PRIMARY CHANGES CAUCUSES

Missouri's presidential primary won't put an end to Democratic and Republican party caucuses, but it will dramatically change them.

A series of caucuses at the county and district levels still determines who will go to the national conventions of both parties, but today's primary will decide the candidates to whom they are pledged.

Democratic and Republican activists like Rick Althaus and Donna Lichtenegger worry that the state's adoption of a primary might discourage party loyalists from getting involved in the caucuses.

In the past, those registered voters and party members who showed up and voted at the county and then congressional district caucuses determined the allocation of delegates to Republican and Democratic candidates.

"Formerly, the caucuses determined which delegates would be chosen and which candidates would be supported," said Althaus, who chairs the Cape Girardeau County Democratic Committee.

Under the new primary system, which takes effect with today's election, Missouri voters will choose the candidates.

The caucuses, which will follow this spring and summer, will determine "the warm bodies who get to go to the convention" as delegates, Althaus said.

In a contested primary in 1992, 100 Democrats showed up for the county caucus. In 1996, President Clinton was running for re-election. There was no primary contest on the Democratic side.

Althaus said 35 members of the local Democratic Party showed up for the county caucus. He said he doesn't know how many people may show up at the county caucus this year. It is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on March 30 at the County Administration Building in Jackson.

Likewise, Lichtenegger can't predict the turnout on the GOP side. The county Republican caucus is scheduled for March 18 at 2 p.m. in the County Administration Building.

The county caucus drew hundreds of Republicans in 1996, sparked by the heated rivalry between GOP presidential candidates Bob Dole and Pat Buchanan.

Lichtenegger said she hopes Republican supporters will attend this year's county caucus. She recognizes there won't be any suspense this time since the primary already will have determined the candidate of choice.

"We do have a problem if people don't show up and are not willing to be delegates," she said.

Lichtenegger, who chairs the 8th District Republican Committee, said it is hard sometimes to get people to actively support a political party. "I think it is a real shame that people are not being involved," said Lichtenegger, who started working in politics at the grass-roots level when she was a junior high school student in St. Louis County.

The two political parties make the rules as to the number and selection of delegates.

On the Republican side, it is a winner-take-all primary. Missouri will send 35 delegates and 35 alternates to the GOP national convention this summer, all of them pledged to support the winner of the primary on the first ballot.

Each of the nine congressional districts will send three delegates and three alternates to the convention. Another eight delegates and eight alternates will be chosen June 17 at the GOP's state convention in Springfield.

Cape Girardeau County will send 19 delegates to the congressional caucus and 19 to the state convention. The number of delegates allotted a county is based on the number of votes cast for the GOP ticket in the previous presidential election.

Republicans will hold their 8th District caucus on April 22 in Poplar Bluff.

On the Democratic side, Missouri will send 92 delegates and 13 alternates. Most of the Democratic delegates will be apportioned on the basis of the votes candidates received in the primary. To receive delegates, a presidential candidate must obtain at least 15 percent of the primary vote.

Cape County's Democratic caucus will send 11 delegates and 11 alternates to the congressional district caucus April 27. The caucus likely will be held in Poplar Bluff, Althaus said.

At the district caucus, five delegates and one alternate will be chosen to attend the national convention.

Delegates are apportioned at leach level of the caucus process based on a formula that gives equal weight to population and votes cast for the Democratic presidential candidates in the 1992 and 1996 general elections.

Democratic delegations also must be equally divided between men and women, with a maximum deviation of one delegate at any level in the caucus process.

"This process is systematic and fair, and it promotes participation from as many people as possible," said Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Joe Carmichael.

In all, 49 delegates and eight alternates will be elected at the congressional district caucuses. The Democratic State Committee will elect another 26 delegates, including 16 at the state convention in Columbia on May 13.

All 75 delegates will be pledged to candidates based on the primary vote.

Missouri's Democratic delegation will include 17 so-called "super delegates" who won't be pledged to particular candidates on the basis of the primary election. They include the governor, 10 members of the Democratic Central Committee including U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, four other members of Congress and two at-large delegates to be elected by the Democratic State Committee.