This is a bit off-topic for a wealth management blog, except in the sense that it’s Part 2 of my also off-topic “Ron Paul for President” post. After endorsing him here, and paying some $$$ to attend a campaign luncheon, I ended up in a prominent position on the endorsements page of Dr. Paul’s web site. This was due to (1) my last name starting with “A”, and (2) being listed in the “authors & media” category which also starts with “A”.

The Nevada caucus seemed like a pretty big deal. Nevada is now an early primary state so, like New Hampshire and Iowa, we help to “set the political tone of the nation”. It was also one of the few states where Congressman Paul had a shot at winning (he placed second after Mitt Romney). A first place in Nevada could have catapulted him into national prominence and given him a real shot at winning the GOP nomination.

A month ahead of time, I went to a Ron Paul-sponsored “mock caucus” where I learned the basic process. Nevada is divided into counties, and each county into precincts. Each precinct is a 1-4 block zone comprised of a thousand people or two. On the day of the caucus, everybody from your precinct who wants to vote goes to a predetermined location and casts their vote for one or more delegates who go on to support your neighborhood at the county election. These delegates are your neighbors–just regular people from your precinct.

The thousands of nominated precinct delegates go to the county convention, where the process is repeated. This happens again at the state convention, until there are only 32 delegates remaining. The state delegates get to go to the Republican National Convention in Minnesota and vote for their candidate during a week-long party process, although in Nevada, delegates can actually vote for any candidate, regardless of which candidate they claimed to be supporting when they were elected.

So a few Saturdays ago, my wife Stef and I showed up at our local high school, with me ready to run as a delegate, and her there to vote for me. I didn’t think we would have enough votes but figured I’d give it a shot anyway. When we arrived at the high school, there were a thousand people already there, sitting in what I assume was the cafeteria, waiting for somebody to tell them what to do. This was the meeting spot for many local precincts.

As we were sitting there, I started talking to my seat-neighbor who was trying to decide between Huckabee and Ron Paul. I told her I was “leaning” toward Paul (white lie) and mentioned Huckabee’s desire to “remake the constitution to match the bible” as one of my reasons. Unfortunately, she saw that as a positive, what with the “end times a’comin and whatnot” so I guess I accidentally scored one for the Huckster.

Eventually the coordinators began calling out the precincts and sending us to our classrooms. We found the room and squeezed into the little desks while chatting with neighbors we’d never met. We had about 20 people show up from our 2,000+ person precinct, which was considered a good turnout. I live in a Vegas high-rise, which manages to squeeze a large number of people into our tiny little caucus footprint. As a result, we had seven delegates to elect (most precincts only had one).

Nobody knew what to do, so we waited another hour for someone to show up. A GOP representative finally arrived and passed out the registration forms. He appointed somebody “chairperson”, handed him a script, wished him luck, and left. I would have volunteered to be the chair, but at the time, I didn’t realize I was the only one in the room who had even a general idea how a caucus worked.

We hit the biggest item first, voting on delegates. From the mock caucus training, my wife and I understood that this was why we were here. The appointed coordinator explained it as, “It says here that they need volunteers to go to the county convention, our precinct needs seven people…. anybody feel like doing this?” I raised my hand high and looked around the room. It was me and a lone Romney supporter. I reached over and started pushing on my wife’s elbow. Her hand shot up too.

The coordinator looked around and said, “It says this is pretty important, is there anybody else who can do it?” The Romney supporter was whispering excitedly to some other people in Mitt gear and one more hand went up. As the seconds crept by, two more hands were reluctantly raised. “Ok,” the coordinator said, “I guess six will have to be enough. The next thing we need to do is vote.” All of a sudden, the room was buzzing—we were about to vote! Stef and I looked at each other, confused, until we finally figured it out. Nobody else in the room had any idea why they were here.

At the mock caucus training, it was made clear that the reason we were up early on a Saturday morning, was to either run as, or vote for a delegate who supported your candidate. These delegates work their way up the political food chain, with the goal being to cast their votes in the national convention. During the training, they also mentioned a “straw poll” that would be taken during the caucus. It was described as a meaningless vote that would be released to the media but had no actual bearing on the number of delegates each candidate got.

So nobody in the room understood that this “straw poll vote” didn’t count. In fact, most people thought it was why they were here, and nobody ever told them differently. The delegates had already been picked, and my wife and I had already secured 33% of the precinct vote for Ron Paul. Another went 33% for Romney, and the remaining 33% was unaffiliated and almost certainly wouldn’t show up at the county convention. The straw poll wouldn’t change any of that.

One fun thing was that before the straw poll, people got to speak on behalf of their candidates. The coordinator spoke for Romney, and I spoke for Ron Paul. It was an easy speech; Paul is the only candidate who consistently voted against the Yucca mountain nuclear waste dump, which is *the* hot issue in Nevada. I got some compliments and am sure I convinced a few undecided’s to support Dr. Paul in the straw poll. Not that it mattered.

The entire process was a lot of fun and much friendlier than I’d expected. Romney won our straw poll with about 50%, Ron Paul was at 25%, and McCain at 10%. Of course in the declared delegate count, Mitt and Ron were tied for the win. So if my precinct was any indication, Paul’s Nevada delegate support is much higher than the 15% attributed to him by the media, who rely on the straw poll numbers. Added bonus: I ran into my “End of Days” seat-mate from the cafeteria who told me that, not only had I convinced her to support Ron Paul, she had been elected as her precinct delegate. Woo hoo!

Dr. Paul has all but abandoned his presidential bid but, time allowing, Stef and I will continue to caucus for him at the county convention. The Clark county caucus is an all day event held at a local casino and it should be educational and fun. Based on the precinct caucus, I wouldn’t be surprised if I can win one of the county delegate slots. The state caucus is in Reno and most people I talked with can’t get the time off of work to attend, so I could be elected delegate simply because I have a more flexible schedule.

I wonder if all politics is this silly.