Playing to a smaller crowd than their major party counterparts, Independence Party loyalists and newcomers alike gathered at Richfield City Hall during last week's caucuses.

Feb. 2 was caucus night in Minnesota. Party regulars and newbies alike found their way to the caucus of their choice to elect delegates for upcoming party meetings, discuss resolutions for consideration at the state level and conduct a straw poll for candidates of the upcoming gubernatorial election.

Gatherings for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican parties are typically held in large school district buildings, dividing participants geographically into several classrooms.

For the Independence Party, the council chamber of City Hall was adequate for participants from the entire senate district. The Senate District 63 gathering drew 16 people at its peak. The district includes all of Richfield, a southern portion of Minneapolis and the northeast portion of Bloomington.

Independence Party caucus attendance may have been small in comparison to the turnout by Democrats at Richfield Intermediate School or Republicans at Richfield High School, but it wasn't far off the turnout of two years ago, when straw polling for the presidential election drew residents to caucuses in uncharacteristically large numbers.

The 2008 Independence Party caucus drew about 20 people, a record crowd according to Gordon Hanson of Richfield. Hanson, who served as convener of the meeting and was elected chairman, was pleased by the turnout at last week's caucus.

"A lot of people predicted the end of the Independence Party many many years ago," he said prior to the meeting. "The party has been very resilient."

The meeting drew residents who have been active in the party since its inception in the early 1990s and those who found their way to the party caucus for the first time.

Donald Durenberger of Bloomington expressed dissatisfaction with the constant campaigning on the part of Democrats and Republicans. A cousin of former Republican U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger, Donald attended a recent speech by his cousin and reported that the former senator was not happy with today's Republican party.

"I'm not happy with either one of them, so that's why I'm here tonight," Donald told attendees during a round of introductions the caucus held.

Phoebe Ruona of Minneapolis had similar reasons for attending the caucus. She was a staunch Republican, yet has never voted a straight ticket, she said. "I think I'm ready to at least look at this party because I too am unhappy with the gridlock in Congress," she said.

"The parties keep getting further apart," she explained. "When I was young, they actually talked to each other."

Those talks netted compromises, and policies, she noted. "Today that's not how it is.

"I'm just here to see what you're all about."'

Most newcomers had been around the political block a few times. But last week's caucus was a first for Neal Olmstead of Minneapolis. "I've always wanted to get involved, I just didn't know how," he said.

A 30-year-old student at Normandale Community College, Olmstead chose the Independence Party because "it lines up a little bit more with my ideals."

And he meant what he said about getting involved, as he volunteered to serve as a delegate of the party.

"At least if I show up and do something, I'll at least have the right to complain later," he determined. "You can't really complain if you don't do anything about it."

Like others at the caucus, Olmstead expressed frustration with the two-party system that dominates the political landscape. "I see it as one party bickering between themselves," he explained to the group. "Something needs to be done, and this is a good place to start."

Joe Koch of Richfield was drawn to the Independence Party because its candidates represent different ways of thinking about political issues. "There's not one specific way that you have to think," he said.

During his opening remarks, Hanson referred to a commentary article he had read by MarketWatch columnist Paul Farrell about 20 reasons why the global debt time bomb will soon explode. He cited No. 19, "a dysfunctional two-party political bomb," as one of particular interest to the caucus.

"Every day both parties show zero interest in cooperating for the public good," Hanson reported. "Their only goal is to score political points and make the other side look bad."

Hanson provided his own editorial comments. "The only way we're going to remedy that situation is to show the two parties that we can go around them," he said.

"They don't really have a monopoly on the political system."

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