We know the current primary system can be abused ~ we saw it happen this year.
Until the underlying legislation can be FIXED there's little utility to a primary ~ except to out of state party bosses.
Any minute now the new defenders of the E will be along to inform us that this is a good thing if it keeps those wacky Paulistinians at bay.
No the GOP-E fears the convention because most activists are Tea Party types and have been taking over the local GOP organizations. I am a delegate and know this to be true.
Just want to make clear to everyone, GOP-e in Virginia go by the names of McDonnell, Bolling and Cantor. Bolling wants the primary system so he can cheat.
AGAIN!
Nope. Conventions are better. Fairer. More democratic. Less affected by the big-money, “bosses”, corporations.
They open wounds, like when the duly elected chairman of the Louisiana caucus was roughed up by the cops at the behest of the man he had just replaced.
These Romneyites in my state will stop at nothing to skew things their way. The sight of Bob McDonnell makes me sick now.
This is about statewide candidates not the Presidential nomination, correct?
Virginia had a primary on Mar. 6, 2012 in which Romney won with 59%+ of the vote?
“-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.
GOP-E. “...honor code...”.
Mutually exclusive.
Howsabout “RINOS DREAD CONSERVATIVE TEA PARTIERS—AGAIN” (?).
Of course, since Virginia has no Party Registration and Open Primaries, it allows Libs and Dems to sabotage the process by throwing votes towards the candidates they think are most beatable. . . .
Closed primaries, with all states having one on the same day, is the way to go.
A convention is actually the best way to go. The Establishment doesn’t like it. Here in VA, we had a convention a few years ago that resulted in the defeat of the Establishment nominee for the Chairman of the Party and Gov. Gilmore won narrowly the nomination for the Senate in 2008.
A primary was chosen......2 years in advance of the general election, the longest time in advance, ever, before the election, that this choice has been made.
Why? Bolling had the RINO votes on State Central to get his way....
Bolling no longer has the RINO majority on State Central and he suspected, correctly, that voters would choose more Conservative members of state central this year....which they did.
The more liberal Republican ALWAYS wants a primary because Democrats and independents can choose the REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE...not to mention a statewide primary sticks the Taxpayers with a $3,000,000 tab.
There is nothing CONSERVATIVE about a primary.