INSIDE

Paul, Obama are local favorites

Local caucuses followed a national trend for high attendance, with Point Roberts democrats favoring Obama and local republicans backing Ron Paul.

The February 9 Democrat caucus drew 50 people to the community center to decide which candidate would win the nine delegates assigned to Point Roberts. Senator Barack Obama earned six of the nine with the other three going to Senator Hillary Clinton. These delegates will attend the county convention in April to select delegates for the state and then federal conventions

The Republican caucus was less well attended. Of the 15 citizens in attendance 11 declared their support for Ron Paul and 4 for John McCain. Delegates from the caucus will take their votes to the county convention March 15. Chet Dow, chair of the Whatcom County Republican Party said they planned to use results of the primary election for 51 percent and caucus results for 49 percent of their decision of how to allot delegates at the state level.