Missouri Republican primary and caucuses, 2012

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Missouri Democratic primary, 2012 and Missouri Republican primary and caucuses, 2012 to United States presidential election in Missouri, 2012. (Discuss) Proposed since April 2012.

Missouri Republican primary, 2012

2008 ← February 7, 2012 (2012-02-07) → 2016

Candidate Rick Santorum Mitt Romney Ron Paul Party Republican Republican Republican Home state Pennsylvania Massachusetts Texas Popular vote 139,272 63,882 30,647 Percentage 55.23% 25.33% 12.15%

Primary results by county. Santorum won all counties.

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The Missouri Republican 2012 primary took place on February 7^[1] and the caucuses ran from March 15 to March 24, 2012,^[2] except for one rescheduled for April 10. The primary election did not determine which delegates will be sent to the national convention; this is instead determined indirectly by the caucuses and directly by the Missouri Republican congressional-district conventions April 21 and the state convention June 2.^[3][4][5]

The unusual situation of having both the primary election and the caucus for the same party in the same election year in Missouri arose as a result of a change in the nominating rules of the Republican Party. State primaries in Missouri were previously held in early February. In September 2008, the Republican National Committee adopted a set of rules which included a provision that no states except Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada were allowed to begin the process of delegate selection (including binding primary elections) before the first Tuesday in March of an election year.^[6] In 2011, the Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly attempted to move the primary election to mid-March, but the bill was vetoed by Democratic Governor Jay Nixon because of a provision limiting his power to fill vacancies in statewide elected offices. In a compromise solution, it was decided that Republican primary election would be made non-binding and instead delegates would be nominated by separate caucuses in late March, a move estimated to cost the state $7-8 million.^[7]

This marks the first time since 1996 that Missouri Republicans used a caucus system to nominate delegates to the Republican National Convention.^[7]

Primary election

The primary was not to affect the selection of Missouri's delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention, so it had no official effect on the nomination and was widely described beforehand as a "beauty contest". However it was seen as an opportunity for Rick Santorum to face off against Mitt Romney due to the absence of Newt Gingrich, who missed the filing deadline^[8] and was not on the ballot. Santorum was the only candidate to actively campaign in the state ahead of the primary.^[9]

The primary election was won by Santorum, who also won the Colorado and Minnesota Republican caucuses held that day.^[10]

There were 326,438 total votes cast by party ballot^[11] (including votes for Democratic, Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates),^[12] a turnout of 7.99%^[13] of 4,085,582 registered voters. Noting the low Republican turnout, NPR found voters apathetic because the primary was nonbinding.^[14]

Results with 100.0% (3,134 of 3,134 precincts reporting):^[15]

Missouri Republican primary, 2012[16]
Candidate[11]	Votes	Percentage
Rick Santorum	139,272	55.23%
Mitt Romney	63,882	25.33%
Ron Paul	30,647	12.15%
Uncommitted	9,853	3.91%
Rick Perry	2,456	0.97%
Herman Cain	2,306	0.91%
Michele Bachmann	1,680	0.67%
Jon Huntsman	1,044	0.41%
Gary Johnson	536	0.21%
Michael J. Meehan	356	0.14%
Keith Drummond	153	0.06%
Totals	252,185	100.00%

Caucuses

The Missouri Republican caucuses occurred March 15-24, 2012,^[2] although a second caucus for St. Charles County had to be scheduled for April 10 due to irregularities at its March 17 caucus (see below).

The county caucuses elect delegates to congressional district conventions and the Missouri Republican Party state convention, which in turn elect 49 of Missouri's 52 delegates to the national convention.^[4][17] However, no straw poll is released to indicate levels of support to the general public. According to the state party, "Caucus-goers will be voting for delegates, and with few exceptions, these delegates will not be bound to a particular candidate. Because there is no vote on candidate preference, neither the Missouri GOP nor any election authority will have or release any data regarding the ‘winner’ of the caucuses."^[18]

Despite the nonbinding nature of the February primary, caucuses had the option to use its result as the basis for delegate allocation. Santorum was to appear personally at some caucuses, which The New York Times described as "part of the campaign’s county-by-county strategy to try to outflank Mr. Romney and catch him in the delegate race".^[19]

Results

The county caucuses elect delegates to the congressional district conventions and the state convention. Delegates to the national convention will be elected at each of those conventions. Typically, the body of a caucus votes on slates of delegates prepared by leaders of factions and coalitions within the caucus.

County

The following table shows who won the majority or plurality of delegates for each county according to available unofficial reports.

