Time to end statewide conventions
Conventions are a bad way to nominate candidates. I’ve felt this strongly for a long time now, and having participated in two, my feelings were confirmed. I was at the 2008 convention where Jim Gilmore narrowly defeated Bob Marshall for the honor of losing to Mark Warner for U.S. Senate and also at the 2009 coronation for Bob McDonnell, where I sat through a couple of hours of confused balloting for the Lt. Governor and AGs. Conventions are a waste of time, they’re a waste of money, they’re undemocratic, they aren’t a good way to prepare candidates for the general election and they have the potential of yielding an unelectable crop of candidates. It’s time that we move to a statewide Republican primary for our statewide candidates.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has recently proposed increases to the fees charged to candidates who wish to be put before the Republican nominating convention (and check out J.R.’s post on it here). Right now, the filing fee is set at 4% of the salary of the office being sought. Last year in 2009, it was set at 2%. The 2% number mirrors the amount charged by the state board of elections as a filing fee in primaries. Cuccinelli wants to increase the filing fees to $50,000 for gubernatorial candidates, and $25,000 each for AG and Lt. Governor. The 2009 convention was criticized because it was expensive – which anyone who was there could tell you, between the Richmond Arena itself, the sound system and light show, all the decorations, etc. it had to cost a lot. And the entire cost was born by the Party.
Let’s get the politics out of this first – clearly, this proposal benefits Cuccinelli, who likes conventions and has demonstrated he knows how to win them. Conventions are great for candidates who are popular with party activists, as Marshall’s near-defeat of Jim Gilmore in 2008 demonstrated. Plus, with a candidate like Ken who knows how to fundraise, the $25,000 or $50,000 amount isn’t going to be a problem. So regardless of what non-political reasons Cuccinelli has for suggesting the convention, he knows that it’s a strong point for him and if he chooses to take on Bill Bolling in 2013, he’ll be at an advantage if RPV decides to host a convention.
We shouldn’t do that. It’s time to end the convention nonsense and bring the RPV kicking and screaming into the 20th century.
Primaries are the way to go. The Democrats have figured this out. The national party has figured this out. Most states have figured this out. There’s no reason for us to keep burying our heads in the sand and pretending that conventions are better. There’s a laundry list of downsides to a convention. First, they exclude significant portions of the Republican electorate that either can’t afford to go to Richmond or can’t get away for a weekend to do so – including our servicemen and women overseas. I’m a party stalwart and I’ve been to two conventions, but I would rather take ten minutes to vote (or spend all day poll watching as I have since 2008) than drive to Richmond and kill an entire weekend. Primaries don’t cost the party a dime – they’re paid for by state and local governments. And since the Democrats invariably have a primary, it won’t cost the taxpayers significantly more to host a primary on the same day, either. By hosting the Democratic and Republican primaries on the same day, you reduce the chances of Democratic interference with our nominating process – the bugaboo that most convention supporters love to throw out.
Most importantly, you get more viable general election candidates from a primary. Winning a convention requires a completely different skill-set than winning a primary. All you need to be able to do is gather a handful of people from the various counties across the state (the larger the county, the better as our votes are weighted at the conventions) and you can pull off a convention win. Even Jeff Frederick could handle that. Winning a primary requires statewide campaigning – the same kind of campaigning you would have to do in the general election. It forces candidates to get their operations and organizations ready for prime-time far ahead of the actual election and that is a benefit, not a detriment. It also has a tendency to weed out candidates who have no possibility of winning statewide. Bob Marshall would not have come anywhere close to beating Jim Gilmore in a primary in 2008, but he came within a hairsbreadth of winning at the convention. Primaries aren’t infallible in that regard (look at Delaware) but on the whole they are a better way to vet candidates than a convention.
The conventionistas will invariably call me a RINO for wanting more electable statewide candidates, but I have to remind them that electable doesn’t mean moderate. It means electable. And for those who are concerned that primaries will kill off unconventional candidates, all I need to do is point you at Delaware again. Conservative candidates can win, just like moderates can win. But what can’t happen is an off-the-wall candidate rounds up a couple hundred friends, signs them up and parcels them off to the convention to give him a victory. Granted, Cuccinelli’s idea of raising the convention fees would preclude that, assuming that the off-the-wall candidate isn’t rich. I would rather make it difficult for rich and poor off-the-wall candidates to get elected, frankly.
I can understand why the AG wants a convention – it’s in his best interests, and I can respect that motivation. But it’s not the in the best interests of the Party or the Commonwealth. It’s time to end the conventions and go to statewide primaries.
