With interest in the presidential race running high, local Democratic officials are planning for a high turnout at the Goshen County caucus.

To have adequate space for the anticipated attendees, the location for the caucus was changed from the Goshen County courthouse to the Wyoming Room in the Pinnacle Bank building in Torrington. The meeting is scheduled to last from 9 a.m. until noon but may finish sooner.

Attendees at the caucus do not need to be Democrats but must be registered Democrats in Goshen County to be able to vote at the event. According to the Goshen County Clerk’s office, there are 1,438 registered Democrats in Goshen County.

Christopher Shoults, Goshen County Democratic Committee chairman, said based on the turnout for party caucuses in other states, the Democratic Party is expecting between 50-75 people to attend the Goshen County caucus. Goshen County has seven delegates at the state convention, which will be held in Jackson on May 24.

“Hopefully this year we will fill our delegation,” Shoults said. “It would be great if we had double our delegation and gave each delegate half a vote.’

Based on statistics from the last presidential and congressional elections, Wyoming has 317 delegates at the state Democratic convention. The National Democratic Convention will be in Denver, Colo., from Aug. 25-28. To run for a delegate position at the national convention, a person must be a delegate to the Wyoming Democratic convention and file a “statement of intent” with the state Democratic Party by 5 p.m. on April 30. Shoults said delegates to the national convention pay all of their own expenses. Since the convention will be in Denver, he is considering running for one of the national delegate positions.

“Guidance from the state indicates our Goshen County delegates are to be as representative as possible of Democratic voters in the county, both demographically and geographically,” Shoults said. “This is one of our goals at the party caucus. We don’t want all of our delegates to have a stated intention to vote for only one Democratic candidate.”

Competition for the national delegate positions is keen. Wyoming has 18 delegates to the national convention. Twelve are elected, five are high Democratic Party officials such as the governor and Democratic Party chairman, and the Democratic Party chairman appoints one.

This year, Shoults said there is increased interest in politics due to the presidential race.

“In this case (presidential race) it is close enough we feel we may have a say,” Shoults said. “Clinton still has time to pull something off. The gap could close in a hurry.”

Shoults said that as Democratic Party chairman for Goshen County, he would not discuss which presidential candidate he supports.

“Both the Obama and Clinton campaign offices have called to get the details of the Goshen County convention,” Shoults said. “Goshen County Democrats do not have a platform as such. At the caucus we will draw out the sentiments from the floor we want to send forward to the state convention.”

Shoults said he is pleased with the political excitement he sees this year.

“I would love to see as many people as we can get to attend the caucuses,” Shoults said. “It is an exciting time. Hopefully we will get people interested in the process again.”

“We hope we will have a good turnout of Democrats,” said Don Hodgson, Democratic state committeeman for Goshen County. “Any Democrat registered to vote has a vote for their candidates at the Democratic caucus.”

Hodgson said he has a high regard for the Democratic frontrunners in the presidential race.

“I think it is a tribute to the Democrats to have two good presidential contenders - a female candidate and an African-American candidate,” Hodgson said. “I believe they are outstanding candidates - two exceptional, bright, highly articulate and very capable candidates.”

Share on Facebook