Posted on 08/28/2016 6:47:10 AM PDT by Arthur Wildfire! March
One of our forum's top campaign hawks, impy, has just warned me that the Virginia GOP is planning to do away with the standard convention process in 2017.
"Virginia is ditching their state convention method of choosing 2017 nominees for Gov/LT Gov/AG, going to a primary. Passed on a 41-40 vote by the State Central Committee , seen as a power play by RINOS to take power from conservative activists..." -- impy
I went to google. Hardly anything about it, just some vague headline referring to a debate 'this weekend'.
We in Virginia have experienced very strange primary antics in the recent past. It would not surprise me if this is true.
And they didn’t win either!
In principle I like the convention idea, but they can be very quickly stampeded into selecting candidates that does’t appeal to the average GOP’er. Remember the average GOP’er is not a FR denizen who lives and breathes conservative politics.
I will settle for a Va GOP primary where only GOP’ers can vote!
No independents, no cross-over Rats!
It all smells pretty fishy down there and if conservatives still want to be part of the GOP, they’ll have to fight in the primary system created by the leaders.
But there are other options to this farce of two parties who pretend to be different, but aren’t in the end.
The third party or a civil disobedience movement that forces change in the GOP like the racial protests 50 years ago forced the Dems to move off the fence on race.
The Uniparty Corporatist system is the reality of our political landscape with Donald Trump and and a handful of Congressman who came out and opposed Paul Ryan for Speaker being the only rays of sunshine.
If you live with that system, watch out for dirty tricks and arcane rules mixed into it......
No independents, no cross-over Rats!
How you gonna do that in Virginia?
Political parties are private organizations, they could it if they wanted to.
No independents, no cross-over Rats!
“How you gonna do that in Virginia?”
I agree. For a time Virginia even banned showing party ID in the voting booth. Very proud of being ‘independent minded’ here.
I would prefer that if someone votes in the primary, it’s the only vote option in the general. Either vote for the guy you supported or don’t vote for either. But that’s tricky with anynonymous votes.
Good point, Reily. If someone isn’t willing to pay $20 to enter the party, then why should they have a vote in the primary?
That’s assuming people RESPECT the party, however.
What a mess.
Not in Virginia. State law establishes no party affiliation for its residents. We do not declare our political party.
So political parties in Va are not private organizations then.
So what are they?
Another example of a very poorly thought out state law.
I guess it’s because “the state” pays for the primary process, schools are used as voting places, etc.
Given that I guess I prefer a convention.
What they tried against the conservatives in the presidential campaign: Run 5-6-7 “conservative” false-starts against their “chosen” GROPe candidate.
The conservatives fight each other, and the GROPe designate gets enough of what’s left to take the majority of the delegates..
Well, when you call, you can’t say “Hello, is this RINO Central?” You have to finesse it.
It is a ‘rigged system’ and I sometimes see it when there’s three, four way or more primaries for other elected offices in other places.
People are sick of it and they chose Trump to send a message which the GOP Establishment hasn’t gotten yet.
I’m voting for Trump, but not for much else with a “Republican” label on it this November.
Exactly. A convention is the best way to fight the Virginia GOPe machine. Having primaries lets them enlist Dems and independents to get “their” people elected.
It’s because allowing insider activists to nominate candidates that the voter base doesn’t support has worked out so well...
For later
A followup ‘runoff’ vote prevents ticket splitting ‘third choice’ candidates from sabotaging the second-in-place.
We also need some kind of exclusiveness or party affiliation to prevent crossover voter mischief.
Achieve those two things or we are stuck with a perverse convention system.
“It’s because allowing insider activists to nominate candidates that the voter base doesn’t support has worked out so well...”
Like in my home state of Colorado, for example, right?
Great movie!
“I agree. That’s why I started this with a ‘?’”
Damn! I missed the significance of the “?”
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