Washington Cancels Presidential Primary

Washington Cancels Presidential Primary
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: December 5, 2003


Filed at 9:57 p.m. ET

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Washington on Friday became the seventh state to cancel its 2004 presidential primary, opting to save at least $6 million by skipping an election many say would be meaningless.



more..........

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Presidential-Primary.html

i just dun understand how they can just get rid of it...
just doesnt seem fair to the voters at all..

amasing the lengths people will go through to stop the inevitable nomination of one guy ;)

BALANCE THE BUDGET BY ELIMINATING SUFFRAGE! GREAT PLAN!




-Kit (whose vote has apparantly just been taken away from him)

but seven states? wow. no one cares about politics anymore

called. I think we were just one of three states to have such a system, which gave independents a chance, but Washington's Republican and Democratic parties both collaborated in torpedoing it.

Then again, it's hard to see how it matters when this state is so screwed up. The lengths the Seattle Mafia goes to manipulate election campaigns is unbelievable; seriously, I wish more people would run for office just to experience it.

I just read an article about some Seattle luminaries rallying to fight George W. Bush. Funny thing is, they include some of the most corrupt corporate pimps in this city. I don't know what their scheme is, but it doesn't bode well.

carried Pat Robertson when he ran for president? That's right, Seattle's liberal lemmings are balanced by some real religious kooks east of the mountains.

Just let Faux and CNN pick the winner. Think of all the money we could save.

The WA state Dem Party *chose* to have all the delegates decided at the caucuses. There's no reason a citizen can't take enough responsibility to educate themselves on the candidates and show up at ONE meeting that takes about an hour.

As long as the Patry's have decided to do it this way, the govt would be beyond foolish to waste money on a primary that serves no other purpose than window dressing.

They clearly cancelled the primary for a very simple reason-what if the PEOPLE vote for someone the corporate controlled party apparatus doesn't feel comfortable they can CONTROL-they don't want to explain why the caucuses don't listen to the rank and file-no election, no explanation necessary.

The People ARE the caucus! All you (you, specifically or anyone else at all) need to do is call the election office and find out where your community location is for the Feb 7th caucus at 10am and show up!

The caucuses can't HELP but listen to the rank and file. They ARE the rank and file. Every single qualified voter is free to participate.

Go to a meeting. Chose a candidate for president.

edit- In fact, here is a list of numbers to call to find your neighborhood location

http://www.wa-democrats.org/ldchairs.php

and here are some details about what happens at a caucus

http://www.wa-democrats.org/Caucusinfo.php

It's a step up from drive thru democracy and closer to how our system was designed to work.

I'm definitely going to show up. Visit http://www.wa-democrats.org for details.

by which candidates has the most delegates to the national convention, what matters is how the delegates get selected. Actually, in a caucus system, ordinary citizens actually stand a chance of becoming delegates to the national convention. In a primary system, the delegates are simply party faithful who are rewarded for being willing to do the daily work of the party.

Personally, it is my current goal in life to be a delegate in Boston next July, and since Kansas is a caucus state, there is a real, albeit distant chance that can happen.

IN 2000, there was actually the odd combination of a non-binding caucus, and a binding primary the next week. Democracy is not on its death bed, in Washington at least. It's just an hour or two of your time, and hey you get to meet your friends and neighbors!

"we will have a nominee on March 10th"

Of course that didn't bother the folks in NH that much.

As stated above, the Washington Democratic Party voted to hold caucuses instead of a primary to determine delegates. The primary was totally superfluous.

The Maine Democratic Party voted to RETURN to our caucus system. An article I read in NEWSWEEK hinted that this was because of money. It was to give the average Democrat a better say in selecting delegates and a nominee. We held caucuses instead of a primary up until about 1990. This is just returning to the way we always did it.

The press makes this sound much worse than it is. It sounds like a loss of democracy when, in actuality, it's the complete opposite. The people who vote at caucus are usually much better informed than those who may vote in a primary.

Don't mourn for the end of a democratic process. It's alive and well.

deep in the dictatorship. Just think, their Party is telling the world that GW Bush is the best they have to offer!