Remember 2012 when only TWO people qualified to be on the Republican Presidential primary ballot in Virginia? Remember how angry many Republicans were when they had only two choices? Remember how many angry Republicans voted for Ron Paul in protest, giving Paul 40% of the vote? MasonConservative hasn’t forgotten and has written an excellent post about why we need a Republican convention next year to avoid the mess we had in the 2012 Presidential primary. No one wants a repeat of that fiasco. To avoid disenfranchising Republicans, we must have a convention. Read the post here.
Why Virginia Republicans Must Have a Convention in 2016
written by Jeanine Martin
March 9, 2015
12 comments
Jeanine Martin
Also known as Lovettsville Lady, I am a Republican activist in the wilds of western Loudoun County.
12 comments
Virginia has the most asinine election procedures I’ve ever seen. It’s not like we haven’t been doing this for over 200 years! Register by parties. Have a realistic procedure for getting on the ballot and let the registered party members choose their nominee.
so your saying that 12,000 people showing up at a convention is going to get it right for 1.8 million republicans in the state. you are barking mad!!
A convention. To vote on our presidential candidate. So let me get this straight: You want conservatives to drive halfway across the state, rent a hotel room (or get up at o’dark thirty to make the check-in time), sit in a big convention hall (inevitably without adequate food or drink concessions), listen to an interminable number of speakers all tell us the same thing (Obama & RINOs=bad, conservatives=good), all to cast one vote? You have got to be kidding.
We can correct the mistakes of 2012 without resorting to this.
You don’t need to be a resident of the district to collect signatures in the district. You don’t even have to be a Virginia citizen. Also SSNs are optional, not required.
Not shocking at all, Jeanine completely and entirely misses Chris’s point.
Chris actually supports a primary — he knows as well as everyone else that a primary is the best way to grow the party and ensure that all Republicans can vote. Conventions are among the worst ways to choose a nominee; there’s literally not a single good reason for them.
That’s why Chris made his post: to point out how bad the ballot signature requirements are. They are SO bad that even doing something as stupid as holding a convention would be preferable.
I believe the point is, as long as our system works this way, we need a convention.
Oh my.
Protest? I voted FOR Ron Paul.
on line voting!
The party simply doesn’t have the funds or the infrastructure to pull off a convention as things currently stand. When would this convention take place? Spring? Summer? Given the primary schedule…the nomination would likely be decided before we could even hold a convention. The burden placed on the individual units to hold mass meetings, elect delegates…and then deal with convention operations would drain resources when those resources could be better allocated towards general election operations. It’s a bridge too far. I am not opposed to a convention but I simply doubt that it can be realistically done — at least not well. Additionally, it would be much easier to amend the requirements regarding signatures, etc. The votes would be there to do that. But a convention? That will be a giant Charlie Foxtrot.
We’re going to have a convention in 2016 no matter what to elect district chairs, state central members, and national delegates. But you are right that trying to do it while the nomination is undecided would be logistically impossible. Having a convention makes Virginia irrelevant in the nominating process unless we are headed towards a brokered convention.
Candidates pay to play at the convention.