Missouri Caucus: Sound and fury, signifying nothing

Tempers were running high in Missouri on Saturday, as the convoluted and opaque caucuses got underway.

Reports from around the state showed that supporters of Texas Congressman Ron Paul backers made a strong showing – so strong that two were arrested in St. Charles County, where the caucus had to be suspended because things got out of hand.

“It’s like the Hatfields and the McCoys around here,” St. Charles County’s former GOP chairman told ABC News, after police arrived on-scene with a helicopter and removed Paul backers.

Almost no results from the caucuses have been announced; the winner will not be known for weeks or even months.

The state did not seem to be expecting such a boisterous process; directions for caucus goers included advice to “bring your laptop, your kindle, knitting, a book, homework, or something to occupy your time.”


Instead, scuffles with police and shouting matches with organizers kept people pretty busy.

But despite the emotion, little was at stake on Saturday – the delegates chosen will not necessarily go to the national convention in Tampa in August – they will just proceed to the next level.

More from GlobalPost: Rich People have a dirty little secret…

In April, congressional districts will hold caucuses to select delegates, and, finally, official delegates will be selected at the state convention in June.

Observers may be forgiven for being a bit mystified – the process Missouri has chosen to select their delegates to the Republican national convention is little short of bizarre.

The state held its Republican presidential primary on February 7, handing former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum an impressive win. He received more than 55 percent of the vote, far ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who came in second with just over 25 percent. Ron Paul got just over 12 percent, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was not on the ballot.

But the primary was non-binding; no delegates were awarded, making the poll little more than a “beauty contest.”

This was due to a ruling by the GOP national committee that penalized any state holding its primary before “Super Tuesday” – the ten-state contest that usually determines the Republican nominee. Super Tuesday fell on March 6.

Any state insisting on an early poll would lose half of its delegates, according to the Party decree.

Missouri had already scheduled its primary, but did not want to lose any of its 52 delegates, so it went ahead with the exercise, holding the poll on February 7 but removing any significance from the results.

More from GlobalPost: Chinese cars, made in Bulgaria

Santorum, who won Minnesota and Colorado that same evening, got a lot of momentum from the victories, but not much else.

Saturday’s unruly proceedings are also unlikely to help any one of the presidential hopefuls.

One of the things making it so difficult to follow the Missouri contest is that each county can determine its own rules.

A website seeking to explain the process to Missouri voters made things even murkier:

“There are a possibility of many things that will happen at each caucus based on what your county determines in the rules.  The first thing that will happen for the caucus is to determine the rules.  The second will be voting on the members of the caucus (i.e. delegate or slate) that will represent you on the congressional level caucus and the state …  A possibility will be voting on the presidential candidate that the county wants to represent them on the congressional level.  

So a vote on preferences for presidential candidates is only a distant “possibility” in the caucus; the main order of the day was to select delegates to go on to the next level.

Both Santorum and Romney visited Missouri ahead of the caucuses; the two men are engaged in a fierce battle for perceived frontrunner status, and every contest is vital.

All of the candidates are engaged in a desperate race to reach the magic number of 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Romney has a hefty lead, with 496; Santorum has 236, Gingrich has 141 and Paul just 66.

But no one seems to be giving up just yet, making it likely that this long and bruising battle will continue right up until Tampa in August.