West End News Feb. 2

After ducking the various cold viruses that are rampaging through the county, I finally got caught a couple of days ago, which explains why I’m singing bass in the choir today.

It is time once again for the political parties in Minnesota to hold their precinct caucuses. Your election precinct is basically your general neighborhood and is the smallest part of governmental geography. Caucus is just a fancy word for get-together. I imagine that all of Minnesota’s political parties hold caucuses, but here in Cook County, as far as I know, only the Republican and Democratic parties caucus. You can attend whichever caucus you like with no requirement that you have previously voted for, or been a registered member of, the party.

There are two main purposes for caucuses. The first is to introduce resolutions that propose additions or deletions in the party’s platform. The platform is a published document that lists the official position of the party on a wide variety of issues. Frankly, the platform documents are rarely read, but they do serve to stake out the basic philosophy of the party. The platform is used to guide the actions of elected officials, although they are not bound by the positions. Think of it as providing advice from the people to the government at all levels.

The second purpose is to select delegates that will go forward in the process in which candidates run for office under the flag of the party. At the local and county levels, candidates rarely seek party endorsement, but at the state and national level most candidates are endorsed by a party and will cooperate with others elected from their party if they get into office. If you support a certain candidate for a particular office, you can work to get yourself elected as a delegate to a series of meetings known as party conventions, that progress from the local level, through a couple of regional levels, finally to the state convention – and if you’re really ambitious – on to the national convention. Candidates for office organize their supporters to become delegates, because the delegates eventually vote to endorse, or give the party’s official blessing, to a single candidate. The party then provides the endorsed candidate with resources – money, advertising, volunteers and voter databases that help get them elected.

This year, as you know, unless you live under a rock, the Republicans are working to nominate a candidate to stand for the presidency of the United States. At the precinct caucuses, a straw poll will be conducted to see which candidates are most popular with local Republicans. The straw poll is non-binding, but is kind of fun, nonetheless.

On the Democratic side, there is a lively race for a congressional candidate to run against our current congressperson, Republican Representative Chip Cravaack. Three strong candidates are in the running so far and all three will be trying to line up delegates to support their efforts to eventually run against Mr. Cravaack in the general election in November.

When all is said and done, the caucuses are really an important part of our democracy. If you choose to spend the time, you can play an important role in how government works and who represents your interests in the process.

In Cook County, all the precinct caucuses are held in Grand Marais starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7. The Democrats meet at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts, which is located next to Cook County High School. The Republicans meet at the log 4-H building next to the Community Center.

Local blogger, Stanley Tull, reports having a bobcat living under his deck at his house near Murmur Creek. It was just a year ago that we had a bobcat under our deck. After a few days of constant barking by our highly agitated terriers, we live-trapped the beautiful cat and relocated it to an even more remote location just for the sake of some peace and quiet. The YouTube video that we posted of the cat’s release went viral in a modest way, mostly because people apparently enjoyed hearing – and making fun of - our strong Minnesota accents. It continues to rack up views although not at the same rate as last winter. Just search “Sawbill bobcat” on YouTube if you want to see it.