There seems to be a little bit of confusion about the resolution passed by the CRP Board last Friday relative to GOP voters and the GOP Presidential Primary. So let me try to clarify. Back in the 2000 election cycle, when John McGraw was Chairman of the Party, the party amended its bylaws with a new system of selecting delegates to Republican National Conventions. Up to that point, since 1976, California’s GOP delegates were determined using a "winner-take-all" method where whomever got the most votes statewide was awarded all of the delegates (this was put into place in 1976 to help ensure that then-favorite son Ronald Reagan would carry the entire delegation in his primary bid against President Ford). The new rules for the GOP, which did not go into effect until after the 2000 cycle, are "winner-take-all-by-Congressional District" and they set up a system where three delegates are awarded in each House seat, to the GOP candidate who garners the plurality of the vote in each. A small number of statewide delegate positions are still awarded based on the statewide vote.
This new system was rendered moot in the 2004 cycle because President Bush was unopposed in his primary for re-election, and thus captured all of California’s delegates to the New York RNC Convention. So this is the first Presidential election where this "new" system is in play, and it will be interesting to see how it impacts the way that the Republican candidates campaign across the state. After all, it is now possible to campaign in regions of this state, without having to win the whole things — a prohibitively expense endeavor for most candidates.
The reason I am giving this little history lesson is that when former Republican legislator Ray Haynes authored this rules change many years ago, included in it was the language stating that only the votes of registered Republicans may be used to determine the allocation of delegates.
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July 18th, 2007 at 12:00 am
The Haynes Amendment concerning delegate apportionment was adopted at the same time that we adopted explicit rules that Republican delegates must be selected by Republican voters. However, it is important to remember that this was not a change in practice in 1999, either. In fact, the California Republican Party has had a “closed primary” to select its delegates to the Republican National Convention since the 1850s. This is not a new idea.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that Decline-to-State voters can get involved by becoming Republicans up until two weeks before the February 5th primary! If they don’t want to be associated with the Republican Party, then why would we want them to pick our delegates?
July 18th, 2007 at 12:00 am
As a history nut, I do have to ask about closed primaries in the 1850’s. If you could provide more details, I am sure it would be interesting.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I’m still shocked that the party is allowing the 27,000 registered Republicans in CD 31 (Becerra) to elect the same number of delegates as the 200,000 registered Republicans in CD 48 (Campbell).
July 20th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I’m confused by this resolution.
The CRP by-laws say: Section 1.04(A) “commencing with the 2002 statewide partisan primary election, the Committee shall authorize and permit to vote, and have their ballots counted in the Republican primary, the following classes of voters:
(1) any registered Republican voter otherwise qualified to vote at that election; and
(2) any person who is registered as decline-to-state or non-partisan, who is otherwise qualified to vote at the election.”
Section 1.04(B) of the by-laws states:
“Nominee shall mean that person who received at the partisan primary the plurality of votes cast for all “partisan elective offices” other then for President of the United States by Republican voters and decline-to-state and non-partisan voters.”
How does this resolution conform to the CRP by_laws?