JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Call it a presidential beauty contest. Call it a large and expensive public opinion poll.
Whatever you call Missouri's presidential primary on Tuesday, it's costing state taxpayers an estimated $7 million -- and it won't even have the right list of contenders on it.
Although Missouri is holding the presidential primary on Tuesday, the outcome doesn't count toward awarding the state's delegates to the Republican National Convention.
Newt Gingrich isn't on the ballot; he missed Missouri's filing deadline. However, several of the other Republican candidates who've already quit the race are listed. Because of all that, frontrunner Mitt Romney isn't even campaigning around here -- not yet, anyway.
It's all about political party rules and a state legislature that didn't accomplish nor agree on much, not even on something as simple as whether to hold an election on Super Tuesday on March 6 -- when several states will hold presidential primary elections.
In its regular session last year, the Legislature agreed to change the primary to March but Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed the bill because nonrelated items were added to it, and Nixon objected to them. In its special session last fall, the Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have changed the date of the presidential primaries.
The political parties then chose different processes to selection delegates to the national convention.
Republicans will hold county caucuses on March 17 to start the multi-level process of selecting delegates to the national convention. Any person who registers at a caucus and declares he or she is a Republican can participate in a county caucus.
Democrats will hold what they call "mass meetings" on March 29 to start the delegate selection process. Only people who vote in the primary election on Tuesday are eligible to be delegates to the national convention but anybody in "good standing" with the Democratic Party can participate in a mass meeting.
All this confusion may benefit the man who is right now the farthest behind. Rick Santorum is the only presidential candidate to hold campaign rallies in Missouri. Last week, he toured around with James Dobson, founder of the evengelical group Focus on the Family. Also, the only televison and radio ads airing in Missouri so far are financed by a political action committee backing Santorum.
