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If the general election looks anything like Tuesday night's caucuses, Democrats may have a fighting chance in November.
OK, at least they won't embarrass themselves.
A quick rundown of attendance shows District 63 in Provo jumping from 19 two years ago to 100 this year, said county Democratic chairman Richard Davis.
"It helped us that we tripled the number of caucus locations," Davis said. "I think it also helped that we had candidates."
Several other districts showed a doubling or tripling of the last caucus meetings in 2006, including 74 this year (versus 17 two years ago) in District 59 in Orem.
County Republican chairwoman Marian Monnahan said Wednesday that she hasn't seen specific attendance numbers, but multiple precincts reported back attendance of 100 people.
Kirk Jowers of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah said there are four reasons the caucuses drew high numbers:
• "National presidential races have been so predominant so far that "a lot of people are thinking about politics that haven't thought about it before."
• "[School] vouchers got a lot of people interested in how government functions and perhaps at times that our legislators can be out of touch."
• Both parties and media outlets did a better job of explaining caucuses and their importance.
•The LDS Church had a statement read over the pulpit on Sunday urging members to attend the caucuses.
Jowers said he thinks the groundswell of participation will push through to November elections.
"I think the general could be record-breaking," he said.
The next step for those voted in as delegates are the party conventions, where they will have a chance to vote on party candidates.
The Utah County Republicans will meet April 26 at Orem High School.
The Utah County Democrats will meet May 3 at Dixon Middle School in Provo. |
