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Carnahan Requests Primary over Caucus

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan says lawmakers should not dump the state’s presidential primary in favor of a caucus system.

By Marshall Griffin (Jefferson City, Mo.)

Carnahan said switching to a system of county-wide party caucuses would result in fewer people having a say in who they want for president.

“The last time we had a caucus in Missouri was 1996; tens of thousands of people showed up for those…in 2008 we had a presidential primary and 1.4 million people showed up,” Carnahan said.

The Missouri GOP recently announced that it would use caucuses to choose delegates for next year’s presidential convention, because legislation to move the presidential primary from February to March, as demanded by the national party, has yet to become law.  Supporters of the bill to scrap the primary in favor of caucuses say it could save the state between 6 and 8 million dollars.

It will be debated in the Senate on Monday.