On August 13, Hugh Hewitt spoke at the RedState Gathering in Denver. He advocated that open primaries be abolished. See this story. For more about Hewitt, see here. UPDATE: here is a Denver Post story about what various speakers at that meeting said about primaries and caucuses.
Do the Lord work in straaaaange ways ! This is the first thing that Hugh Hewitt ever said that I agree with in the 30 Years I have known of him. The article is scanty of the details of Hewitt’s remarks but there is one very big hurdle that needs to be addressed. The “Top 2 Rule” that exists in a number of states. The Top 2 Rule needs an open Primary System in order to work. It therefore follows that if Open Primaries are done away with Top 2 has no basis for existence and must be done away with also. Is Hewitt ready to address this subject ?
It’s interesting to note that when talk of the Open Primary Rule was first initiated in the late 1990s Ralph Nader supported it based upon the reasoning that government funds should not be used on a process that was essentially a private function in nature. After the die was cast and Top 2 was implemented in those states that had Open Primaries. Nader came to realize the undemocratic nature of the entire process. Buyer Beware……even the sharpest can be fooled !
Unless the participating parties pay 100% of the costs of primaries, they should be abolished in entirety.
NO primaries.
[General] Election ballot access ONLY via equal nominating petitions — to get serious candidates and not the growing hoards of stunt/ego freaks.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
Is there any other country where private organisations get to use the apparatus of the state to carrry out their private functions for free?
If the GOP or Dems or Greens or the Spaghetti Monster for Texas Scession Party wants to run primaries then they should run them themselves and pay for them. They can then set their own rules on who can vote and how deligates are selected and if they are bound etc . They can choose the times and dates too.
What business is it of the the state of Iowa to mandate that it caucus takes place before any other in the country? If the GOP decided that for itself then fair enoough but it hasn’t.
Sorry — Folks are PUBLIC Electors in the PUBLIC nomination process (i.e. ballot access process) for PUBLIC officers.
Sorry – the bad old days with the super party hacks before official ballots (1888-1890) were super evil – obey the hack robot boss or get purged — lose a job or worse.
Demo Rep
who says it has to be a public nomination process?
The paties should be able to choose how to select their own candidates and simply say to the election officials in each state ‘This is the name of our candidate and here are the forms and payment’
That’s what happens in most other countries of the world.