Caucuses to Begin on Super Tuesday for Wyoming Republicans

As FHQ mentioned in an earlier post, the Wyoming Republican State Central Committee met over the weekend to discuss 2012 delegate allocation. In particular, the committee voted to hold the party's presidential precinct caucuses/county conventions in March, but the date was unknown at the time. In the time since, Jeremy Pelzer at the Casper Tribune's Wyoming Capitol Journal blog has provided the answer:

The Wyoming Republican Party Central Committee voted Saturday to hold the party's presidential delegate selection starting on "Super Tuesday," March 6, said State GOP Chairwoman Tammy Hooper. However, some rural counties might not hold a vote until as late as March 10 because it would be hard for delegates in those areas to meet on a weeknight, she said.

"That's in calving season," Hooper said.

During caucus elections, held during county conventions, precinct delegates in each county will vote on delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Each county will elect either an RNC delegate or an alternate -- except for Laramie County, which gets to choose one of each.

Twelve of Wyoming's 29 RNC delegates will be elected by the counties; the rest will include Gov. Matt Mead, Hooper, the state's two national committeepeople, and at-large delegates elected at the state GOP convention April 12-14 in Cheyenne.

Republicans will also hold a non-binding presidential straw poll during precinct caucuses, which will be held between 10-25 days before the county convention, Hooper said.

Hooper said the state GOP's central committee chose March 6 because Colorado Republicans are caucusing on the same day.

"We wanted to try to capitalize on the fact that Colorado's going to probably be a somewhat battleground state, and we're trying to capitalize on their energy," Hooper said.

Colorado is not the only Wyoming neighbor potentially with caucuses on that date. Idaho Republicans have also recently opted to hold Super Tuesday caucuses in lieu of a May primary. In fact, Colorado may not ultimately end up March 6. Colorado Republicans have expressed some interest in moving caucuses up to February 7; a date to which they can move under Colorado law.

From the look of the plan outlined above, Wyoming Republicans are actually starting their delegate selection process 10-25 days before the start of the March 6 county conventions -- in a February 10-25 window -- during which a non-binding straw poll will be held. The delegates will then be allocated in both the county conventions (county district delegates) and the state convention (automatic and at-large delegates).

An update of the 2012 presidential primary calendar can be found here.

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