More than 300 Democrats have gathered in Jackson today to decide on Wyoming’s final contribution to the 2008 Democratic Primary. The Wyoming State Democratic Convention began this morning and will end Saturday evening.

Coming in the midst of a hotly contested national primary, party officials say they are expecting a substantially increased turnout from previous years. Chris Shoults, chairman of the Goshen County Democratic Party, has been to several state conventions during previous election cycles, but said that this one will be see much more attendance from the public.

“I’m suspecting that this will be an event like none that I have been to,” Shoults said.

The convention is open for public attendance.

Wyoming Party Executive Director Bill Luckett said the county conventions saw 10 times as many attendees as previous years and the convention would likely continue the trend.

“This has been an unprecedented year as far as interest and participation,” Luckett said.

Goshen County was allotted seven delegates and has chosen to seat 14 people, each with a half vote. This was done to reflect the split between supporters of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Seven delegates will cast half-votes for Obama and seven will cast half-votes for Clinton.

Goshen County’s delegates are Sherrill Helzer, Crystal Marquez, Chris Vann, Sylvia Girmus, Anne Gardetto, Kathryn Moriarty and Dean Jackson for Clinton; and Sharon Lovercheck, Crystal Shoults, Tom McCreery, Patrick Vann, Judy Banister, Mary Jo McLaughlin and Chris Shoults for Obama. Alternates are Mona Ramos, Linda Christeleit, Jennie Delgado and Janna Haun.

The convention began this morning with candidate training, which allowed any Democratic candidate for office (local, state or national) to receive advice on voter databases, how to utilize media, campaign tactics and other topics that will be useful for their campaign.

The platform committee also met to discuss the convention’s platform. The platform is a list of issues that the Wyoming Democratic Party expresses its support for. Issues include responsible government, health care, individual rights, labor, education and many others. The committee is made up of one representative from each county and 12 at-large members. According to Luckett, members do not have to be convention delegates, but are in most cases. The final platform will be adopted Saturday afternoon.

An informational meeting of the central committee will be held this afternoon along with a meeting of the credentials and ballots committee, which will finalize the voting and ballot order for the Saturday convention.

The main convention will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning.

“The first major order of business for the convention is the presidential preference vote,” Luckett said.

Wyoming is allotted 12 elected delegates to the Democratic National Convention. According to Luckett, 120 people have submitted their names for election as a delegate, 45 for Clinton and 75 for Obama.

“Usually it’s not a huge number, maybe one or two more than we’re allotted,” Shoults said.

Delegates are also chosen to reflect demographics such as age. Shoults said that Torrington resident Patrick Vann has submitted his paperwork to run for national delegate. Candidates are required to declare a candidate preference when submitting their name. The apportionment (number of delegates that will support each candidate at the convention) has been decided at the county caucuses for seven of the delegate seats. A vote will be held of all the convention delegates to determine how the remaining five seats will be apportioned.

Once it is decided how many seats will go to Obama and how many will go to Clinton, the delegates will separate. The pledged Clinton supporters will vote on which of her 45 candidates for the delegate seats will fill those seats. The Obama supporters will do the same for their apportioned seats out of the 75 Obama candidates.

Delegates to both the state and national conventions are allowed by law to exercise free will and vote any way they choose at a convention, but according to Shoults, most vote the way they pledge. Presidential candidates also have a right of review. They can remove any candidate for national delegate that they might have concerns over. According to Luckett, neither Obama nor Clinton have challenged a delegate candidate.

Wyoming also has five superdelegates: Gov. Dave Freudenthal, Wyoming Democratic Committee Chairman John Millin, Vice Chair Nancy Drummond, National Committeeman Pete Jorgensen and National Committeewoman Cynthia Nunley. Wyoming also has one delegate, called an unpledged addon, who is nominated by the chairman at the convention.

While the presidential preference vote is the main focus of the convention, it is not the only business conducted there. Among other events, state and national candidates and campaign staff give speeches, two national Democratic committee members are elected and the final platform is discussed and adopted.

“It really serves as a pep rally to get people excited,” Luckett said.

Congressional candidates Chris Rothfuss, Keith Goodenough, Nick Carter and Gary Trauner will all be speaking. A luncheon will be held for the delegates with guest speaker Bill Broyles, an Academy Award nominated screenwriter and former editor of Newsweek. A dinner will also be held, at which Gov. Dave Freudenthal and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer will speak.

The Democratic National Convention will be held Aug. 25-27 in Denver, Colo.

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