Primary lives?
After Rep. Sam Hunt [D-Olympia] introduced a bill to eliminate the state's 2008 presidential primary and was backed by Dwight Pelz, I expected it would succeed and Washington's national convention delegates would be decided by solely partisan caucuses. Now Pelz says they are giving up on the effort, which was opposed by the office of the Secretary of State and Gov. Gregoire. However, the DNC says they will not allow convention delegates to be chosen from both a primary and caucus, so Pelz gets to choose which his party uses. The Republicans have yet to pick what portion of delegates will be chosen via the primary, but Sam Reed hopes for at least half to be alloted in that fashion.
Labels: 2008 Elections, State Primary
posted by TMW @ 6:29 PM
3 Comments:
Selecting the delegates by caucus certainly benefits Hillary over Obama since her machine will probably get more people out.
But the Democrats should also realize they are disenfranchizing the overseas military.
Also I heard Sam say that Pelz told him that the last caucus brought out 75,000 D's. Compare that to 1.3 million voters in a primary.
The caucus system benefits the activists ...
"The caucus system benefits the activists ..."
Indeed, that's exactly why I support the primary alternative. Caucuses cut out many moderates on both sides and the candidates that emerge are more likely to be at the extremes since the base heavily influences the result.
At most, a primary help apportion delegates. Caucus/COnvention is still required to select the individuals who serve as delegates.
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