TIME TO CONSIDER MAKING CALI A CAUCUS STATE?
There is an adage that says, "Even a broken clock is right twice a day."
Los Angeles Times writer George Skelton has been consistently producing his column on Golden State politics for a long, long time. To be honest, most of the time, while I think Skelton brings up pertinent topics, I rarely agree with his ideas or his conclusions. Actually, if I did, it would probably really worry George, since he hardly sees himself as a darling of conservatives. That having been said, today in his column, George Skelton floats an idea that has a lot of merit and is worth a healthy discussion. Skelton throws out the idea that perhaps California should consider becoming a caucus state in terms of Presidential elections. What does this mean? It means that instead of voters going to the polls in the primary, instead voters of each political party would be invited to attend an actual meeting in their area where interested members of each party would show up and vote for delegates to their party’s national convention, pledged to certain candidates. Of course a system like this has its tradeoffs — the downside is that it makes it harder for voters as a whole to play a role in who is the nominee for their party. The upside is that it really increases the impact that those who are passionate and who care about political parties will have on the selection of a nominee. In addition, it would drastically change the way that Presidential candidates campaign in the Golden State. It would mean a move away from investing all funds into television commercials and a new investment into local grassroots structures that are geared towards a measurable outcome — getting people to a meeting! Of course such a proposal would be a radical shift from where we are now, and would involve a lot of vetting. But I encourage all California political parties, including my own, the Republican Party, to establish working groups to look at this type of proposal. The best part about a change like this is that it will infuse interest in the Presidential primary here in California, where we currently serve only as a place for candidates to suck up cash to spend elsewhere!
POLITICAL PARTY POLITICS
This week we will be looking at the upcoming organizational conventions for the both the California Republican Party (February) and the California Democrat Party (April). Both Party’s will be reconstituting their state central committee makeups, and both will be selecting officers to serve for the next election cycle. Both Parties are in the midst of significant debate over where these Parties need to be going in order to best position themselves for the 2008 Presidential elections, and for the not-too-distant 2010 race for California Governor.
BOB HUFF’S NEW GIG
We first reported here on the FlashReport that Assemblyman Bob Huff would be named as the new Chairman of the Assembly Republican Caucus. Well, on Friday it became official as Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines announced Huff’s appointment to this important role. Today we feature on the main page a column from Huff which we encourage you to read. But this also is a great opportunity to heap praise on Huff, who has been an outstanding GOP legislator. Even though he is just now entering is second term in the legislature, Huff has established a reputation for being a strong, principled conservative, who is well respected and liked by his colleagues. Bob Huff has demonstrated that he really understands that California government, simply put, is too big, and it spends too much. We look forward to seeing the continued development of the Villines-Huff team that is emerging for the 2007-2008 legislative cycle — but so far we couldn’t be more pleased. Congratulations Chairman Huff!
THANKS NICK!
I’ve just returned from vacation, and I wanted to thank FR’s Managing Editor Nicholas Romero for the fine job he did pulling together the main page for the FR. Tomorrow, FR’s Guest Editor Brandon Powers will be pulling together the main page – so thanks in advance!
Have a great day!
Jon
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