Date Set to Choose Nominating Process for 10th District Congressional Seat

In a nutshell, this decision boils down to whether the Republican leadership in the 10th Congressional District wants an open process that is inclusive or whether they want to shut out key Republican voting constituencies.

The pro-convention faction in the Republican Party will tell
you that conventions ensure that only Republicans can participate. This, of
course, is a fallacy, as I have attended a number of conventions and witnessed delegates who participated in democrat primaries vote at Republican conventions.

What pro-convention folks will not tell you is that conventions deny military voters and some government employees the ability to participate. Military voters cannot participate since they are often stationed abroad and some government employees are prohibited by federal regulation from participating in party activities. Beyond disenfranchising these voting
constituencies, conventions are often held on Saturday’s, to accommodate the
relatively few activists that can summon the time and courage to endure a
ten-hour marathon at a hot high school gymnasium. Saturday conventions mean that certain religious groups such as Orthodox Jews and Seventh-Day Adventists cannot participate. What better way to send the message of an open and inclusive Party then to select a nomination method that prohibits the
participation of certain religious groups?

Pro-convention dogmatists are also unlikely to highlight that conventions disenfranchise smaller localities because of a complicated weighted vote system that favors larger jurisdictions. For example, at the 10th District Convention, a candidate that does extremely well in Fairfax County and
Loudoun County can win, without receiving a single vote from smaller localities
such as Clarke County, Frederick County or the City of Winchester. How is this
fair? Simple: It isn’t.

Instead of bowing to a small faction of convention diehards, the 10th Congressional District Republican Committee could exercise sound judgment and select a primary as the method of nomination. Such a decision would send a much-needed message of inclusiveness to the various
Republican voting constituencies.

Now, some pro-convention enthusiasts will respond to this
article by saying that a primary allows democrats to fiddle with the selection
of our nominee. In this case, such an argument is unintelligent and should be
dismissed as pure tommyrot. The Democrats also must choose among three
candidates and therefore primary voters will need to choose whether to
participate in the Republican primary or the Democrat primary. It is highly
unlikely that any democrat is going to forsake participating in their own
process to meddle in the affairs of Republicans.

I respect the members of the 10th Congressional
District Republican Committee and have every confidence that they will make the right decision at the end of January. The choice is very simple: A party of big ideas and inclusiveness or a party of exclusivity. The facts make this decision very easy.

The comPost has our best interests at heart obviously.