Posted on 11/20/2008 6:38:29 PM PST by Al B.
The last thing you want to think about right now is the 2012 GOP primary calendar, but I am afraid you have to, if you want the RNC chairmanship contest to have meaning and the GOP to have a good chance of recapturing the White House four years down the road. Each would-be RNC leader should be asked about the 2012 presidential primaries they will be overseeing. Specific questions need to be posed, and concrete answers delivered.
The RNC must begin now to consider overhauling the presidential nominating process three years hence for the simple reason that the process as it stands now is extremely vulnerable to manipulation by hard-left activists of the Democrats who, when 2012 rolls around (or late 2011 given the acceleration in primary season we witnessed in this cycle) will want to advantage President Obama by forcing the nomination of the weakest GOP candidate. They almost certainly won't have their own primary in which to participate, and they won't want to waste any opportunity to help re-elect President Obama.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
The open primary system let non-Conservatives and anti-Conservatives including ACORN participate in—manipulate— the selection process that ‘nuked’ the 2008 candidacies and more importantly the Conservative principles of Republicans like Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter and Alan Keyes must be changed. It’s time to NUKE the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). No more compromise!
Pruning the Party
By Isaac MacMillen
http://alg31blog.timberlakepublishing.com/default.asp?Display=715
NH has this state law demanding that it be the “first in the nation” primary? How could this be overcome? I think we would need to try a regional primary. The biggest problem we have is dumb Republican primary voters. I wonder if they will want Giuliani or Romney in 2012 because it will be “their turn”.
I was not aware that Hugh Hewitt was so good at writing comedy.
Ping.
The Republicans should alter the party rules to drastically reduce the weighting of states with open primaries.
The approach I’ve been suggesting is to have the order of the primaries be determined by the percentage of republican voters in the last election. So those republican strongholds that are still at 80% can aim for 85% to be first in line in the primary cycle. The same approach could be used by democrats if they wanted.
Consequently, any strategy for a GOP win in the near future should concentrate on finding a media star as opposed to some current GOP apparatchik.
Sort of like the much more competent left when it comes to WINNING ELECTIONS have got down pat.
Reality is a good thing.
That actually isn’t a bad idea. It rewards states whose workers get out higher numbers of party voters.
So they can have "first in the nation" primary for the DemonRats.
Seriously, it's time the GOP primaries get completely overhauled.
- Eliminate caucuses
- Eliminate winner-takes-all and go with a percentage vote
- All primaries should be closed to dues-paying GOP voters
- All GOP primary voters should have a special RNC photo-ID identifying themselves as Republican voters
- Switch to a regional primary system. IA and NH can go first in January, then 12 states in the South should go the last Tuesday in February, 12 states in the West should go last Tuesday of March, 12 states in the East should go last Tuesday of April, and finally, 12 states in the North/Midwest should hold their primary last Tuesday of May.
RNC should NOT endorse anyone or show favoritism to any candidate
Coupled with post 8 this would also work.
Coupled with post 8 this would also work.
It isn’t the ‘strategy outlined by Rush’, it is only Hewitt’s strategy.
The title is misleading.
I agree we need to change the process. I wish the party would require candidates commit to a hard start date before which they can not campaign. What hurt us was not just the arrangement of the states but the idea that we had candidates out more than a year before who had no hope in winning sapping up funds and stacking the deck against the more conservative candidates in the race. All of the early starters failed horribly with the exception of McCain who became the default choice because the others were so inadequate. I wish Romney, Guiliani and Huckabee would just run for the Congress and forget about the Presidency.
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How can I get this idea to be taken seriously by the GOP?
IMHO it is time to focus more on the primaries of 2010. We have all been complaining about the RINO’s and they continue to get re-elected with the parties blessings. WHY? When they continue to screw us and align themselves with the Democrats on key issues.
What we need to do now is focus on them, make a list of all the RINO’s and point them out for defeat in a primary if they do not start voting the way they should vote and that is with the Conservative’s.
