Thursday, March 06, 2008

Why the Texas Two-Step?


There have been some complaints about the fairness of the Texas Democratic two-step primary caucus system. This reflects a lack of understanding of the purpose. The primaries are not designed for the voters but for the parties to choose their nominees. Many states and parties do not have a primary vote but only caucuses and conventions. In the Texas two-step the primary shows the will of the general voter. The precinct conventions are for those willing to work for the candidates and for the party. Normally there is a much smaller ratio of caucus goers to primary voters but Texas Democrats got a huge number of new workers this year. The GOP should be very, very worried.

UPDATE - This is a separate issue than the over abundance of super-delegates, which is now an abuse of the system. We would have better caucuses if the heads of the party had to participate in them to become delegates.

One thing this election showed was that the primary day and the caucus day may need to be split up. Caucuses are absolutely needed to elect the delegates although, like the Republican party in Texas, delegates could all be assigned based on the results of the primary. All of these new primary delegates now control the party. Let's see what changes they propose.

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1 comment:

MGK821ZA said...

I think it is a mistake for the party to let questions of fairness in the election process go unaddressed. It could have the effect of dampening the enthusiasm of these new voters. I would like to see a simple primary with the delegates divided up based on the vote percentages. Holding caucuses in addition to a vote just seems like a waste of the voters time. I also see having super delegates like Jim Wright as rather nauseating.