2013 is HERE on Saturday! (At Least on State Central) Primary or Convention?
By D.J. Spiker | Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 | PoliticsIn case you missed the official call for the upcoming State Central Committee meeting for this coming Saturday, you may have missed the one small line that sums up the entire meeting.
2013 Nomination Process for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General
That’s right everyone, as if the November 2010 meeting determining the nominating process for the 2012 US Senate nomination wasn’t early enough, the State Central Committee has decided to go even earlier to…. get ahead of the 2013 election cycle (I can only guess that’s the reason for this absurdly early vote)
For the past two or three weeks phone lines and emails have been heating up across the commonwealth as supporters for conventions and supporters for primaries whip votes for each side. Some would describe this as a Bill Bolling v Ken Cuccinelli vote, as both have been involved in locality and state central seat election bids over the last year, but that’s putting the cart before the horse. Only one of them has filed to run for governor, and both men would say confidently they would be comfortable with either nominating process.
There’s also would-be candidates for Lt Governor who have a vested interest in this vote, as well as potential candidates for Attorney General, should Cuccinelli back away from his earlier re-election sentiments.
As always, this humble author is firmly in favor of a convention; strictly from a philosophical standpoint, having no bearing on one candidate or potential candidate or another. I’m in the ‘we’re fiscal conservatives, we don’t make taxpayers pay for our nominating process’ camp, though I empathize with the military absentee aspect as well. Thankfully for my health, email account and cell phone bill, I don’t have a vote on Saturday.
The bigger question is what is gained by having this vote so early in the first place, the same questions that were raised last year around this time when it became known that State Central intended to vote on the 2012 process at the Advance. Worse, this time around, not only are we not waiting for the 2012 election process to play out, we’re not even waiting for the 2011 election cycle to be complete before voting. Little if anything is gained by having a vote now, particularly before a crucial election. However, a vote does have the potential to fracture (very very slightly) the party five weeks before voters go to the polls and Republicans take back the State Senate. At least last year it was after election day (albeit two weeks), but even that vote should have waited another six months, as should this one. At this rate, our nominating process for the 2014 US Senate seat will be taking place right around the beginning of the summer.
I love Virginia, but we’re not determining a nominating process for the presidency. Voting on a convention or a primary more than two years ahead of an election just baffles me, and no has explained to me why such votes have to take place so early. I hear of individual State Central members who agree, yet here we are again, three days away from another vote.
And for those of you who didn’t know this vote was taking place? Call your State Central representatives and tell them your thoughts on primary/convention/early voting.
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Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...entrenched on the right as a member of the Establishment, proudly tattooed member of the Republican Party, bartender by trade serving both sides the libations needed to continue the debate and discourse. College student, ten years late, majoring in Public Policy and Administration with an eye to serving the conservative and Republican movement in the public or private sector. ducit amor patriae You can find D.J.on facebook, Twitter, or contact via email at gosport.conservative@gmail.com. You can find D.J.on facebook, Twitter, or contact via email at gosport.conservative@gmail.com.
Comments
15 Responses to "2013 is HERE on Saturday! (At Least on State Central) Primary or Convention?"
Conventions are nice and fun but they are EXPENSIVE. The party can’t afford it. A primary is the way to go.
It’s not a federal election. They can raise large and corporate dollars to pay for the convention.
Kevin
Didn’t realize we expected taxpayers to bailout the Republican Party of Virginia.
If you consider yourself a fiscal conservative, you should vote for a convention. Lee, your argument regarding “conventions are expensive” so lets go for a primary, ignores every discussion America has had on its national debt/budget over the past year. Somebody is going to have to pay for a convention and somebody has to pay for a convention.
The difference is that in a convention, the Republican Party of Virginia pays for the convention. And in a primary, every tax payer in Virginia pays for it.
I would rather see RPV pay for the nomination method than see taxpayers pay for it.
Lee, you are just advocating the same failed policies of the federal government that have led us to the brink of default.
