For Everything There is a Season

There has been much controversy surrounding the decisions of the Legislative District Committees concerning the methods of nominations for General Assembly members.

Absent the Incumbent Protection Act, the Legislative District Committees govern the decision making concerning the methods of nominations. Prior to the IPA being declared unconstitutional, incumbent General Assembly members could dictate their method of nomination or defer to the Legislative District Committee.

Make no mistake about this: I oppose the Incumbent Protection Act. I’m glad it was declared unconstitutional.

However, and this should have been foreseen, this has set off a firestorm (at least in the Sixth Congressional District) of party infighting concerning the method of nomination. I’m pro party-nomination method (convention, firehouse primary, mass meeting). That, however, is never an absolute.

Looking at this, I’m reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

I’ll interpret this for methods of nomination. I believe that there is a time for every method of nomination. There may be times when conventions, firehouse primaries, or mass meetings make more sense. There may be times when state-run primaries make more sense.

I believe that for 2019, state-run primaries make more sense.

Looking at the 24th House District firehouse primary, there are obviously kinks in the system that we need to work out before we try it again.

We need to have General Registrars from each locality available to the party throughout the entirety of the process to settle issues with voter registrations – something that Amherst County outright rejected in the 24th House District and that led to problems in Amherst County with some people voting who were identified as residing within the 23rd House District (which was not on the ballot). We also need a uniform number of polling precincts per locality.

Delegate Dickie Bell, who represents House District 20 (part of Augusta County, Staunton City, Waynesboro City, Nelson County, and Highland County), announced that he is retiring and not seeking re-election in 2019.

The 20th LDC met on Saturday, December 29th, and chose a state-run primary for the nomination method. This was over the objections of Anne Fitzgerald and Ken Adams, part of the Sayre faction and the main instigators of the newest Incumbent Protection Act lawsuit (Ms. Fitzgerald is even the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit).

I fully respect the idea of a party-run nomination method and there are valid reasons to want them. However, until we can get the issues previously mentioned under control, a state-run primary is warranted to ensure the integrity of elections and to minimize the controversies that arise out of party-run nomination methods.

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