“-trying to eliminate the primaries there in favor of a centralized boss-controlled convention.”
Quite the opposite, actually. Conventions are exactly when the insiders lose control to “.... activists, ideologues, partisans and crackpots who might not represent a party’s mainstream. Primaries broaden the base.”
The fear here with the RTD and GOP-E is that those crazy ideologues who prefer Cuccinelli will swamp a convention. They saw it happen in ‘94 with Ollie North, and didn’t much like it. It’s what happened when they held the convention that yielded George Allen who went on to serve as governor then senator.
Who do you think voted last year to go for a primary??? Primaries are ridiculously expensive, not only for the candidates, but also for the Commonwealth that has to pick up the tab for the actual running of the primaries. And primaries don’t do a damned thing to “expand the base.” They only attract hard-core partisans and those willing to cross party lines to affect the outcome of the other party’s election. Until there is registration by party in VA, primaries make no sense whatsoever.
I agree with everything you said except “Until there is registration by party in VA, primaries make no sense whatsoever.”
With party affiliation pre-registration you still have the effects of the big-money, corporate, out-of-state special interests on masses of malleable voters, plus the voter fraud factor.
Grassroots-organized precinct-level elected delegates partcipating in the convention system is the only way for the producer-class of citizens to get their country back.