During CPAC last week, I was talking with a few folks and one mentioned he was going to vote in the VA Democratic primary [1] this year to help who they thought the weakest candidate against McDonnell was. (I’m sure we all have our opinions) Pondering it afterwards it struck me as a clever and awkward action to take. Clever for political operatives who want to help their candidates get elected in general elections and awkward because it records you as taking an oath of holding up the principles of the party you dislike. But what about candidates? Seems as though AG candidate, John Brownlee, voted in the 2006 Democratic Senate primary [2] between Jim Webb and Harris Miller and only recently joined his Republican County committee last month. Were these calculated risks or simple oversights?
I have no problem with supporting specific politicians you like or agree with regardless of party affiliation but is strategically voting in another party’s primary unethical or simply a natural consequence of Virginia’s lack of party registration [3]? Some blame the voting structure on American Idol for the best contestants often losing in early rounds because sites like VoteForTheWorst.com [4] help the likes of Sanjaya. Not sure how well this speaks of our political process but at least we get some interesting renditions of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs”