DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS PLANNED THURSDAY; GOP's SATURDAY

Presidential caucus time arrives in Missouri this week with state Democrats and Republicans picking their respective nominees.

Party committees will hold caucuses at the county level. Participants will choose delegates representing particular candidates to attend their respective party's district and state conventions.

Thursday's Democratic caucuses begins at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday's Republican caucuses start at 10 a.m.

County caucuses for both parties will be held at the following locations: the Bollinger County Courthouse in Marble Hill, the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson, the Perry County Administrative Building in Perryville, the Scott County Courthouse in Benton and the Stoddard County Courthouse in Bloomfield.

All registered voters may participate in the party caucus of their choice in the county in which they live. Participants should arrive up to an hour prior to the start of the caucus to register.

The number of delegates a county has varies based on party rules about the number of county residents who voted in the last presidential election.

Democrats will select two delegates from Bollinger County, 12 from Cape Girardeau County, three from Perry County, eight from Scott County and six from Stoddard County.

District conventions will be held April 11 and the state convention will be May 4 in Columbia. At those meetings, 93 delegates and 13 alternates will be chosen to represent Missouri Democrats at the party's national convention next summer.

Republicans will choose three delegates from Bollinger County, 19 from Cape Girardeau County, five from Perry County, nine from Scott County and seven from Stoddard County.

District conventions will be April 13, with the state convention following May 17 and 18 at Springfield. State Republicans will send 36 delegates to the national convention.

Some political leaders, including U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson and U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, have called for replacing Missouri's caucuses with a primary. Caucuses tend to put the candidate selection process in the hands of active state party members rather than rank and file voters.

In 1988, the state held a one-time-only primary to bolster the presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri.

John Hancock, the Republican candidate for Missouri's secretary of state, thinks the state should institute a primary beginning in the year 2000.

"The 1988 primary ... produced a 35 percent turnout," Hancock said. "That's compared to the less than a 1 percent expected turnout for the party caucuses which will be held Saturday."

Hancock endorses a winner-take-all primary to take place one week after the New Hampshire primary, traditionally the first of the election season. Such a system is intended to provide more national exposure for the state.

"An early primary with a winner-take-all delegate format means Missouri will become a clear national focus for all major presidential candidates," Hancock said. "We'll get to see and hear the candidates and rightfully become a major force in determining the eventual nominees for the presidency."

The major candidates have largely ignored Missouri prior to the caucuses.