While much to-do was made over the recent non-binding resolution passed by the California Republican Party Board of Directors reaffirming our current party rules that say you must be a registered Republican vote cast a ballot in the Presidential primary, that did not mean that the issue was resolved.
Former California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim had been making a case for submitting a formal change in our rules, to be considered at the State GOP’s Fall Convention in September, to allow non-Republicans to vote in the Republican Primary.
Well, the deadline for submitting such a change for our September Convention has now come and gone, and Mr. Sundheim did not introduce such a proposal, nor did any other party member. As such, any question marks hovering over this issue are now gone.
So all Republican Presidential campaigns can focus their message on GOP voters for our primary (and, of course, on efforts to take non-GOP supporters and get them to re-register to the party of Ronald Reagan). Political pollsters can now make sure that when they are surveying for support for Republican candidates, that their sample group is made up of only GOPers!
As we have said many times here on this site, the purpose of the primary is to allow like-minded Republicans to come together and choose their candidates to go up against the choice the Democrats, Libertarians, and others in a general election. Once a political party allows the fundamental function of selection of nominees to be heavily influenced by non-members, that party is going down a declining slope. I firmly believe that Democrats should not be allowing non-party members to have a voice in their primaries, either. But they do, and that is their choice, and I predict that one day they will look back and see that as having been detrimental them.
