Former lieutenant governor Bill Bolling re-appears on the pages of the Richmond Times-Dispatch [1] making a plea for party registration and closed primaries. His hook? With both registration and closed primaries in place, Eric Cantor wins re-election (at least according to a post-election poll from former Cantor pollster John McLaughlin, whose blindingly bad numbers showed Cantor winning the primary easily). Likewise in Mississippi, Thad Cochran goes down to defeat in the run-off with Chris McDaniel.
Neither state allows voter registration by political party. This also needs to be changed. While no voter should be required to register by political party, every voter should be given the option of registering by political party, and political parties should be allowed to restrict participation in their nominating contests to those voters who have chosen to identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats.
What happened in Virginia and Mississippi was wrong. The outcome of these very important primary elections was not determined by Republicans, but by a large influx of independent and Democratic voters. Had voting been limited to Republicans, Cantor would have won in Virginia and McDaniel would have won in Mississippi.
And so on.
A few years back, then-Sen. Ken Cuccinelli tried to get something like closed primaries enacted through legal action, with mixed results. And we cannot forget that open primaries have been used by incumbents (and challengers, too…good morning, Mr. Brat) to gather primary support from independents, Democrats and others.
Open primaries, then, can serve as invitations to mischief. But closed primaries are no guarantee of better, more pure or more acceptable results.
But if Virginia wants to overcome its long aversion to party registration, and test the waters with closed primaries, sure, give it a go.
Just remember that the only election that really matters is the general. Given the GOP’s recent performance in statewide contests, I suggest that the manner of choosing the nominees has mattered less than the content of their campaigns.