On November 9, the Michigan Republican Party said it would choose its national convention delegates at a state convention, on January 25-26, unless the legislature is able to save the presidential primary. A state convention is an unusual method for a major party to choose its delegates to a national convention. It is even more exclusive than caucuses. With typical caucuses, any member of the party who is willing to travel to the caucus location is able to participate. But with a typical convention, only party officers may participate.
That would be really bad. Ron Paul has a strong following there, people need to let democracy work. I don’t like the idea of having a few elites elect my president.
Michigan still has a primary date in the statutes (for the 4th Tuesday in February).
SB 0624, the law that the circuit court overturned, amended the existing law and inserted a January 15th date. SB 0624 made the changes non-severable, which meant that all the changes should be thrown out, and revert to the previous law for a February 26, 2008 primary.
If the court appeal on SB 0624 is not successful, and the legislature fails to pass a new January 15th primary, and doesn’t do like they did in 2004 and pass a law to eliminate the primary, there should be a primary on February 26.
I suppose the parties are free to ignore it for purposes of electing delegates.