominees on the ballot.

In Washington, the March 12 presidential preference primary will have five choices on the Republican ballot and four on the Democratic ballot. Democrats will choose from Joe Biden, Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson or none-of-the-above for uncommitted. Republicans will allocate their 43 delegates to the national convention proportionally among Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy or Chris Christie (who will still be on the Washington ballot in spite of suspending his campaign on Wednesday). Delegates are only bound for the first round of voting. If the nomination goes to a second round, delegates are free to vote their conscience.

Who those delegates are matters in a contentious year, and that’s where Washington’s caucuses come in to play. Precinct caucuses are the seedbed of the grassroots of politics. Interested neighbors gather to choose delegates to the county convention, where delegates will be elected to the statewide convention, where delegates will be elected to attend the national convention this summer.

Washington Democrats’ progression from caucus to national convention is similar, but won’t start until they hold caucuses in April, gathering by legislative district rather than by county.

The drawn-out processes can feel as tedious as watching grass grow. It takes dedication to stick with it.

Washington Republicans have a new reason to seek election as a delegate to the state convention. For the first time, the convention will be held prior to candidate filing. There, the delegates will endorse Republican candidates for each statewide and federal office.

It surprises voters who only tune in when they have their ballot in hand to find out the weak role Washington parties have in selecting candidates. Anyone can file for any office and declare themselves a member of a party, whether they’ve ever had any contact with the party organization or not. Parties can recruit good candidates or plead with weak candidates to step aside, but there has never been a mechanism for either the Republican or Democratic parties to be involved as formal gatekeepers.

The new endorsement convention won’t limit who can file saying they prefer the Republican Party, but it does mean for the first time voters will know which candidate the party prefers.

And not surprisingly, a political party prefers candidates who are team players. Anyone seeking to be on the roster for a state Republican endorsement must pledge to support the nominee.

If you’ve ever considered yourself a Republican, be there on Saturday to prepare the seedbed and start planting seeds. Find your precinct number or name and where your caucus is by visiting www.wsrp.org/convention. In Spokane County, go directly to convention.spokanegop.com to register and make the 9 a.m. check-in process faster for an on-time start at 10 a.m.

If you’re a Democrat or lean Democrat, follow the announcements at www.wa-democrats.org for caucuses in April 2024.

The world is ruled by those who show up. If the only people who make time to seed and water the grass are extremists on the political spectrum, then the silent middle majority of the grassroots will not be represented.

Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.