Dennis: Republican Vs. Republican

Six comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  fortboise on October 13 at 1:37 p.m.

  Parties have oh so many backroom ways of handling their affairs. If they can’t make (and enforce) an internal decision about the one and only candidate to put forward for an office, and have to settle it in a public primary, it should be an open primary, IMHO.

  If they want to have something that isn’t public, but primary-like, they should go ahead and do that (accepting all of the expenses for their process), and let us all know how it came out. But if the loser doesn’t agree to accept the outcome, we’re back to the first paragraph.

  In terms of the good of the state (which the law may or may not support!) the Republican argument that open primaries lead to more moderate candidates is remarkably unpersuasive. The most extreme of the partisans are the most adamantly opposed to open primaries. They want more extreme candidates; the public interest is not served by what they want.

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  Digger on October 13 at 1:46 p.m.

  Only if the taxpayers no longer have to foot the bill to pay for the elections.

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  Lizard_People on October 13 at 2:23 p.m.

  “Only if the taxpayers no longer have to foot the bill to pay for the elections. ”

  I totally agree, and totally support this.

  Otherwise, and as it stands, it is just welfare for the political class.

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  OutofStaterTater on October 13 at 3:38 p.m.

  Funny. I thought Dennis Mansfield liked Bill Sali. But because Idaho’s current primary system “only elects moderate Republicans,” as some have claimed, Bill Sali must have been a moderate, and not conservative enough for Dennis.

  This effort is entirely misguided, as are most ideas championed by Rod Beck. Beck and company look at 7 Republican constitutional officers and a legislature that’s about 70% Republican and say, “Not conservative enough!” or “Not the right KIND of Republicans.”

  If you’re a Republican, the old saying of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” should come to mind. Dennis and Rod’s arguments about what is broke have never been convincing. There’s a lot of truth to the argument that Rod’s real reason for pushing the closed primary system is because he’s still sour about losing his Senate seat years ago.

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  almostinnocentbystander on October 13 at 3:46 p.m.

  Yes, I’ve changed my mind and now support closed primaries because the cross over from Dems got us a dud like Labradoodle.

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  DFO on October 13 at 3:51 p.m.

  I’m sure the Republicans have steadfastly ignored the fact that a lot of GOPrimaries decide the winner of the general election. Take our legislative District 3, for example. Please . No Democrat is challenging any of the 3 Republican winners. Independents and Democrats should have the right to vote for a representative in the GOP races that will basically decide who represents them in the Legislature. As it is, the most conservative individuals in the Senate & one House race won the primaries. So where’s the moderate boogeman in all this?

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