Election results by county. Dark green indicates counties won by Santorum, gold, those won by Paul, orange indicates those won by Romney, and purple, Gingrich. The counties indicated in black are Barry County and Laclede County, in which Romney/Santorum and Paul/Santorum respectively tied for the win. Dark gray indicates uncommitted counties.

Notes

District and State

The following table shows who won the national delegates for each congressional district and statewide.

Convention Results[64][65]
Candidate	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	State	Total
Mitt Romney	1	1	2	3	0	1	1	3		12
Rick Santorum	1	2	1	0	0	1	2	0		7
Ron Paul	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	0		4
Newt Gingrich	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0		1
Uncommitted									25	25
Total	24								25	49

Controversies

St. Charles County

Introduction

The caucus for St. Charles County(SCC) was convened Saturday, March 17 in the gymnasium at Francis Howell North High School but ended without electing any delegates or conducting any other business.^[66] Referring to members of the SCC Republican Central Committee, the Daily Caller wrote, "Committee members disregarded Robert’s Rules of Order when nominations and motions came from the floor. A rule banning recording devices was never voted on, leading to claims that the proceedings purposely lacked transparency. In addition, the caucus adjourned without the two-thirds vote required to end a caucus with unfinished business.^[67]

Eugene Dokes was the chairman of the SCC Republican Central Committee, and he appointed the members of the subcommittee that organized the caucus. Bryan Spencer was a member of the Central Committee, and Dokes appointed him chairman of the caucus subcommittee.^[68][69] Dokes was to serve as the temporary chairman of the caucus, and a caucus chairman was to be elected by the body of SCC Republicans present at the caucus.

According to Bryce Steinhoff, the Coordinator for the Paul campaign in SCC, Spencer told him at a committee meeting on March 8 that he would work to challenge the St. Charles delegation on a technicality if delegates were not distributed proportionally.^[70] Brent Stafford (a Paul supporter and member of the SCC Republican Central Committee) was chair of the caucus in 2008 and sought the chairmanship again March 17. He stated after the March 17 caucus that Eugene Dokes had conspired with others to prevent any Romney or Paul supporters from being elected as delegates. Stafford said that the caucus is an entity separate from the County Committee and sets its own rules, and that he had hired the president of the Missouri State Association of Parliamentarians as his consultant for the caucus. Stafford said that by far the majority of attendees were either Romney or Paul supporters and that prior to the caucus he had been approached by Romney supporters. He said they proposed to form a coalition that would elect Stafford as caucus Chairman and a Romney supporter as Secretary.^[71][72][73]

March 17 caucus

At the start of the caucus, temporary chair Eugene Dokes announced that recording the proceedings would not be allowed. He disallowed attempts to change that rule, leading to an uproar and the appearance of numerous police, who occupied the gym floor and were supposed to ensure that cameras were turned off.^[73][74][75] The proceedings were delayed while waiting for a photographer to put away his camera. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Dokes went on to appoint a Parliamentarian, a Credentials Committee, and a Rules Committee, ignoring loud calls on points of order, as well as heckling, from the crowd.^[76] Stafford said later that those appointments are to be made by the caucus chair, not by the temporary chair.^[73] Dokes went on to "open the floor for the election of the chairman", but ignored numerous nominations of Stafford and chants of Stafford's name. He called for ayes and nays for Matt Ehlen as chair, and stated that "The ayes have it", ignoring loud and prolonged objections. Matt Ehlen took the podium as chairman and attempted to call the house to order, then warned that "The police are getting ready to shut us down." Ehlen said amidst continued noise that they wanted a "rational, fair caucus", but shortly took from Dokes a motion to adjourn. It was seconded by Bryan Spencer, after which Ehlen called for ayes and nays. He declared the caucus adjourned, his chairmanship lasting less than three minutes.^[76] Less than four minutes after Ehlen closed the meeting, he announced, "I have been informed that you are now officially ordered to leave the building, and if you do not leave the building, you will be arrested for trespassing."^[77] More police and a helicopter arrived around that time.^[73][78] Speaking later for the St. Peters Police, Melissa Doss said that Dokes ordered the shutdown after consulting with police and school officials. Dokes said later that he did give the order after a shutdown was recommended by police.^[79][80]

Stafford, saying that the caucus had been ended in violation of parliamentary rules, attempted to reconvene the caucus on the school grounds outside and was arrested. Another man, Kenny Suitter, was arrested at that time also, while videotaping.^[73]

Discussion after the failed caucus

In a March 20 radio interview by Jamie Allman, Dokes said that he had been given bad advice about the "appointment" of the chair. He said "I was told that we could take ... an announcement for a chair, and if [in] that same announcement and that same sentence it was said 'I nominate this person and I close all nominations' that that was fair and that was legal." He also said, "What we were hoping to do, I think, was not have a full takeover of one particular group where they might only be represented by one percent of the county but yet they would get all of the delegates ... and I think the way that we went about trying to make that happen was just not done perfectly.^[69][68]

