2012 Wild Horse Township Republican Caucus I live in the area of Wildwood that is included in the Wild Horse

Township area of St. Louis County. The Township encompasses portions of Wildwood, Ellisville, Ballwin, Manchester and Unincorporated St. Louis County. Our caucus was held in the meeting room of the Wildwood Schnucks on Manchester Road. Ive attended monthly wine tastings held in the room that are well attended, but was really surprised at the crowd attending the meeting. The room was packed like sardines, with all chairs filled and the entire perimeter of the room full of standees or persons sitting on the floor. It was announced that there were 168 persons registered for the caucus; I would love to know the fire code capacity limit for the room as I am sure we were over. I saw on stltoday.com that the Ballwin caucus turned persons away when they reached the fire code capacity limit for their meeting room (Ballwin Council Chamber). The township chairman, Tim Woerther (also mayor of Wildwood) called the meeting to order and made some opening remarks. The first order of business on the agenda was to elect a chair for the meeting. There were two persons nominated and the vote was very close (there was a two vote spread, I think it was 82 80). The winner was Dennis Broadbooks, listed online as the President of the Wild Horse Township Republicans and also as a state committeeman of the Missouri GOP. I do not recall who the second nominee for chair of the meeting was or who was elected as secretary of the meeting. Mr. Broadbooks assumed running the meeting and chose Walt Young, former mayor of Ballwin to act as Parliamentarian. The next action item was to verify the identities of those in attendance against voter rolls to determine eligibility for voting on delegates and also the state party platform. Upon arrival, you had to identify yourself with a photo ID and were checked against the voter roll and if on the roll you received a red voting card. There were a few persons who did not make it past this initial screening because they were at the incorrect township caucus based on where they lived. This verification was in reality a rechecking of the initial ID that allowed you to enter the meeting room. This was a total joke; the verification took nearly two hours while we just stood around waiting for them to finish. There were two paper copies of the voter roll and a laptop to access the Secretary of State Voter list if the person could not be verified. I think ultimately there was one woman who had her red card taken because she should have been at the Chesterfield caucus and not at Wild Horse. There was a motion to accept the verification committee report which was passed. During the process, one of the verifiers asked to be recognized by the chair, which she was. She said because of the confusion during the verification process, and because of the closeness of the initial votes that we be allowed to vote again after all persons were certified. The motion received a second from the floor. But after the attendees were verified and there was a call for the question on the open motion, she was told she had never been recognized and there was no open motion on the floor. In the time after the initial motion and the end of the verification process this woman made a few attempts to restate and to clarify her concern, but was repeatedly shouted down as out of order by the chair and parliamentarian. There never was a vote on the open motion as was proper under Roberts Rules.

The next agenda item was to decide on the rules for the meeting. There was one printed page of rules that were handed out and we were given a few minutes to read and comprehend what we had in our hands. I did not think the rules were unreasonable, and the main thing was that delegates for the 2 nd District caucus and for the GOP state caucus would be selected and voted on by slate, and bound to their announced choice for the first round of votes at each respective caucus. There were to be eighteen (18) delegates and eighteen (18) alternates chosen for each caucus (district and state). The chair had a slate introduced that was chosen by the persons who attend the monthly township committee meetings; I believe he said that numbered twenty-two (22) persons. The names were read and it was announced that this slate (and the other three slates to be chosen) consisted of seventeen (17) delegates for Rick Santorum and one (1) delegate for Mitt Romney. After this was announced for the second time, hands began to raise and ask questions. People asked about nominating additional slates. There was a proposal raised from the floor by I assume a Mitt Romney supporter as to whether our delegates could be apportioned by the percentage of votes received in the February non-binding election. People were continuously told they were out of order or not recognized and it became clear that the fix was in and no other slates or individual delegates would be allowed. I was perfectly fine with the way the slate of delegates was presented, although I wondered why there was one Romney delegate, but I thought there was a severe breach in the democratic process by the manner that all questions or proposals for other slates and delegate to be allowed to be nominated were rejected without receiving fair consideration from the chair. Even though I was perfectly happy with the delegate split, there were many, many persons who took time out of their day to attend this caucus and were being treated as if they were invisible. I thought they had a right to be heard, and I happen to know a little about Roberts Rules from running meetings for ten years as our subdivision president, and a few years as the chair of Wildwoods Planning and Zoning Commission, and an interrupted term serving on Wildwood City Council. I used my Verizon Wireless Android phone to search Google for the rules to see if there was any way to force the chair to allow other nominations to be heard. The rules can be tricky, as most require you to be recognized by the chair, or if recognized do not allow a vote other than the motion on the floor. I was able to find an Incidental Motion that allowed you to both Interrupt (means you can speak without being recognized if there is an opening to get into the flow), and also required a vote on the interruption before moving back to the motion on the floor. This motion is used to avoid the main motion altogether, and invoked by saying, I object to the consideration of the question. This rule of interruption does not even require and second, allows no debate, and no amendments, and is to be decided immediately. It goes straight to a vote, and requires a 2/3 majority to pass. Both the chair and the parliamentarian said they never heard of it and called me out of order. I offered to show the rule to them, and repeated it verbally, but was told they did not want to see anything and I was out of order. Being a little bit of a hothead, I crumpled my rules sheet and threw it in the trash and walked to the back of the room and thought of leaving the meeting, but was encouraged to stay by others.

There was a vote on the open motion that barely passed, and then the other three slates were nominated and voted on and passed. The party platform was then motioned and passed with minor modification. I spoke to many angry persons, and more than one told me that if Santorum somehow became our nominee they would stay home in November and not vote. I was very disappointed with the caucus, and disillusioned that it seems we can get no one in Washington to listen and here when we are all in one room the local party leadership will not listen to the concerns of their voters. To me it was a very damaging day for the Republican Party and the vast, vast majority of those in attendance had never attended a party meeting or caucus. I think about 95% from the show of hands when asked who had ever attended before. These persons are faithful voters, many of whom said aloud they felt they were being disenfranchised, and after todays caucus are unlike to attend anything like this again. I wonder what they will tell acquaintances about their day. Many of us, including me, think that politics is a fixed game. Our representatives at both state and national levels seem to ignore the wishes of their constituents more often than not. When I served in Wildwood, the citizens were standing a few feet away at a podium in front of you, and I always felt that you must listen to their concerns, and if you disagree, you are able to immediately tell them your reasoning for disagreement. These are generally cordial exchanges as both the citizen and those to whom they speak are in the end wanting to do what is best for Wildwood and all its residents. I guess I was nave in thinking a caucus would be held in a similar manner to a planning and zoning hearing or a city council meeting where everyone is in the room and all have an opportunity to be heard and have their views receive serious consideration. Apparently I am a fool as the results of the Wild Horse caucus were decided long before any of us showed our ID and signed our name. And that is a disgrace. The caucus process, at least as held at Wild Horse Township makes me ashamed to call myself a Republican. Maybe now I will just identify as a conservative.