What difference resulted in Tuesday night's GOP precinct caucuses from an awareness that the presidential preference votes that were cast were "non-binding" -- that is, would not ultimately determine how the state's national convention delegates would vote?
Watching Minnetonka Precinct 4G, I got the sense that it may have mattered quite a bit.
When a fellow in the back of the Eden Prairie High School classroom voiced doubts about Rick Santorum's electability, precinct chair Mimi Burkhardt admitted that she, too, had some qualms.But, she said, she knew that the vote she and her 25 caucus-mates were casting was a straw poll, good for the evening's headlines and candidate claims of momentum, but not a lot more.
"If there were delegates on the line, I might cast a different ballot," she said. "I want to keep this guy (Santorum) in the race a little longer." Heads nodded around the room. The Precinct 4G vote: Santorum 11, Newt Gingrich 6, Mitt Romney 5 and Ron Paul 4.
The Minnetonka caucus-goers were a seasoned lot. One veteran cast his eyes around the room and told me he saw two, maybe three fresh faces -- no more. Most participants were well schooled in the fine points of the quandrennial caucus-to-convention exercise. Their votes expressed not just a preference, but a strategy.
