Democrats in four local towns hold presidential caucus

Democrats in the western Monmouth County towns of Allentown, Millstone, Roosevelt and Upper Freehold held a presidential caucus on Jan. 26. Modeled on actual political caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, Kansas and New Mexico, although having no bearing on the selection of convention delegates from New Jersey, 30 residents gathered at meeting space at Footlight Farm in Roosevelt.

After a get-acquainted session, participants heard from surrogates from the three remaining candidates. Dana Lanzaro represented Sen. Hillary Clinton, Barry Bendar spoke on behalf of Sen. John Edwards, and Maxim Thorne from the Obama for President '08 campaign addressed the group about why they should caucus for Sen. Barack Obama. None of the candidates were eliminated in the first round, because they all exceeded the 15 percent threshold, and the results were Edwards, 10; Obama, 9; and Clinton 7.

Postcards had gone out to the 1,558 registered Democrats in the four towns, notifying them of the event. With good representation, Democratic leaders were identified for future organizing. Wayne Smith, who ran for the Allentown governing body in 2007, expressed satisfaction with the organizing potential the caucus presented, "We have a group of potential Democratic leaders who showed their interest in transforming the political environment of our towns."

Carol Watchler, former councilwoman from Roosevelt and an organizer of this first-time event, said that she had proposed the idea because she knew it would be a good opportunity to bring Democrats together in western Monmouth for future activity.

Ann Baker, Democratic committeewoman in Roosevelt, was pleased with the turnout and the caucus results. She thought that the upcoming Democratic primary in which as many as four Democrats are considering a run at the 4th Congressional District race will make an excellent opportunity to repeat the caucus and generate even more interest.

Ann Baker

Roosevelt