Friday, November 23, 2012

The One Needful Thing -- Reform the Primary System

Yahoo News has outlined the Top 5 Priorities for the GOP in Coming Months - one of which centers on ending the primacy of far-right candidates winning in primaries, only to throw away the general election because of stray remarks off message or for a lack of groundwork in advance of the general election -- Sharron Angle of Nevada had this problem in Nevada.

Tea Party concerns have upended viable Republican challengers in close general election fights in states throughout the country.

The first and most notorious example was Delaware in 2010, when at large House Rep Mike Castle was poised to take the Senate following Joe Biden's ascendancy to the Vice President and Ed Kaufmann's decision to step down after finishing Biden's last two years.

Indeed, Castle for many Republicans put the "No" in RINO -- he was a liberal Republican in a heavily Democratic state. What would any party operative have expected?

The primary voters in Delaware ended up selecting Christine O'Donnell to challenge Chris Coons in the general election. This was a terrible outcome, but not because O'Donnell was too conservative. The real issue was that she was incompetent, with nothing  but two previous runs for the Senate on her resume, with no other political experience. She had racked up federal allegations about misuse of campaign funds. She had filed a discrimination lawsuit against a conservative think-tank. She had misconstrued the results of her previous campaigns. Let's not forget her insufferable appearances on Bill Maher's schlock-talk show "Real Time", along with her invasive advice about personal habits on MTV.

O'Donnell was a bad candidate, but she won the primary, anyway.

What can be done about these situations? Perhaps the GOP should invest in closing down the closed primary system in more states, a process which forces candidates to run to the extreme with the party, only to strive for the center during the general election. This back-and-forth dash for politicians causes more problems than it solves not just for the candidates, not just for the parties, but for the voters who find that they do not have a real choice once the final standard-bearer for each party enters the general election.

If Delaware had instituted an open primary in 2010, without a doubt Mike Castle would have advanced into the top two for the general election, taking in Democratic and Independent voters along with a dedicated group of Republicans who would support the qualified establishment candidate.

Get rid of the early infighting between party members, and then the GOP can rest assured that the most qualified, not just the most strident candidate will advance to the general election.

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