(Spirit Lake)– There was a record turnout at Monday evening’s Democratic caucuses in Dickinson county, where John Kerry was the big winner…reflecting his statewide victory.
21 of Dickinson county’s 60 delegates were committed to Kerry. Howard Dean was second with 17; John Edwards was third with 14 and Dick Gephardt fourth with four.
Ann Fitzgibbons, Dickinson county Democratic Chair, told KUOO news based on the polls, she wasn’t too surprised by the close margin among the top three candidates. Fitzgibbons says she was surprised by Gephardt’s poor finish.
476 people participated in Monday’s Dickinson county Democratic Caucuses…compared to 50 four years ago. Fitzgibbons says they expected a larger turnout than four years ago, but not by that much.
Fitzgibbons admits they weren’t prepared for the large turnout. Caucus organizers had to do some last minute scrambling as several rooms at the Spirit Lake Middle School, site of the caucus, exceeded the Fire Marshall’s rating for capacity. The overflow had to be moved to other rooms. And the supply of voter registration forms was depleted early on in the evening.
Fitzgibbons feels the heavy caucus turnout will translate to a big turnout at the polls in November.
