On the whole damned process!
Posted on 10/03/2011 8:45:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary will be held on Jan. 21 of next year, two GOP sources tell CNN.
South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly will formally announce the date later this morning.
The move is designed to put space between South Carolina and Florida, which bucked national Republican Party rules last week and decided to hold their primary on Jan. 31.
The updated calendar is likely to push the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary even earlier into January as they seek to protect their role as the two leadoff contests in the presidential nominating process.
“Last Friday, a nine-person committee brought chaos to the 2012 calendar,” said South Carolina GOP Chairman Chad Connelly. “Today, South Carolina is making things right.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
The RNC should have made a compact with Florida to not advance the primary date in return for being chosen as the host for the republican convention.
It’s not too late for the RNC to demand Florida return to the original primary date or lose the convention.
There are many other states and cities that would be glad to host the convention next summer.
On the whole damned process!
And yes only registered republican should be able to vote for our candidate. That's how we got stuck with McCrazy.
Are our RNC learnin?
I too would like a national primary DAY;and further you would have to be registered as a party member at least 30 days in advance in order to vote in the primary.
I thought about it last week and came up with this.
My preference would still be a for a late single national primary day, at most 2 months prior to the Convention.
If not that, then spread it out over four consecutive Tuesdays. Twelve or thirteen States per week. Start with the smallest states. Award points to winner equal to number of State Electoral Votes. Instant runoff system, with winner takes all. 270 points required to win. And close the primaries to declared Republican voters only!
For 2012, with the RNC Convention the week of August 27th. Primaries would fall as follows.
June 5
Alaska (3), Delaware (3), Montana (3), North Dakota (3), South Dakota (3), Vermont (3), Wyoming (3), Washington, D.C.* (3), Hawaii (4), Idaho (4), Maine (4), New Hampshire (4) & Rhode Island (4) representing 44 EV’s.
June 12
Nebraska (5), New Mexico (5), West Virginia (5), Arkansas (6), Iowa (6), Kansas (6), Mississippi (6), Nevada (6), Utah (6), Connecticut (7), Oklahoma (7) & Oregon (7) representing 72 EV’s.
June 19
Kentucky (8), Louisiana (8), Alabama (9), Colorado (9), South Carolina (9), Maryland (10), Minnesota (10), Missouri (10), Wisconsin (10), Arizona (11), Indiana (11), Massachusetts (11) & Tennessee (11) representing 127 EV’s.
June 26
Washington (12), Virginia (13), New Jersey (14), North Carolina (15), Georgia (16), Michigan (16), Ohio (18), Illinois (20), Pennsylvania (20), Florida (29), New York (29), Texas (38) & California (55) representing 295 EV’s.
I think I’d even be fine with them starting the week of July 10. Still 3 weeks for a nationwide tour by the winners leading up to the Convention.
I'm doubtful but maybe this will help break the 30 year lock the party has allowed Iowa & NH to have in the nomination process at the expense of the other 48 states.
Since there are no criteria to “register as a party member”, what makes you think that “registered party members” should do the choosing?
So you still want a corrupt system, just one that favors conservatives.
I'd love to have nothing but good conservative nominees, but lets get there fairly. I've had enough of corruption.
What about miitary ballots and other absentees?
Don’t they get a chance vote in primaries? I know the current system for absentee military ballots in general elections is despicable...but what happens now in a condensed calendar?
South Carolina is a northern state? Who knew?
If you look at the four states chosen to head up the primaries/caucuses, they are Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. So how is that restricting the direction of the primaries to the North?
One reason it’s IA vs. IL, or NH vs MA, or NV vs CA or SC vs GA has to do with the manageable size/population. The smaller states afford the candidates to practice ‘retail politics,’ i.e., get to meet voters in diners, etc. And cheaper media markets. The less well-funded candidates at least have something equaling a level playing field. Don’t know why folks resent that so much.
if we do them all at once the smaller states become flyover country in favor of the larger states.
we simply need to gut NH and IOWA as first up states and spread the rest out.
What's corrupt about having people with a stake in the party (beyond "signing up") decide the nominee?
Can we just get to where this is eventually headed and go ahead and vote for the 2016 candidate while we are at it?
They have learned that they can get away with nearly anything, and we are powerless to change it, because we put 90% of the incumbents back in.
Meanwhile they offer up two Republicans Elite that they can control, giving us the illusion of a choice. Seems they have learned well.
"Political parties are private entities, not branches of government."
Glad to see someone else on FreeRepublic understands this fact.
The two major political parties made a serious mistake when the 'primary' became such an important part of party nominee selection - the major national political parties used the State general election machinery for their 'internal' primary voting process. This use of the State general election machinery and funding for the primary voting places and mechanisms came at a price, it allowed the various State governments to control the timing of the various parties primary voting and qualifications of the voter to participate in said primary elections.
The primary was a creature of the private political parties until they all made this mistake, which even allowed the Federal government to prevent property or financial pre-conditions for primary elections with the passage of the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution. However, party self financed State-wide conventions or caucas would be a way around the various State Legislatures such as New Hampshire mandating that it MUST hold the first primary of the various States.
The 'open' primary process on the Republican side allows any Independent, Democrat or other voters to impact the internal nominee process of the Republican Party. The use of conventions would put the financial responsibility and process control back in the hands of the Republican Party.
dvwjr
Either I am not articulate enough, or you are reading my comments incorrectly. My rant was geared towards the current process where it starts out in Northern states. I thought that was clear.
My point was that there are four “early” states, each from and theoretically representing a different geographic region. IA is considered the midwest/plains; NV is for the Western/Southwestern states, NH for the North - New England, etc; and SC was chosen to represent the South. The particular states were chosen because of their relatively low populations and less costly media markets.
Tere’s more geographic distribution and representation than you are seeing.
If so, then I should have nothing to complain about.
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