Posted on 07/31/2007 1:23:16 PM PDT by average american student
From my friends at the Idaho Values Alliance:
Rank and file Republicans seem to appreciate that open primaries are a form of political insanity, in that they give the opposition the opportunity to help you choose your candidates for the general election. To the average observer, regardless of party affiliation, that makes no political sense whatsoever. Why would the Yankees let the Red Sox help them pick their starting lineup?
In a classic showdown between grassroots Republicans and the elites of the Idaho Republican party, the GOP state chairman has come out against party-affiliation primaries, regardless of the fact that open primaries threaten the constitutional right of members of his own party to freedom of association.
GOP party chairman Kirk Sullivan, in a letter to the attorney who is suing the state on behalf of 70 plus Republicans to close party primaries to outsiders, said, "I would like the record to be absolutely clear that your clients, individually or collectively, are not agents of the Idaho Republican Party."
Yet the attorney for those who filed the suit notes that closed primaries are clearly the wish of party faithful. He reminds Mr. Sullivan that at the 2006 Republican state convention, credentialed delegates voted overwhelmingly, 221-66, to close primaries in order to preserve "maximum self-determination" for the party.
After the state legislature failed to do anything in the 2007 legislative session, the GOP's State Central Committee last month adopted the Closed Primary Rule by an 88-58 vote, demonstrating that the Closed Primary Rule "is a clear directive of the Party's will," and comes from the "overwhelming majority of Idaho Republican Party members."
The letter concludes, "[T]he grassroots of the Idaho Republican Party are eager for the immediate implementation of the Closed Primary Rule."
The practical effect of the implementation of this rule is that it will be easier for pro-family candidates to survive GOP primaries, and harder for Republicans-in-name-only to get into office.
Thus, in many ways this battle is of great significance for the future of Idaho politics. Closed Republican primaries are clearly in the best interest of those who want Idaho to continue to be a state that honors conservative, family-friendly social values. Both Democrats and Republican Party elites understand what is at stake here, which is why they are fighting so hard against this move.
The battle over closed primaries is, in fact, a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party in Idaho.
Liberty Letters comment: What are they afraid of ... these so called conservatives, defenders of this great Constitution of ours? And will Ron Paul, for instance, be pushed out of the Republican National debates, as already threatened? Should conservative Republicans be afraid of an opinion outside of the party line?
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