Colorado GOP chairman Steve House (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)
Re: “Colorado Republicans cancel presidential vote at 2016 caucus,” Aug. 26 news story.
The Colorado Republican Party’s caucus action is no surprise. Precinct Caucus Day was created under a bill that I drafted and pushed while serving in the Colorado Senate in the mid-1960s. Political organization leaders in both parties opposed it because it cut their overwhelming power to select candidates with views that matched their own. Under the former system, each party’s caucuses were held on dates selected separately by each party’s leaders in each county. News media couldn’t begin to provide information for such a great array of times and places, so it was very seldom that more than 10 or 12 party members would actually attend. They would talk a bit, and then choose the candidates preferred by the organizational leaders.
I was elected in 1964 by ringing enough doorbells to overcome the wishes of the GOP organization. People with political power seldom share any of it willingly.
John R. Bermingham, Denver
This letter was published in the Sept. 8 edition.
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