Candidates continue to file for Kansas caucus

As deadlines for the Kansas presidential caucuses draw near, Kansas Republicans and Democrats are looking to expand the number of presidential candidates on their respective political parties’ ballots for caucuses to be held on Saturday, March 5, 2016.

On the Republican side, the number of presidential candidates to file for the Kansas caucus expanded to seven in recent days with the registration of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Others include the state’s GOP caucus include real estate mogul Donald Trump, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Republican presidential candidates who have not yet filed for the Kansas caucus include Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former New York Gov. George Pataki, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore. The registration deadline for the Kansas Republican caucus is Wednesday, Jan. 20.

The registration deadline for the Kansas Democrat presidential caucus is Monday, Jan. 4, and so far, the only candidate to register is former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who filed on Dec. 10. Her two Democrat rivals, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, have yet to file.

Kansas is one of 10 states that still voices who it will support in presidential elections via party-funded caucuses, while the remaining states use primary elections, which are paid for by state governments, to determine who they will support. Kansas state law technically mandates a presidential primary election every four years, but the Legislature has voted since 1992 to cancel the primary election, mainly to save money, it was reported.

In the caucus system, voting is conducted at local party meetings and is done by raising hands or breaking up into groups, whereas primary elections involve secret ballots. In Kansas, only members registered with each political party can participate in their parties’ respective caucuses, while the Democrat caucus allows those not registered with the party to do so at the caucus.

As for the candidates themselves, Republican candidates must pay a filing fee of $15,000 to register for the Kansas caucus, while the filing fee for Democrat candidates is $4,500. 

Both parties will hold caucuses on Saturday, March 5. Democrats will host “local unit conventions,” or first-tier caucuses, to elect delegates to Congressional district caucuses by presidential preference, it was reported.

Thirty-seven delegates will be chosen to attend and vote at the Democratic National Convention, set for July in Philadelphia, Pa. Four of the delegates will be pledged party leaders and elected officials; the remaining 33 will include 22 district delegates chosen based on caucus votes in the state’s four congressional districts and 11 to be chosen based on the statewide caucus vote.

On the Republican side, 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention, set for July in Cleveland, Ohio, will be chosen based on voting results in the March caucus. Each of the state’s congressional districts will be assigned three national delegates; the rest will include 25 statewide delegates and three party delegates, including the national committeeman, the national committeewoman, and the chair of the Kansas Republican Party.

In Kansas, the Republican presidential candidate chosen in the past two caucuses — Mike Huckabee in 2008 and Rick Santorum in 2012 — did not go on to win the party’s national presidential nomination, won by John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. On the Democrat side, Barack Obama received Kansans’ support in 2008 over Clinton and was supported for re-election in 2012.

The caucus system was reportedly the original way in which political parties chose candidates. However, people began to feel that the secret ballot was a fairer, more democratic system, and so states began to move to the primary election system in the early years of the 20th century, it was reported.