The Iowa Caucuses were held this past Monday, and participation was weaker than expected, due mostly to inclement winter weather.

Greene County Democratic Party Chair Chris Henning says they had 26 people attend their caucus at Jefferson City Hall. She notes that they worked on selecting delegates for the county convention that will be held on March 24th. Henning explains that having local delegates at the state convention is important after the June 5th primary because if none of the seven Democratic candidates for governor receives at least 35-percent of the votes, the selection will go onto the state convention, which is set for June 16th.

“The delegates at the state convention actually choose the nominee who will run as Democrat for governor. So it really does make a difference if you are a delegate out of the caucuses, if you are a delegate at county, or at district, or at the state level.”

Iowa Republican Central Committee member John Thompson says the Greene County Republican Party had about 30 people attend at their various caucus locations. He says they discussed some plank items to be considered at their county convention on March 10th. The main focus was to encourage Chip Baltimore from Boone to run for re-election to the Iowa House.

Finally, the Libertarian Party of Iowa held their first-ever caucuses. Co-Chair Ed Wright says because their party is small but the fastest growing political party in the state, they held regional caucus locations. For both Greene and Guthrie counties, it was at the Guthrie Activity Center in Guthrie Center. Wright says he’s excited for the opportunity to field candidates for this year’s November election.

“The Libertarian Party in Iowa is probably going to field more candidates in 2018 than we ever had before in any (election) cycle. I would look for that to continue at a robust pace.”

Wright added that they also held their county convention following the caucus that same night. Their district convention takes place from March 23rd through the 25th in Des Moines.