Letter: Plan to attend the Republican caucus

From: Diane Robinson
Hutchinson
Precinct caucuses will be conducted throughout Minnesota Tues., Feb. 2 (Groundhog Day) at 7 p.m.
I wish to extend a special invitation to all residents of McLeod County to attend the Republican precinct caucus this year.
We have seven locations throughout the county in Hutchinson, Glencoe, Stewart, Brownton, Lester Prairie, Winsted, and Silver Lake. If you need caucus location information, please call the secretary of state’s office at 877-600-8683 or go to http://caucusfinder.sos.state.mn.us.
There are two reasons why it is especially important for you to attend precinct caucus this year:
• Open seat State Senate Dist. 18 election – State Senator Steve Dille has announced that he is retiring. On Nov. 2 Dist. 18 residents will be electing a new state senator.
If you attend caucus on Tues., Feb. 2 you can seek to become one of the approximately 200 delegates to the Republican county convention which will be Sat., Feb. 27 at the Silver Lake Auditorium.
As county convention delegate you automatically become a delegate to the Republican Dist. 18 endorsing convention which will be Sat., March 13 at the Dassel-Cokato High School Performing Arts Center.
At the Dist. 18 endorsing convention, you will hear from our four candidates; Tim Benoit, Dean Mahlstedt, Scott Newman, and Randy Wilson. You will then cast ballots for the person whom you feel would do the best job representing Dist. 18.
The person who wins the endorsement will more than likely be the Republican candidate on the ballot in November and will more than likely be elected the next Dist. 18 state senator.
It is rare to have an open seat state senate election, you can have a tremendous influence in this important endorsement process, I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity.
• Gubernatorial straw poll – The night of caucus we will conduct a straw poll for our six gubernatorial Republican candidates; Leslie Davis, Tom Emmer, Bill Haas, David Hann, Phil Herwig, and Marty Seifert. The winner of this straw poll will receive statewide recognition; there will be extensive free publicity for that candidate.
If you have strong feelings of support for a particular gubernatorial candidate please make a point to attend caucus to participate in the straw poll.
The McLeod County Republicans welcome all residents of McLeod County to join them at precinct caucus Tues., Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. If you have any questions, feel free to call me at (320) 582-2420 or our Chairman and Chairwoman, Craig and Nicole Hoel at (320) 234-6284.