Local  caucuses will be held Tuesday evening, kicking off a series of political activities leading to the election of our next President in November.

At the caucuses, Democrat and Republican (and other parties) will vote for stand and/or national candidates, cite issues which could be formed into legislation at a later point, and choose delegates to higher conventions.

 

Those would include county conventions this spring, state conventions in early summer and the Presidential conventions of  the Republican and Democrat parties in late summer.

 

Each caucus will begin at 7 p.m. Some may be over in short time; others may go for some time. It just depends on who’s there and what they want to talk about.

 

In many caucuses, participants will get the chance to meet candidates and incumbents for various state and congressional offices.

 

Readership areas of the West Sherburne Tribune and the Citizen-Tribune are broken into two state house and senate districts.

 

The Big Lake area is aligned with Elk River and communities to the south in Minnesota Senate Dist. 30 and House Dist. 30A, presently served by Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake, R and Nick Zerwas of Elk River, R. Big Lake city, township and Orrock Twp. caucus sites for the Democrats will be the Big Lake Middle School.

 

Caucus site for Republicans of the same precincts will be Big Lake High School.

 

Citizen-Tribune readers from the Becker, Clear Lake and Clearwater areas are within  Minnesota Senate District 15, previously served by Sen. Dave Brown of Becker, who has retired. Two candidates, Dan Whitcomb of Princeton and Andrew Mathews of Milaca have filed for election to his seat from the Republican party. 

 

Rep. Jim Newberger of Becker, R, is the current office holder in Minnesota House Dist. 15B.

 

Democrats from Becker, Becker Twp., Clear Lake, Clear Lake Twp., and Palmer, Orrock and Santiago townships will meet at Becker High School.

 

Republicans from Becker city and township and Palmer and Santiago townships will meet at Becker Baptist Church.

 

Democrats from Clearwater city and township will meet at the Clearwater Twp. Hall.

 

Republicans from Clear Lake city and township and Clearwater city and township will meet at the Clearwater American Legion.

 

Haven Twp. Republicans will meet at Apollo High School. Haven Twp. Democrats will meet at the Talahi Center.

 

Lynden Twp. Republicans will meet at Kimball High School. Lynden Twp. Democrats will meet at their town hall.