Even so, the caucus helped the Montana GOP in several ways.
It created some buzz around the state by being part of the presidential selection system when it mattered. By all reports, those voting enjoyed being able to take part in a presidential election.
Because only certain party officers and elected officials could vote, Republicans saw their number of precinct captains nearly triple to 1,133 from 415. It's too early to say how many of new precinct people will still be around in November. If they remain, they could be valuable assets for Republican candidates.
The Montana GOP made $25,000 by selling databases of the eligible voters to the presidential campaigns.
As the only game in town, the Montana GOP caucus received extensive media coverage, as it deserved.
The biggest downside was the caucus system severely limited the number of participants to a select group of local and state party officers and elected officials. A total of 1,817 were eligible to vote statewide.
On Tuesday night, 1,630 people in 56 separate county caucuses voted. That's a tiny fraction of the 112,000 Montanans who cast ballots in the 2004 Republican presidential primary.
It's true that those interested in participating could have applied for caucus posts. Many did just that. But there weren't 112,000 slots available.
Organizing paid dividends in Montana. That explains why Romney, with a superior grass-roots effort here, won with 38 percent, and libertarian-leaning Paul was runner-up with 25 percent.
Romney still may have won a presidential primary in Montana last week, but would Paul have garnered a fourth of the vote? If the Montana caucus, or a primary, had been held a week later, would McCain have won? Who knows?
Montana Democratic Party leaders denounced the Republican event as an elitist, insider-only affair. That may be fair criticism, but their own party's June presidential primary, while democratic, may be meaningless. It's likely that either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will have emerged as the nominee by then.
State Republican Chairman Erik Iverson predictably pronounced the GOP presidential caucus a success, but called on the party to evaluate it.
“I would prefer that Montana have a full (presidential) primary election for Republicans and Democrats in February,” he said. “We will do listening sessions.
“If nothing changes in the Legislature, we'll evaluate what we did right and wrong and come up with another caucus system for 2012. I would like to get more people involved in the caucuses as voters. We've got three years to try and improve upon it.”
So the current choice appears to be whether to have a February party closed caucus that restricts voting to all but party insiders or a June presidential primary so late it is irrelevant.
How about passing a state law setting up both Republican and Democratic presidential primaries in February or March? Any registered voter could participate, not just party insiders, and tens of thousands of Montanans probably would.
Rep. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, tried to pass a bill to do just that last year. His House Bill 797, backed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Secretary of State Brad Johnson, breezed through the House by a 3-to-1 vote.
It died in a Senate committee. Senators thought it was more important to spend that money on schools, health care and other pressing needs than paying for another election. Who can disagree?
That money argument will probably doom similar attempts in future sessions.
So how can we pay for a presidential primary election that really helps the two major political parties choose their nominee and engages Montanans?
What about billing the parties $500,000 apiece to finance the presidential primaries here? Like Swiss banks, both Montana parties move thousands of dollars in and out of here. They likely would oppose this idea.
How about charging the presidential campaigns for the privilege of Montana putting their candidates' names on early primary ballots here? That probably wouldn't work either. We have little clout in electing a president, with only three electoral votes and relatively few delegates' votes to nominate a presidential candidate from either party.
What about levying a small surtax on all political advertising that runs in the Montana media and all direct mail sent? If we have to put up with watching, hearing and reading these increasingly nasty and destructive political ads and fliers, we ought to get some reward for it. The state could collect the tax and stockpile the money to finance early presidential primaries every four years.
Of course, this idea likely will face the stiff opposition of politicians, advertising agencies and consultants, and the media.
Unless someone comes up with a way to pay for costly early presidential primaries, Montanans are stuck with either meaningless June elections or a party caucus that severely limits participation.
We ought to be able to do better than either of those options. Any ideas?
Chuck Johnson is chief of the Missoulian State Bureau in Helena. He can be reached at (800) 525-4920 or (406) 443-4920. His e-mail address is chuck.johnson@lee.net
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