Closed Primary Unrest Simmers

Precinct Committeeman Geoff Schroeder so loathes the new closed primary that he withdrew his GOP affiliation the morning after he won his second term as an Elmore County precinct committeemen in May. The 46-year-old former Mountain Home city councilman re-registered as “unaffiliated.” Idaho GOP Chairman Barry Peterson, who served six years as Elmore County chairman before his election to the top state office in June, noticed. As a precinct committeeman, Peterson remains a member of the Elmore County committee. “He’s chosen by his own actions which way he wants to go,” Peterson told the Elmore GOP Central Committee at its Aug. 23 meeting. “Let him go.” Schroeder says he’s never been anything but a Republican, but objects to the closed primary that set a record low turnout of 24.4 percent on May 15/ Dan Popkey , Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Do you think the Idaho GOP will see the error of its ways and return to the open-primary system — or continue to do the bidding of its uncompromising Hard Right?