Today I am hoping that Republican primary voters show that they can see through party connections to select a candidate who might actually be qualified for the office of State Treasurer by selecting Richard Ellis to represent the party on the November ballot.

There are other races where I have a preference, but no others that I could vote in.

1. Obama keeps his promise to work out a deal with the republican nominee to stick with public financing for the general election and I vote for Obama.
2. Obama breaks his promise on public financing but does not put Clinton on the ticket and I am free to vote for someone else.
3. Obama takes Clinton on as his running-mate (which would almost certainly include opting out of public financing) and I vote for McCain (even McCain would have a better chance at uniting the country that Obama with Clinton on the ticket).

I did not start out in the Anyone But Clinton (ABC) camp but these last two months of the primary campaign have convinced me that ABC is the best course for this country.

I admit that it’s very easy for me to announce how I would vote my conscience far in advance because no matter what I do my vote in the Electoral College is 5 votes for McCain – like it or not.

Monnahan had promised delegates she would keep their e-mail addresses private. At the caucus meetings, leaders declared the e-mail lists would be used only for internal party business.

That was a new policy. The party had provided delegate e-mail addresses to candidates in the past. Two longtime legislative district chairmen forgot the new rule when they got the delegate e-mail lists and handed them over to the Republican candidates in their district.

I will give them the benefit of the doubt and accept it as lame, but the cynic in me still holds out the possibility that it was a pathetic excuse for an underhanded attempt to swamp the challengers in the Republican primary.

Next time they want to try to save the delegates from unwanted solicitations they should write a policy that goes something like this:

• If you are a delegate to the county convention your email address will only be given to candidates you will be choosing among at the county convention, and it will not be passed to the state party by us. If you are elected as a state delegate we will pass your email address to the state party, but not to the RNC.
• We trust our candidates not to engage in shady practices against faithful party members whose votes they are trying to win, and we trust our delegates to be smart enough to recognize when a candidate is not fit to represent our party.

With many people arguing that the primary election system needs to change there have been a variety of suggestions made. The “Ohio” plan, being considered by the Republican Party, is that first one officially being considered by either of the major parties (first so far as I am aware). The plan incorporates some of the basic ideas of the Rotating Regionals idea that was being promoted by the National Association of Secretaries of State. Essentially the plan would preserve the first 4 states position in the front of the calendar (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina). Then, at three week intervals there would be a group of small states (total of 50 electoral votes between them) and then three vaguely regional clusters of states would rotate in the next three primary dates. The three “regional” groups are

• • Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin, Utah, and Washington
  • Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia
  • Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania
  • Leaving the small states group as -Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and non states like D.C. and Guam

The process would take 3 months.

Now I am looking for answers to two questions:

1. Is this a good way to organize the primary process (should the Democratic Party consider a similar approach when they finally conclude their primary this year)?
2. Is it better to proceed with this plan that seems politically feasible rather than continue the search for a more perfect approach?

Democrats have been saying for most of the primary season that they were thrilled to have such a large slate of well qualified candidates. Now that their contest has been narrowed to two candidates and no room for substantive discussion I’ve decided to quit paying attention to the primaries. Once we get into the general election I’m sure I’ll have some opinions to offer on the candidates, the issues, and the election process. Until then – I’ll focus on more local politics.

{Republican} Caucuses are the domain of grass roots Republicans. They are dominated by politically informed people that consider themselves conservatives. Primaries are far more open.

One of the things that I have long thought would improve our country was if people had to invest themselves more to participate in the political process. It’s a  tough balance to strike – even in my mind – because the process should be open to any who want to participate, but if the threshold for participation is too low voters will not take their participation seriously (less than 50% participation in most elections is evidence of that to me). Caucuses require a time commitment and therefore the people who participate in them don’t take their participation lightly.

I’m not declaring that all our voting should be through a caucusing process, but I am wondering if we might learn something from this to help find a way to raise the threshold for participation (especially in primaries) enough to make people take their role seriously while keeping it low enough that anyone can participate who is so inclined.

Thoughts?

If you are registered and you haven’t yet – do. If you have already – encourage others to vote as well.

Of the 8 nominating contests so far the results for each of the 4 remaining candidates are:

• McCain
  • 3 wins
  • two 2nd place finishes
  • one each of 3rd, 4th, and 6th place
  • delegates from 5 of the states
• Romney
  • 4 wins
  • three 2nd place finishes
  • one 4th place
  • delegates from 6 of the states
• Huckabee
  • 1 win
  • one 2nd place finish
  • two 3rds, three 4ths, and one 5th place finish
  • delegates from 5 of the states
• Paul
  • one each of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th place
  • four 5th place finishes
  • delegates from 2 of the states

Don’t be fooled by the message of the media – Romney has every bit as good a chance at the nomination as McCain if not better. And don’t be fooled by the bravado of Huckabee – his best opportunity is to be a spoiler for Romney (those who still support him are unlikely to support McCain).