The caucuses on the Republican side shaped up much as predicted above.

There were the usual fireworks and chaos in District 12. About 160 voted, as the Romeo slate, comprised of Sam and Mary Romeo, Diane Chiapetta, David Shields and Bob Perri battled the Camillo/Corrado slate, comprised of Fred Camillo, Paula Corrado, Nick Fortunato, Bill Kalna, and Richard Brimberg.

The opening Romeo move was to nominate the ever-popular Fred Camillo in place of David Shields. Then the Camillo/Corrado slate was nominated in the proper way. Then nominations were officially closed. Then the Romeo slate noticed they had failed to nominate Shields. Somehow Roberts Rules were shoved aside, and Shields was nominated anyway.

In order to head-off the shenanigans that are often felt to occur in this district's caucus, it was decided that there would be just one round of balloting, and a majority of votes would no longer be required. The top five vote-getters win.

Chiappetta (an anomaly on the Romeo slate) finishes first. Then Camillo and Corrado. Then clustered closely with Sam Romeo are Fortunato and Brimberg. Mary Romeo lags a bit and Perri and Shields trail badly. One irony being that if the old, standard rule requiring a majority were still in place, Sam himself might well have lost. As it were, he and Fortunato rounded out the winners' circle.

But, the Romeo slate forces a primary. Petitions were promptly picked up at the Town Clerk's office. Romeo and company need to collect signatures from five percent of the registered Republicans in the district; then Mary Romeo, Perri and Shields race the five winners in a primary in which all 1200-1500 GOPers in the district vote, at North Mianus school on March 7th. It is expected that Brimberg and Kalna will also join the fun by collecting their own petition signatures and gaining spots on the primary ballot, to form a 10-way race for the five seats.

Look for the same outcome as at the caucus. Sam Romeo and Fortunato are most vulnerable. But they would more likely be replaced by Brimberg or Kalna than by anyone from the Romeo side.

This is fun local politics at its gritty best. There should be more primaries for the RTC; the heck with the expense.