Rush's Lesson: The Time To Overhaul The GOP 2012 Primary Calendar and Rules Is Now

townhall.com ^ | Nov. 20, 2008 | Hugh Hewitt

[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.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

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

[Theodore R.]

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”.

[trumandogz]

Rush Limbaugh demonstrated the ease with which relatively small numbers of hyper-activists can invade and distort the other party's nomination process when he ran the very successful and very entertaining "Operation Chaos" in the spring of 2008.

I was not aware that Hugh Hewitt was so good at writing comedy.

[jonrick46]

I do not understand the merits of the strategy outlined by Rush: "it needs to mandate that Iowa will caucus on the same day that New Hampshire votes" and, "Republicans in large states vote very early in 2012 to dilute any attempt to manipulate the process."

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Ping.

[Blackyce]

The Republicans should alter the party rules to drastically reduce the weighting of states with open primaries.

[Kevmo]

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.

[Rome2000]

I think it is pretty obvious that a majority of the electorate as a result of steady expansion of the franchise over the last 90 years is now comprised of imbeciles, non freeholders, communists and their allies.

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.

[stockpirate]

That actually isn’t a bad idea. It rewards states whose workers get out higher numbers of party voters.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

NH has this state law demanding that it be the “first in the nation” primary?

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

[stockpirate]

Coupled with post 8 this would also work.

[stockpirate]

Coupled with post 8 this would also work.

[mrsmith]

It isn’t the ‘strategy outlined by Rush’, it is only Hewitt’s strategy.
The title is misleading.

[Maelstorm]

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.

[narses]

+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[Kevmo]

How can I get this idea to be taken seriously by the GOP?

[The Mayor]

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?

[dvwjr]

Originally posted by Extremely Extreme Extremist:

- 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

[Doug Loss]

What they really need to do is to hold privately-funded primaries everywhere. As it is now, state laws can mandate open primaries. If the party funded the primaries itself it could do anything it wanted, including making NH dead last to vote. :)

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.

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[pawdoggie]

Actually, my State of Kansas has been victimized by cross-over (and probably cross-dressing) Democrats (inside and outside the State GOP) voting for the dumbest,weakest and most uncharismatic Republican candidates. That’s how we endend up a Democrat Governer and several Democrat congresscritters. Any measure that promises to keep Democrats and Big Media from choosing the next Republican Presidential nominee should be seriously considered.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The Republicans should alter the party rules to drastically reduce the weighting of states with open primaries.

Exactly.

[lentulusgracchus]

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

You have three really big, fat problems:

• Big, early money from Old Money, East Coast fat cats distorting the early lineup of candidates
  
  
• Open primaries letting in Moulitsas and other Kos-brained termites determined to damage the GOP's picks
  
  
• Clandestine homosexual PAC's like Ted Gill's slipping big money to any opponent of a conservative, family-values candidate, whether in primaries or in general elections, even at town-council and county level, to "abort" conservatives before they can get name recognition.

All three of these problems have to be overcome.

[Mr. K]

THEY SHOULD ALLOW RN-OFF UNTIL ONE CANDIDATE GETS 50% OF THE VOTE.

McLAME GOT IN BECAUSE HE GOT 40$ WHILE 60% WHO VOTED FOR MORE COSERVATIVE CANDIDATES WAS SPLIT 30-30 EACH (or something like that)

SO EVEN THOUGH MOST REPUBLICANS DID NOT WANT HIM AND VOTED AGAINST HIM HI WON.

WE MUST CHANGE THE RULES TO PREVENT A CANDIDATE WHO THE *MAJORITY* OF REPUBLICANS VOTED AGAINST FROM WINNING.

[Dante3]

I agree. The media and cross over Democrats & Independents elected McCain, the weakest candidate possible. The fix was in.

[lentulusgracchus]

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 same thing happened to the GOP in 1964. The long, bruising spring primary campaign damaged Goldwater and gave Lyndon Johnson lots of ammunition to use later, culminating in the abusive "atomic bomb" campaign ad.

That ad flowed directly from "moderate" Republican accusations that Goldwater was an "extremist", abuse that continued right up to the convention, when Nelson Rockefeller used a minority platform report to insult Goldwater delegates as "Nazis" and "fascists" on primetime national television.

The media, of course, ate it up.