The Commonwealth has no obligation to pay for a primary and we have no obligation to force the state to pay for our primary
Convention/mass meeting/fire house primary is the way to go here.
The party nominating process(es) in Virginia always baffle me. Coming from Missouri, EVERYTHING down to party committee person is in an open/closed primary. Both parties have them on the same day. But, as has been pointed out here, should taxpayers fund party election contests? Philosophicly, no. Do primaries allow voters–especially frequent voters with a particular party affiliation–a voice in the process? Yes. So, what about these “fire house” primaries? Why not go that route if you want the best of both worlds?
Anyone who witnessed the recent 59th District House of Delegates Convention process would never vote for a convention again. The problem was the real possibility of a legal contest to three of the five unit meetings which were caused by the hacks being involved. Several of the unit chairmen v clearly violated the rules for their own mass meetings and around 80% of the votes could have been contested. Even Delegate Kathy Byron, a long time supporter of conventions, told me she would never again support one. That was with only five units being involved. Can you imagine what we would have with over a hundred ?
We lose money with conventions, and most proponents of a convention feels no responsibly of financing one. The idea that there area lot of corporate donors out there ready to finance one is false if you look at the last few. If you are a fiscal conservative, and know that there is a strong possibility that the Democrat party is going to have a primary, we won’t cost the taxpayer a single penny.
In the 59th one of the by products of the convention was divided units which the hired hacks don’t care about at all. We will need a united party in 2013 ad a primary is the way to do it.
I could be naive, but I’ve long thought given the lack of party registration in VA, primaries are helpful in ID’ing GOP votes, especially in the highly transient NoVa region.
Turnout may not be large, but for candidates running down-ballot of state-wide or Federal races who lack the ability to run or purchase sophisticated voter ID programs, this would be helpful IMHO.
Turnout may not be
Tucker,
You are missing the very foundational points of our argument. The state should not be paying for PARTY nomination contests. Using your logic, just because Democrats are jumping off a bridge, that means we should to. If the Democrats want to compromise the principles of our country, let them. I think we are better than that and we should not have Primaries.
Next your singular experience with the 59th District Convention is sad. But thats the fault of the Party not training its officials to run Conventions properly. You should not toss out the lot just because of a few bad apples. We have had a long history of conventions in Virginia and mistakes are made, but those are our mistakes and it is up to us to fix them.
Money can be found if we do the right fundraising and make sure the candidate filing fees make up a significant portion of the funds raised. Conventions are not meant to be huge money makers but they also are not meant to lose alot of money. So lets find the balance. If the cost of the convention is $10,000 over budget, I am fine with that, over spending over $3 million in tax payers money to pay for a Republican Primary.
I do not care what the Democrats do, I only care what we do and that means we should have a convention.
I can’t believe I agree with D.J.. Next thing you’ll know there will be an earthquake in Virginia or something.
The point of his article is WHY SO EARLY??? What is to be gained from it?
What. It would be nice if you came out of the dark and identified yourself.
First the 59th was a mess but just one of many I have seen over the years. It had two district chairs who should have known better involved in ways that caused some of the problems. It had legislators and hacks clearly violating Robert’s Rules to get their way not caring about process in any way as long as they got their way. There have continually been problems with mass meetings to elect delegates for conventions over the years and sometime they will cost us an election.
Not to mention. Active duty military cannot vote in conventions while they can in primaries.
If the convention is held on a Saturday which it almost certainly will be, orthodox Jewish citizens cannot attend.
Ignoring that not an extra cent will be spent by the taxpayer to hold the primary if the Democrrats have a primary makes your financial argument a joke.
Filing fees are limited by the party plan so that they cannot pay but for a small part of a convention. Saying that we will have some magic plan to get sponsors is not the same as presenting a budget for a convention, which no convention advocate has ever done. At the last convention one of the groups insisted on open carry into the convention, escalating security costs. They promised to help pay for that but never to my knowledge did.
