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Any Republican primary candidate that makes stopping illegal immigration a priority will do very well on Election Day and has an excellent chance of unseating the current Republican Congresscritter who is soft on the issue.

I mean this in the nicest possible way - but you are a fool to believe any change can be accomplished through the primaries. Check the statistics - primaries are only meaningful for selecting a challenger or an open-seat. They are completely ineffective for removing an incumbent.

I have to agree with you. Several years ago, here in Utah, incumbent Gov Leavitt was poised to lose renomination at the party caucus. The solution? His buddies in the party appointed a couple of hundred "special" caucus members and managed to physically lock out a number of true conservatives from the vote. Leavitt was a big spender who grew govt at 300% of the rate of population growth during his first two terms.

The party machine decides who will be the candidate more often than not.

They are completely ineffective for removing an incumbent.

Well, not completely. We have knocked off incumbent RINOs in GOP primaries. It ain't easy, but it can be done.

Admitedly, the further up the food chain you go, the tougher it is.

At the federal level, the advantages that incumbents have voted themselves, and their natural access to big money, make them almost invulnerable.

But knocking off RINOs at the state legislative level is dang near like shooting fish in a barrel, if you have a good candidate, modest resources, and execute a good campaign plan.

but you are a fool to believe any change can be accomplished through the primaries

OK, so how have the 3rd parties done in the last 100 years ?

"but you are a fool to believe any change can be accomplished through the primaries. "

Working within the system went out for me in 1996 when the 'system' developed a conservative platform which Dole refused to follow or even read.

"Beyond abortion, the platform recognizes the views of the most conservative elements of American politics on issues like immigration, criminal punishment, civil rights for homosexuals, education, welfare and the environment. Dole said over the weekend in an interview with the Copley News Service for the San Diego Union-Tribune that he had not read the platform and did not feel bound by it."

I mean this in the nicest possible way - but you are a fool to believe any change can be accomplished through the primaries. Check the statistics - primaries are only meaningful for selecting a challenger or an open-seat. They are completely ineffective for removing an incumbent.

So, when the going gets tough, ....... whine and curl yourself up into the fetal positon?

I mean this in the nicest possible way - but that is the philosophy of a loser.

If there is a hot button issue that has over 70% approval by the American voter, that can be turned into political power by grassroots organizations raising money and funding primary challangers that will take advantage of the incumbent's weakness and go for his throat.

Given a primary choice between Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, the average American voter will yawn and vote for the incumbent so that he does not have to bother to memorize another name.

Given a choice about an issue he really cares about, the average American voter will abandon the incumbent just as America abandoned the Whig Party in the 1850's.