Republicans Push Back Primaries One Month - NYT

Republicans Push Back Primaries One Month
By JEFF ZELENY
Published: August 6, 2010

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Republican National Committee approved a plan on Friday seeking to avoid a stampede of early primaries in the next presidential campaign by pushing back the contests one month to extend the nominating season and produce a nominee who is tested in all parts of the country.

For the first time, Republicans would award some delegates on a proportional basis, abandoning the winner-take-all approach that often brought an early end to the primaries. The new rules represent a major shift in how Republicans will select their nominee and the biggest overall change to the system since 1968.

“Two thousand eight was just a monster of a primary process. You had so many states leapfrogging over each other,” said Michael Steele, the national chairman. “We needed to bring some order to the process.”

As Republican officials gathered here for the summer meeting of their national committee, party leaders expressed guarded confidence at the prospect of realizing the best Republican election cycle since 2004, which they believe would put them in a position to mount a significant challenge to President Obama in 2012.

The Republican National Committee approved the new rule after an intense debate among state leaders. The measure seemed to be on the verge of failing until a longtime party leader issued a dire warning.

“I guarantee we will wake up in July next year and say, ‘Oh my God, what did we do?’ ” said John H. Sununu, a former New Hampshire governor, now chairman of that state’s Republican Party. “If we create chaos again, we will end up selecting the wrong nominee and we will have lost the momentum we gain in 2010 and we will allow Barack Obama to waltz into the White House.”

The rules were designed to avoid a replay of the last presidential race, when the Democratic fight between Mr. Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton energized voters and party activists. Senator John McCain became the presumptive nominee months earlier, without going through a series of primaries that Republicans believe could have made him a stronger candidate.

The plan does not change the traditional opening roles of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, but it pushes their primaries and caucuses away from the holiday season by not allowing the contests to begin until Feb. 1, 2012. Other states face penalties if they schedule their elections before March, an effort to keep states from repeating the intense jockeying that has taken place as they try to gain a greater voice in choosing the nominee.

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More: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/us/politics/07repubs.html

:shrug:

This is the anti-palin rule.

Good call!

:hi:

Would've made McGrumpy a stronger or better candidate.

Or... Sir Boehner Of Orange?

Sorry...

Been cracking me up all morning.

:hi:

He's so orange that if you squeezed him he'd turn into juice