My Story

It was a wintry night in February and my enthusiasm was at its peak. I was waiting at my home in anticipation to formally exercise my opinion through the voting process with my three year old daughter who wanted, more then anything, to show me the progress she made on a rather difficult tiger puzzle. While assisting her turn the pieces around to fit in the various slots, I overheard a pundant on the television indicating some election results were filtering in. Yes, this was Super Tuesday and all eyes interested in the political process, were fixated on these results. This all important Tuesday could decide who the Democrat and Republican nominee would be for President of the United States of America as neither party had a clear front runner. I had spent the last several months researching the voting records, listening to speeches, debates and learning about the vision of each candidate and learned that not one person running for the highest position in the Executive Branch of our government had the same positions on all the key issues as I.

            I believe that the primaries are where a voter can truly express his or her opinion. This year especially, voters had multiple candidates within their political affiliation (far beyond Iowa and New Hampshire) to identify with. This is where a voter can analyze the credentials of a candidate because as a rule, will have many of the same ideals under the party for which they are vying for nomination. Many citizens are forced to vote on party lines in the general election, or simply sustain from the process as the other candidate simply does not relate to the core principles one would be looking for. As a fiscal conservative, I am interested in building a strong economy, reducing federal spending, eliminating wasteful earmarks and reducing taxes across the board. When evaluating a candidate running for any office, these are the hot button issues I am most concerned with. I also believe in providing for and establishing a strong military to combat any threat to our national security while protecting our interests throughout the world. (We will expand on these issues amongst others later in the book). Although several candidates expressed their ability to resolve these issues, the former Governor of Massachusetts had the experience, track record and passion to fundamentally change Washington. This was the contributing factor in my decision to support his campaign. This decision was a difficult one as only a week prior, was undecided between the former Mayor of New York and him. The Florida Primary was the deciding factor, as the former Mayor withdrew his candidacy after a dismal performance in that state.

            This year, I decided to take my daughter with me as I wanted her to be part of this experience. My wife, due to her affiliation as an independent and overall disinterest in the subject, was not able to partake in this experience. Although only three years old, I was optimistic this learning opportunity had for her. This was the first time, since I can remember that the Colorado Republican Party sanctioned Caucusing to find the will of the people. As we pulled up to the Caucuses, for my precinct were held in a local Middle School, I did not initially see any disparity between a primary and a caucus. After we made our way through the halls and into the classroom, I noticed citizens holding campaign material, signs and publicly vocalizing their interests in the candidates. As this is taboo in a traditional primary, I started reviewing the political information on the tables, comparing it to my personal views and background I have researched over the months in order to be prepared when I was asked a question. After spending considerable time concentrating on which candidate shared my beliefs and if this candidate could win the general election in November, I felt confident that I could present a respectable argument for whom I am voting for.

            Shortly after 7pm, the process was officially kicked off by our precinct captain who was noticeably nervous with the process. The room contained around 45 citizens from our precinct diversified evenly male and female and represented an elder demographic.  The overall excitement in the room was raising but I did notice hesitating and confusion amongst the voters as their overall understanding in the Caucus process was similar to mine. The precinct captain started the Caucus by reading some reference material to the group and gave a timeline of the events to come while also illustrating some party business.  During this presentation, it became apparent to me that not only would we be voting for our nominee for President, but also for Delegate representation in the districts election committee and a new precinct captain.  I immediately saw this as my opportunity to get involved and add value to the issues I wanted at the forefront of debate. I had been toying with the idea of getting involved in the party and local government for some time but never knew how to jump start these efforts. This was going to be my chance to express my opinions in an open forum, and also to help at the grass roots level in my community.

            After opening the discussion to the voters, it became certain that the majority of people shared my support for the former Governor of Massachusetts. This was not a big surprise as historically this county prided itself on economic and social conservatism but I felt compelled to add some facts to the discussion.  Recently a Senator from Arizona and Presidential candidate is criticized for his co-sponsorship on a failed immigration reform bill. Although I appose this bill and the amnesty it would have provided, I support the courage and leadership he displayed to propose a solution to the issue. My candidate also apposed this bill but I felt that it was important to illustrate that we need to send people to Washington that support real change and core beliefs on the people. We need to get our youth interested and involved in issues that affect their future as they will inherit the policies, environment and overall economic stability. I finally expressed that I was concerned for my three year olds future if we do not control our spending on wasteful and social programs. My daughter will be paying for these programs long after we are gone and I ask you to limit the government’s impact on her ability to be free.

            After the votes were tallied, almost 90% of voters agreed and voted the former Governor of Massachusetts as our precincts nominee for President of the United States.  (It was later disclosed that the former Governor received over 70% of the county vote with the closest competitor having just over 13 %.) This instant notification created enthusiasm in the room and although represented a small precinct, believed our votes were uniform thought the county and state. The conclusion of this event leads to party business. We needed to select a new precinct chairman who would be the precincts representative and organizer for this community and also to elect delegates to the county assembly / convention to be held a month later. After listening to the discussions held in the room, and knowing the caucus affirmed my position and support for the former governor, I was confident that I could represent this precincts value, opinions and interests in the county assembly.

             Ten other republicans expressed interest in the two Delegate positions available for our precinct. This being the first “election” I had ever participated in, I was nervous and cautious of the impact it would have. Having two-three minutes, we needed to convince the other voters on why we were vying for the position. The majority of comments included “I would like to learn more about the process” or “I heard the assemblies were interesting”. Although these arguments were valid, I did not think a delegate is elected for these reasons. Addressing the voters, I let them know that I have a newly found passion in politics, and the Republican Party. I support the former Governor for his business knowledge, position on illegal immigration, economic policy (to name a few) and as our precincts nominee, could be relied on to represent these values in the counties assembly. As one of the youngest voters in the party, I feel, especially this year, that we need to invigorate a passion in our communities and champion debate for our core principles. At the conclusion these proceedings, I was elected as the 1^st Delegate to our counties assemble / convention and was unanimously elected as the 20^th Precinct Chairman.

We need to voice our ideals, opinions and concerns more then once an election cycle. This is the foundation, or call to action for me to create this website/blog and get through to our political leaders more often.