Playing the PR game

Article by Aneurin on June 3rd, 2007 at 2:32 pm

It’s stories like this that drive me insane:

Wash GOP: Primary will determine 51 percent of delegates

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — Washington’s Republican Party decided Saturday that it will use the state’s primary election to allocate just over half of its delegates to the GOP’s presidential nominating convention.

That contrasts with the state Democratic Party, which decided in April to use its precinct caucuses, rather than the primary, to allocate delegates to the various candidates of their party.
…

“Caucuses are very important, but not everyone is able to participate in a caucus, and we want to make certain that those serving in the military have a full opportunity to join in the process of selecting the next commander in chief.”

Am I the only one who thinks Esser just hit a home run there? Contrast that with Dwight Pelz and his continued justifications for keeping an all caucus delegate selection system.

The state Dems clearly missed an opportunity here in how you play the PR game. The state R’s now get to claim the mantle of direct democratic elections, no matter that the primary date of February 12th will be meaningless given that the national primary day of February 5th will determine both party’s nominees.

There were many among us that argued that the state Dems needed to let the primary process work itself out and at least allocate a proportion of delegates based on the primary results. But instead, the state Democrats get to be painted as the party of smoke filled rooms and not allowing overseas military to participate. And please don’t argue that the caucus process is some transparent form of townhall democracy with coffee and donuts, that’s not going to wash. Only the most committed partisan supporters will show up and endure the initial two hour process followed up by the county convention, congressional district meeting, and state convention delegate selection process.

Participative democracy is more than just ensuring that handicap ramps are available at the caucus location, it’s about making sure that overseas voters, whether expatriates or military, have a way to make their voice heard as well.