The sites are selected. The rules are set.

But will anyone care who Kansas Democrats select as their presidential nominee when they gather for caucuses next month?

“We don’t know,” said Joey Bahr, field director for the Kansas Democratic Party. “We saw how things changed with Iowa, with thinking Howard Dean was the juggernaut and then things went topsy-turvy. If the race is still up for grabs, Kansas will matter, and the results will be huge.”

Bahr this week is on a 23-city tour of Kansas to explain the somewhat complicated rules for how Kansas will select its delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which is July 26-29 in Boston.

How it works

Democrats will meet at 2 p.m. March 13 at 50 sites across the state to divvy up 33 of the state’s 41 presidential delegates. Any registered Democrat can attend, and people can register, declare parties or switch parties at the site beginning at noon that day.

Attendees will be asked to move to different areas of the room depending on the candidate they support. Candidates must have at least 15 percent of the vote at a location for their delegates to be counted.

The 33 delegates then will be designated proportionately to the number of delegates supporting candidates at the caucuses. The other eight — party officials including the governor and Democratic Congressman Dennis Moore — are free to select their own candidate.

Caucus locations are generally divided by state Senate districts, but districts that include more than one congressional district, including Lawrence, have two caucus locations.

In Lawrence, Democrats in the 2nd Senate District from both the 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts will meet at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Democrats from the 3rd Senate District will meet at the Baldwin Public Library.

Democrats who live in southwest Douglas County, in the 19th Senate District, will meet at Highland Park High School in Topeka.

The caucuses also kick off the process for selecting who will become delegates to the national convention, with conventions scheduled at the Congressional District and state level. Thirty-three of the 41 delegates are selected in this process.

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“It’s a heavy plan,” said Marilyn Greathouse, chairwoman of the Douglas County Democratic Party. “If you look at this and read all the rules, it’s a big, thick document. As you wade through that, it’s a little daunting for the average person.”

Candidate slate

So far, two candidates have filed to be considered for delegates in Kansas. John Kerry and Wesley Clark each paid the $1,000 filing fee. Clark, however, bowed out of the race late Tuesday after his showings in Tennessee and Virginia. Joe Lieberman also submitted the $1,000 fee before withdrawing from the race.

Howard Dean’s campaign submitted 1,000 signatures, another method of filing, this week. The state Democratic Party office is reviewing the signatures for their authenticity.

Bahr said if the race was still up in the air by March 13, he expected a good turnout. There are 15,872 registered Democrats in Douglas County, compared with 52,767 registered voters overall.

“If it’s going to be like every other state, it’s going to be high,” he said. “Everywhere Democrats are pouring in, and they want to participate. This is the chance for Kansas Democrats to have their say.”

‘Cavalier attitude’

But Burdett Loomis, political science professor at Kansas University, said he expected the Democratic nominee to be selected well before the March 13 Kansas caucuses.

“In all likelihood it’ll be over by then,” Loomis said. Many national political watchers were declaring the race over Tuesday night after Kerry posted victories in the Tennessee and Virginia primaries.

Loomis said Kansas had never taken its delegate selection process very seriously, noting that the state had a law for holding primaries but that they have been canceled in each of the last three presidential election cycles.

“I think Kansas has always taken an awfully cavalier attitude toward primaries,” he said.

Loomis said he had concerns about the number of caucus sites, 50 in the state. Many states, he said, have caucuses at the individual precinct level, making it more likely to have a caucus in your neighborhood.

“It makes a difference of who’s going to take the trouble to come,” he said. “The number of people who participate will be smaller. It will be much more party-dominated. Insider politics will make the decision.”

‘It does matter’

But local organizers are hoping that won’t be the perception March 13.

“I think the biggest misconception among people is people don’t realize anyone can participate,” said Jamie Shew, one of the caucus chairmen. “There’s a feeling by many people it’s a party-regular or a party-insider thing.”

Shew said he didn’t expect candidates to make any campaign appearances in Kansas. But any of the candidates could decide to make a big push in the state if they needed the delegates.

“The key point for me, regardless of whether the candidates think Kansas is important, it does matter for people to show up and voice who they want for president,” Shew said. “This is your opportunity to say, ‘This is who I think ought to be president,’ whether the national scene matters or not.”