Be very vocal about our mission Nation Wide, we will not roll over and lose again to please them, or the “Party”. Where has any of this gotten us? We continue to lose as they cave in to the special interests and the Democrats because they want to be liked? So they can get reelection cash.
We need to get Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingrahm, Boortz, Beck etal on board to have a national effect. Start now and we can and will have an effect on the votes this coming year. How will they vote on immigration, the fence, the continued bailouts, National Security, the safety and survival of our Troops, pork, patronage, taxes, taking over 401K’s etc.....
We need to pressure them and by doing so hold their jobs over their heads. We need to find candidates from each state to primary these bozos and start now. National Primary Challenge, for the survival of the Conservative way of life and our Country. What say you all?
- Eliminate caucuses
- Eliminate winner-takes-all and go with a percentage vote
- All primaries should be closed to dues-paying GOP voters
- All GOP primary voters should have a special RNC photo-ID identifying themselves as Republican voters
Have to disagree.
- Eliminate caucuses
The Republican Party should retain Caucuses as they are the only form of election open to State Republican Parties which can escape the "Primary", which is funded and ruled by State government. This is why New Hampshire can have a law on its books that the New Hampshire primary must be the first in the Nation, because the State government allows the several political parties to use the State general election machinery for their purely internal nominating contests. If the Republican Party of New Hampshire would shift to a caucus in late February (not the insane first week of January) then the Democrats would have a New Hampshire state run primary in January and the Republicans would have their GOP paid, privately run caucus in say, late February when the national GOP had determined - then the power of the New Hampshire State government (with its open primaries) over the GOP would be broken.
- Eliminate winner-takes-all and go with a percentage vote
No, retain the winner-takes-all as this prevents what happened to the Democrats in 2008, a contest with no clear front-runner until the end. The problem with the Republican 2008 nomination season was that McCain got a head-start due to the ability of Independents and Democrats to cross-over in primaries and give him the early nod. The weakness of the other candidates was compounded by the fact that the winner-take-all method was re-instated for many northeastern States (which favored McCain) letting McCain run-up an early nomination delegate lead. Due to the influence of Rudy Giuliani during the 2006-2007 period the winner-take-all rule was repealed for many southern States primaries (which conversely also favored McCain) letting McCain get a proportion of southern States nomination delegates he would NOT have received if the previous winner-take-all had been in place.
- All primaries should be closed to dues-paying GOP voters
Not going to work. You might remember that the Democrats in the South had used this method to keep black voters out of the Democrat primaries. Several US Supreme Court rulings and the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution would quash this scheme. You can say that it is just 'party dues', but since all the State primaries are paid for and run by the State, it would be considered a 'poll tax' and be dis-allowed. However, payment for attendance at caucuses is still allowed, as it helps defray the costs of a purely internal Party nomination process.
24th Amendment:
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
- All GOP primary voters should have a special RNC photo-ID identifying themselves as Republican voters
This proposal would help even in states with State-run primaries if, and only if the State has a closed primary and an early enough party registration/Picture ID cut-off time to give it realistic chance of helping. If Obama runs for re-election in 2012 and has no opposition during the Democrat nomination process (which is the norm for sitting presidents) then when would be the logical cut-off date for Republicans to allow registering as Republican and be issued a picture-ID by the Republican Party. However, this would not work in the Commonwealth of Virginia, which has 'open' primaries due to the fact that there is no Party registration at the State level. The Virginia GOP would have to go to a privately paid state-wide caucus system to prevent Democrats from 'crossing-over' during the open primaries given no opposition to Obama.
Just think of the breathless MSM primary coverage: "Bob, this man is a card-carrying member of the Republican Party! Back to you, Bob."
Glad to see you thinking of ways to prevent a re-run of the Republican 2008 nomination process. A fixed process can not alway prevent bad candidates from being nominated, but it could prevent early so-called 'Republican' open primaries from giving the other States a choice of several RINOs and thereby nominating bad general election Presidential candidates.
dvwjr
Actually, a totally mail-in primary wouldn't be such a bad idea. The party already sends out so much stuff to every party member that sending out primary ballots that voters would have to sign and certify wouldn't be a big burden.
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