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10-22-2007, 06:20 PM
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/rnc_to_strip_5_states_of_conve.html
RNC to strip 5 states of convention delegates
by Frank James
Now for the latest blow in the war between the states and national party organizations.
Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, just held a teleconference to tell reporters the RNC has sent letters to five states telling them that they will lose 50 percent of their delegates to the national convention in Minneapolis because they are violating party rules by holding their primaries too early.
The fives states are New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming.
Duncan said:
“We spent a lot of time over past year educating our states as to what the rules were. This will come as no surprise to any of the states involved.”
The letters were issued following the RNC's approval this morning of its preliminary "call," essentially a document that outlines the acceptable method for how state Republican Party organizations should select delegates to the nominating convention.
The RNC move is in response to efforts in by several states to jump ahead in the line of primaries in order to play a bigger role in the presidential nominating process, perhaps even becoming the state can call itself the king or queen maker.
It’s a bid to ensure attention from presidential candidates at a critical stage in the election cycle, particularly since, once we move into the general election campaign, the states that typically get the most candidate visits are the battleground states.
But the RNC and its Democratic counterpart, the DNC, have been hostile to such moves since they violate party rules that were set up to give primacy to the traditional early states of New Hampshire and Iowa and to avoid the kind of chaos in the primary calendar that has occurred since several states began moving their primaries to earlier dates.
The DNC decreed, for instance, that Florida will lose all of its Democratic delegates because the state has moved its primary to Jan. 29 (The Democrats have the same Feb. 5 start date as the Republicans.) Two Democratic members of Congress are suing the party, saying the party’s action is tantamount to depriving Florida voters of their constitutional right to have their votes count. Meanwhile, the DNC has asked Democratic presidential candidates not to reward Florida for breaking the rules by campaigning there.
True to his role as GOP chairman, Duncan also took what some might cite as gratuitous shot at the Democrats for being less than the law-and-order party, for being loosey-goosey in enforcing its rules for primaries.
“They have such flexibility with their rules. They can do all kinds of things from giving waivers, which they did this year, to asking candidates not to campaign in the state, to cutting the number of Democrats. And I think there’s a big distinction there. We’re not saying don’t campaign in Florida. We’re not saying we’re going to take all the delegates away. We’re saying we’re going to enforce the rules that were passed by the 2004 convention and they are in effect until the 2008 convention adopts the rules for 2012. That’s the fundamental difference between our party and their party. Our rules stick for a four-year period. Their rules can be amended in between.”
Duncan seemed not to mind that his comments might strike some as a little authoritarian.
In any event, Duncan wanted everyone to know that the RNC wasn't all stick and no carrot. He allowed that if the five offending states got right with the party rules, the decision to strip them of delegates could be rescinded.
“We always believe in redemption,” he said, so long as a state that’s changed its mind acts before the RNC issues its final “call” for delegates which will come sometime after Election Day 2007.
Posted by Frank James on October 22, 2007 1:43 PM | Permalink
www.baltimoresun.com
RNC to strip 5 states of convention delegates
by Frank James
Now for the latest blow in the war between the states and national party organizations.
Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, just held a teleconference to tell reporters the RNC has sent letters to five states telling them that they will lose 50 percent of their delegates to the national convention in Minneapolis because they are violating party rules by holding their primaries too early.
The fives states are New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming.
Duncan said:
“We spent a lot of time over past year educating our states as to what the rules were. This will come as no surprise to any of the states involved.”
The letters were issued following the RNC's approval this morning of its preliminary "call," essentially a document that outlines the acceptable method for how state Republican Party organizations should select delegates to the nominating convention.
The RNC move is in response to efforts in by several states to jump ahead in the line of primaries in order to play a bigger role in the presidential nominating process, perhaps even becoming the state can call itself the king or queen maker.
It’s a bid to ensure attention from presidential candidates at a critical stage in the election cycle, particularly since, once we move into the general election campaign, the states that typically get the most candidate visits are the battleground states.
But the RNC and its Democratic counterpart, the DNC, have been hostile to such moves since they violate party rules that were set up to give primacy to the traditional early states of New Hampshire and Iowa and to avoid the kind of chaos in the primary calendar that has occurred since several states began moving their primaries to earlier dates.
The DNC decreed, for instance, that Florida will lose all of its Democratic delegates because the state has moved its primary to Jan. 29 (The Democrats have the same Feb. 5 start date as the Republicans.) Two Democratic members of Congress are suing the party, saying the party’s action is tantamount to depriving Florida voters of their constitutional right to have their votes count. Meanwhile, the DNC has asked Democratic presidential candidates not to reward Florida for breaking the rules by campaigning there.
True to his role as GOP chairman, Duncan also took what some might cite as gratuitous shot at the Democrats for being less than the law-and-order party, for being loosey-goosey in enforcing its rules for primaries.
“They have such flexibility with their rules. They can do all kinds of things from giving waivers, which they did this year, to asking candidates not to campaign in the state, to cutting the number of Democrats. And I think there’s a big distinction there. We’re not saying don’t campaign in Florida. We’re not saying we’re going to take all the delegates away. We’re saying we’re going to enforce the rules that were passed by the 2004 convention and they are in effect until the 2008 convention adopts the rules for 2012. That’s the fundamental difference between our party and their party. Our rules stick for a four-year period. Their rules can be amended in between.”
Duncan seemed not to mind that his comments might strike some as a little authoritarian.
In any event, Duncan wanted everyone to know that the RNC wasn't all stick and no carrot. He allowed that if the five offending states got right with the party rules, the decision to strip them of delegates could be rescinded.
“We always believe in redemption,” he said, so long as a state that’s changed its mind acts before the RNC issues its final “call” for delegates which will come sometime after Election Day 2007.
Posted by Frank James on October 22, 2007 1:43 PM | Permalink
www.baltimoresun.com