"I’m concerned about not building into the general election a whole block of voters, that by that rule, we’ve isolated," said Tim Morgan, National committeeman.
Currently our rules provide that only the votes of registered Republican will be used to determine the outcome of the Republican Presidential Primary in California. A change to this rule may be debated and voted on this September 9th at the CRP fall convention in Palm Desert. The Party may be asked to permit some 3,000,000 Decline-To-State [DTS] voters to be able to vote in the Republican primary to select the GOP nominee for President.
While its true we permit DTS to vote in our legislative primaries presently, changes our current rule would erode the very function of our national Republican identity. Essentially, we would be following Arnold’s mistaken and hilarious vision of "post partisan politics" with moving away from ideas and policies that help create political parties in the first place.
The California Republican Party was officially created in early 1856, with Cornelius Cole serving as the first chairman. Most voters were not then aligned to political parties, with the choices between the democrats, know-nothings and whigs. Cole and six associates planned the formation of the California Republican Party because they opposed the pro-slavery extension of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska. Act. In fact, the Democrat Party had elected two pro-slavery Governors. Something had to be done.
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March 27th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Shawn is absolutely right. The character of the Republican Party, and who we nominate, would be changed dramatically if we permitted non-Republicans to vote in our Republican primary. Let those who want to vote in the Republican primary register as Republicans. They always have that option.