[Mr. K]

DAMMIT WHY CAN’T I PROOFREAD??????????? I LOOK LIKE AN IMBECILE

[Mr. K]

WESTERN NEW YORK HAD AN ORGANIZATION CALLED ‘PRIMARY CHALLENGE” THAT WAS PRETTY SUCCESSFUL IN CHALLENGED THE REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT

WE NEED TO TAKE THAT EFFORT NATIONWIDE FOR 2010~!!!!

YOUR VOTE IS WORTH 1000 TIMES MORE IN OFF-YEAR ELECTIONS!!!

[The Mayor]

Exactly what everyone needs to understand.
Let’s make a list of RINO’s to focus on.

[Theodore R.]

That’s a good idea. But the NH primary is an “industry” that GOP leaders bow to every four years with regular obedience. I don’t think we can get anything changed. Republican voters are the problem: too ignorant and too unorganized.

[Theodore R.]

It may be more of a thing of the popular culture. With Oprah’s Choice unfurled on the ignorant public, maybe only Chuch Norris could have been competitive against him. But Chuck would have “scared” the sheeple.

[Theodore R.]

How many U.S. House seats do the Republicans hold in New York State? Isn’t it fewer than five?

[TitansAFC]

There was a time when we had it right.
Under Reagan, the party accepted and welcomed Moderates where it was necessary to build a governing majority. Reagan coined the famous “my 80% friend is not my 20% enemy” quote, and sought the advice of all Republicans, even the Moderates. But Reagan made it clear - the Party would be Conservative, the Platform would be Conservative, and they would govern as Conservatives.

What we have now is different. We obviously still need some semblance of “Big Tent” Republicanism. Rush Limbaugh cannot win in Vermont, for example, and we cannot have a governing majority by just owning most of the Senate and House seats in red states. But the command of the party is what is very different now. Open primaries, et al, are taking away the ability to nominate truly Conservative leadership. Moderates are demanding not a seat at he table, but to have the dinner moved to their house under their rules. Saboteurs look to blame Conservatives at every turn in the hopes of creating a more Socially/Morally/Culturally/Gun Liberal party whose only purpose is Fiscal Conservatism (sometimes) and National Defense. Giuliani Republicanism is the lord of the GOP Press, and the media GOP who worship him for reducing crime in NYC. They see him as the shining example (See Will, National Review, Hannity, etc.), and now think his mold is the one to cast over and over again.

Rush is right (and I was shouting about this to every Freeper who griped about McCain winning the nomination) - step one is to fix the primaries so that Republicans choose the Republican nominee. This will guarantee a more authentically Conservative candidate; and it is a step we can actually TAKE to improve the process.

Step two is to make it known that, while we accept the necessity of some Moderates in our Party, the majority of this party is and will be Conservative. We do not take kindly to being told by the party minority that the majority needs to dump its bread-and-butter issues to accommodate them and their vision of victory which fails for Republicans every time on a national scale. The Party is Conservative, and will seek to govern conservatively; you are welcome, your advice is welcome, and you may have a seat at the table - but you may not take over. We accept that you may be Pro-Choice; and so too must you accept that the Party is Pro-Life. We will not demand you change your Pro-Choice position as a rare GOP Senator of a blue state, but you must not demand that the red party change its position, either. A seat at the table waits for you, but not the throne.

Reagan truly had it right - a big tent party that Governs as Conservatives. Let’s get back to it ASAP.

308 posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 9:29:55 AM by TitansAFC (Sarah Palin/Mitt Romney 2012!!! Elway, Schwarzenegger, Ditka, Huckabee, and Hoeven for Senate 2010!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 249 | View Replies | Report Abuse]

---

To: trisham
You are only making this an issue because you have very few places to go to fault find.

It is all this fault finding that has gotten this nation into the fix we are in and good people do not want to run for office.

It is the minds like this that have given fodder to the to Marxist to undermind this nation especially the conservative movement.

Many ways there are many who try to make themselves feel good, going around and fault find thinking trying to tear down another will some how magnify their own self worth on this planet.

[Rome2000]

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in 2016.

Thats the only way the GOP will see the inside of the WH again in the next 20 years

[Mr. K]

Thats because we have done a piss poor job in NY.

Republicans dont vote because it is a foregone conclusion that Obama was going to win NY.

But too many people dont realize that the LOCAL RACES are even more important in NYState.

The more republicans we can get, the more we can reduce the strangle hold Democraps have.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Great comments, I just got PW3ND. Can I have my behind back?