louie traub/VIEWSen. John Kerry, D-Mass., speaks on behalf of Barack Obama at a rally in the Boulder City Library meeting room, Jan. 17.
louie traub/VIEWSen. John Kerry, D-Mass., speaks on behalf of Barack Obama at a rally in the Boulder City Library meeting room, Jan. 17.
Paul Bieschke/VIEWResidents from Precinct 1010 and 1050 raise their hands in support of issues at the Republican Caucus, Jan. 19.
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When it came to caucusing in the Silver State Saturday, Boulder City's registered voters proved they were pretty much like the rest of the state -- they turned out in larger-than-expected numbers and they either sent a majority of delegates or, in one case, voted for the eventual winners.
For the Democrats, Boulder City sent 43 Hillary Clinton delegates (59 percent of those participating), 24 Barack Obama delegates (33 percent), and six John Edwards delegates (eight percent) to the county convention Feb. 23.
For the Republicans, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney captured 50 percent of the vote for all of Boulder City compared with Clark County and the state with 58 percent and 51 percent, respectively.
Total Boulder City results also show Arizona Sen. John McCain coming in second with 111 votes followed in third by Ohio Congressman Ron Paul with 95 votes. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee got 84 votes; former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson tallied 73 votes; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani got 16 votes while California Congressman Duncan Hunter received 10 votes.
Individual precinct votes were not available at press time.
Although both major political parties held their caucuses on the same day, they employed two different methods to arrive at their numbers.
Democrats elected county convention delegates without taking a presidential preference vote while the Republicans did both.
REPUBLICANS GO FIRST
The morning started off at 9 with Republican voters in the city's 10 precincts plus two outside precincts covering Boulder Beach and Nelson flocking to the cafeteria and classrooms at Boulder City High School.
Room 118, one of about 10 rooms used for the caucus, normally holds about 30 students, but last weekend about 100 voters and observers -- those standing outnumbered those sitting by a 2-to-1 margin -- packed the room and even flowed out into the breezeway.
The confinement could have been worse since the turnout represented only about one-fourth of the 417 registered Republican voters from the two precincts that huddled in the room.
Permanent chairman Dr. Joe Hardy led Republicans from precinct 1010, the area around the Boulder City Golf Course from Georgia Avenue to Buchanan Boulevard and south from El Camino Way, and precinct 1050 from Boulder Beach through the various steps of the caucus that took about 70 minutes.
The first order of business was to elect nine delegates -- delegate numbers are decided by the number of voters in the precinct -- to the March 5 county convention.
Romney supporters Hardy, Eric Hawkins, Dennis Fagen and Rod Woodbury; Ron Paul supporters Matt Dame and John Dunmire; Linda Strickland representing McCain; Mark Brown supporting Huckabee; and Bernice Delabarre as uncommitted were elected to go to the convention.
Shortly after that, there were impromptu two-minute speeches for the candidates -- no one spoke for Fred Thompson or Rudy Giuliani, but a youthful Seattle, Wash.-campaign worker for Duncan Hunter made a pitch -- and then came the actual voting for the candidates.
With 93 ballots cast, Romney had 48, McCain received 20, Paul and Huckabee each got 9 votes, Thompson collected 5, and Giuliani and Huckabee each got one -- except for Romney, the results were different from how Clark County and the state went.
There were a few glitches to start things off -- voters unfamiliar with the school layout didn't know where the rooms were; three voters were turned away for arriving late only to have them join their group upon "the privilege of the chair" and a roomful of OKs -- but once everyone got in the room it went smoothly.
Hardy, a state assemblyman up for reelection this year, said he felt the process worked even if it was the first time.
"As a whole, this is the grass roots of the grass roots," he said. "It's getting down to the subsoil."
Participants leaving the room also gave a thumbs-up to the caucus.
"I think it was absolutely fair," Frank Behnke said. "It's a little involved, but I hope my selection will be selected."
"I think it's great," Barbara Budd said. "I liked it. Was it fair? Absolutely."
DEMOCRATS CAUCUS LATER
Depending on which precinct Democratic voters were in, caucus-goers started arriving at each of Boulder City's four schools at 11 a.m. for registration, with their caucuses beginning at 11:30.
Within an hour's time, everyone knew how the precinct's five county convention delegates would be divvied up.
At the Boulder City High School activities center, the site for precinct 1001, Karen Anell became the permanent chair within minutes of starting the caucus.
When noon rolled around, Anell and some helpers took count of the number of people in the room -- 96 compared to the 230 registered Democrats and the 16 new registrants in the precinct -- and then multiplied that by 0.15 to arrive at the precinct's "viability number," the minimum number of persons that a candidate must have to be considered viable enough to get a delegate, which turned out to be 15.
After that, Anell turned everyone loose to gather in groups representing their candidate.
When the time was up, Clinton and Obama were the only two viable candidates, with Edwards having 13 people, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich with five, uncommitted with three and former Alaska Gov. Mike Gravel with one representative.
One die-hard voter, Tim Tilman, stuck it out for Bill Richardson even though the New Mexico governor had dropped out of the race a week earlier.
"Well, I'm kind of alone, but I feel strong," Tilman said. "I like what (Richardson) stands for. He's a fiscally responsible candidate and that's the most important thing on our agenda."
Asked which candidate he would realign with after being declared unviable, Tilman said, "To the second most fiscally responsible candidate and that's Hillary."
Former city landscape specialist Stuart Adams stood alone against the wall, hoping someone would join him in his support for Gravel.
"My family's over there with Kucinich," he said after losing out in Round One. "I guess I'll go over to Edwards."
Although declared unviable in the first round of balloting, Edwards' group picked up Adams' and another vote in the second round of balloting to become viable and, ultimately, receive one delegate to the county convention.
The vote after Round Two was Clinton with 55, Obama with 23, Edwards with 15 and two uncommitted who were declared unviable.
Because of those alignments, Clinton received 3 county convention delegate votes -- Sharon Schafer, Peggy Rees and Peter Ricciardo -- while Obama got one delegate -- Anell -- tying with Edwards for one convention delegate -- Jeff Tilton.
With that done, everybody picked up their belongings, placards and stickers and went home, after making Boulder City a part of Nevada's history.
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