Conventions give us more contention over results than primaries do. Remember all the theories after the Gilmore nomination ?
When both parties hold primaries, the argument about democrats voting in our primary disappears. It also gives us great voter Information that can be used in that and following elections, People like to go and vote on one day in minutes a lot better than having to go to a many hour local mass meeting and then lose a Saturday. We involve many times more people in our process.
The real reason some want conventions sometimes and primaries others is how they believe it advantages their candidacies. Most of the rhetoric is just
that. It isn’t based on principle just what will give them the best advantage
Let’s involve the most people possible. Let’s get away from candidates telling us what the best nomination process is and really not caring about what is good for the party. Conventions divide us. Primaries bring many more people in involvement in our process. And in this case,it doesn’t cost an extra penny for the people of Virginia.
Please identify yourself.
Tucker,
The Dems haven’t announced their plans for their 2013 nominating process.
We’re the only ones doing it so absurdly early. So we’re the ones costing taxpayers, the Dems (if and when they decide on a primary) would be hitching themselves to our wagon.
I’d love to see some statistics on absentee overseas voting and demographic voting on the military and Orthodox Jewish vote to back up that argument. I empathize, but until it can be proven to be statistically true, it’s like primaries and election sabotage, a political myth.
And 2009 convention worked out pretty well for the LG and AG and the party as a whole, i’d say 16+ point victories is pretty indicative against a primary argument, given that our most recent results in a contested convention worked out so well for the party.
Dj. While respecting your opinion, have you ever been through something like the 59th this year or the 5th Congressional in 1996 ?
You don’t need statistics to know that not one Orthodox Jewish person can vote in a convention and likew”"ise with our armed forces people. I am not Jewish but I did cast my first vote from Viet Nam and the denial of ONE vote from either group is one way too many. Tom Perriello may have gone to court to deny military votes but I would hope no Republican would not want them to be able to vote. Any person who votes for a convention is voting to deny them. Each one should be asked if they ever served.
The democrats selected a primary for next years Senate nomination and last time for the Gov, LT Gov and AG. With as weak a bench as they have now and wi
With The Mac their leader for Gov with his bankroll, why do you have any idea they won’t follow history ?
2009 might, might, work out smoothly but the overwhelming odds of running a convention and breaking even on it and not having huge disputes afterward are slim. Why take the chance ?
Like all things in America, people make the choice to participate. Every single problem you present regarding military voters, orthodox jews, etc can all be fixed by allowing for some AB rule in the party plan that can be changed every day.
So Tucker, let’s hope that when the convention folks present a solution to allow for those voters to vote absentee at conventions, I hope you support it. In fact since we can amend the party plan, before the 2013 convention/primary why not do that? But oh wait, we chose not to.
But to address some of your other points Tucker, which you did not address. Ultimately in logical discourse, I win the argument because you may be right that it may not cost that much more to run a Republican primary besides the few hundred thousand in tax payer dollars we will have to spend on ballots/sending out AB ballots and such, you have not addressed the point of just because the Democrats do it, does it make right that we do it.
Ultimately the idea of the state paying for party run endorsement processes is not a core function of government. All they have to do is provide a clean election of our leaders. If the people want to subdivide into political parties, it is their right and the state has no reason to participate.
Instead of trying to call me out, why don’t you try answering some questions first.
What. Why is it thai you hide yourself ? Are you a paid hack or just afraid to stand up for your views ?
I would certainly support some way to involve Orthodox Jewish Republicans and active duty persons in conventions. Why don’t you suggest some method that will work. Start with knowing there may be more than just two candidates and how you would get ballots to them with your answer to who you really are. Remember we lost money as a party on the last convention, what the cost of your absentee program would be and that those why cry out for conventions are those who generally do not
pay the voluntary fees.
You are clearly blowing up the number of absentee ballots way beyond anything ever seen in history. You don’t win that point.
Show you have some guts, come out from under your rock. You lost your argument yesterday.
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