Where Have All The Primaries Gone?

Commonweal Institute has a section of their newsletter on GOP efforts to cancel primaries.

They view it as providing free publicity to Democrats.

"The situation is still evolving, but Republican primaries have already been canceled in Utah, Kansas, and Colorado, and there are similar efforts afoot in South Carolina, Missouri, and Michigan.

"Most directly, by not having to compete in the primaries, President Bush would be able to save all his money (likely to top $200 million) for the general election campaign - and a good chunk of this money could presumably be used to support rightist candidates in state races. More broadly, the anti-primary campaign fits into a larger pattern of hard-right conservatives undercutting democratic procedures, a pattern that includes the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the shenanigans in Florida in 2000, the bought-and-paid-for California recall election, and the various state efforts at inter-census redistricting. In each case, conservatives have placed lower priority on giving full expression to the will of the people than on gaining and holding political power.

"A candidate winning a party's nomination without going through this gauntlet would be winning in the same way as Saddam Hussein carrying 99.9 percent of the Iraqi vote in 2000."

There is talk in Austin of canceling or postponing the Texas primary now scheduled for March 2nd.

An excuse is that with the illegal redistricting effort underway they would not have candidates ready for the new US Representative seats. Unspoken is that Dean appears to be leading in Texas and it would be more unwanted publicity if he or any other anti-war candidate wins in Bush's home state.