Blogger Bob McCarty wrote on March 22nd that a member of the SCC Central Committee (later identified as Brandy Pedersen) had a few days after the caucus given him copies of a letter drafted by the Santorum campaign, the letter being addressed to state party leaders and having a blank line for Dokes's signature.^[81][82] It was an unsigned draft stating that the SCC Central Committee had voted not to conduct another caucus and was opposed to any effort to force another caucus. The letter cited "concerns regarding the safety and security of attendees" of any new caucus and blamed "certain forces" that "colluded to disrupt our county caucuses, threatened those in attendance and succeeded in forcing an abrupt end to the proceedings before delegates could be allocated or elected." The letter asked that delegates be allocated in proportion to the results of either the February 7 poll or the straw poll taken of those attending the SCC caucus March 17.^[83] McCarty wrote that Pedersen had given him some of Dokes's emails, and he quoted part of one as, "Personally, I agree with the letter but I want to get all of your thoughts on it." He quoted other emails by Dokes to the effect that the letter had come from the Santorum campaign and that Dokes had without revealing its origin sent copies to committee members for discussion.^[81][82] Pedersen told Jamie Allman on his radio program that she had been a Santorum supporter, that there was "a war within the committee", and that many committee members strongly opposed the letter and wanted to recaucus.^[84][85]

On March 23, there appeared a four-minute video made (apparently secretly) at a March 19 meeting of the Lewis & Clark Pachyderms, a local Republican club of which Bryan Spencer is a director and Matt Ehlen is a former president.^[86][87] It showed Spencer calling for those at the meeting to publicly rally around Eugene Dokes, as "he is being publicly crucified for fighting for us." He asked for those present to contact the media and to post online in support of Dokes, whom he said was "taking the brunt of the hate mail." Spencer also said that the rules imposed on the caucus were designed by Spencer and the Central Committee "so that everyone would have a voice" and so delegate assignments would be proportional to each candidate's turnout at the caucus (rather than being determined by any caucus majority led by Paul supporters). Spencer, who is running for State Representative, said that he himself would not be able to support Dokes publicly, since he had been told by the state party to keep quiet, he lacked credibility (being one of the caucus organizers), and he had been told by his campaign to "lay low and let other people carry the flag".^[88][89] Dokes is also running for State Representative.^[90]

April 10 Recaucus

On March 23, the Missouri Republican Party announced a new caucus for St. Charles County at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10 at the convention center in St. Charles. State Republican Chairman David Cole was designated to serve as temporary caucus chairman until participants could choose a caucus chairman.^[91] The venue was reserved for five hours.^[92] Santorum suspended his presidential campaign on the morning of April 10, and Paul supporters at the entrances of the recaucus held signs welcoming Santorum supporters. Brent Stafford defeated Cole 480-402 in the election for Caucus Chairman, and another Paul supporter, Kyle Albert, was elected Secretary. All three delegate slates chosen--those for SCC's delegations to the 2nd and 3rd congressional district conventions and the state party convention--consisted of Paul supporters.^{[93][58][94][95]}

Jefferson County

Filing a complaint with the state party, the Romney and Paul campaigns claimed jointly that there was "serious and prejudicial misconduct" at the Jefferson County caucus March 17.^[96][97][98] One of the complainants said that Bob Boyer was elected Caucus Chairman and was a Ron Paul supporter,^[97] and that when Santorum supporters realized they did not have the numbers to control the outcome, they intentionally caused a delay by removing registration materials needed to conduct caucus business. The complaint says that delegate voting did not begin until eight and a half hours after the caucus was to start---"after a substantial portion of the caucus attendees left in frustration, changing the make-up of the electorate". The county chair said that the papers were taken by mistake by a volunteer who had to leave early. The two campaigns said that the delegates elected for Jefferson County were loyal to Santorum, and the complaint asked the party not to seat them at the district and state conventions.^[48][47]

Other

There were controversies surrounding the caucuses in Clay and Cass counties. The Missouri Republican Party ruled later that the slates of delegates elected at those caucuses were valid.^[99]

See also

• Republican Party presidential debates, 2012
• Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012
• Results of the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries
• Missouri Republican Party

References

External links

• The Green Papers: for Missouri
• The Green Papers: Major state elections in chronological order
• Official Election Returns Presidential Preference Primary, February 7, 2012. Missouri Secretary of State website
• Missouri State Association of Parliamentarians(MSAP)