Saturday, August 22, 2009

exclusivity to help grow membership?? yeaa...good luck with that...>_>

California Republican Party leaders, in a move that could reshape state primary-election politics, are preparing a move to bar decline-to-state voters - now 20 percent of the electorate - from casting a GOP ballot in statewide and legislative primaries.

The proposed bylaw to the state Republican platform, which delegates will decide at the party convention next month in Indian Wells (Riverside County), has riled some business leaders and Republicans.

They say it could be disastrous for the party's future and could relegate Republicans in the state to "permanent minority" status by keeping independent voters from supporting Republicans in primary elections.

Flashreport.org publisher Jon Fleischman, the Southern California state party vice chair, said his proposal, which would take effect in 2010, would strengthen the GOP. It calls for extending a ban on independent voters in presidential primaries to all statewide elections, including the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.

It "makes it clear that if you are a Republican, you're eligible to vote in the primary," he said. "We think we have great candidates - but it's not the role of someone who's not in the party to have a say in who that party puts forward."

But the plan is causing a stir among some business leaders and GOP insiders.

"We think this is the worst thing (the party) could ever do," said Rob Lapsley, spokesman for the California Chamber of Commerce. "Republicans ... need every vote they can possibly get from independents."

California Democrats who have welcomed independent voters in their primaries have benefited, Lapsley said, because those voters tend to stay with the party in general elections.

The GOP plan allows conservative party insiders to shape critical 2010 races, said strategist Patrick Dorinson. "They want to pull up the ladder to the tree house where they play," he said. "They're treating the GOP like it's a club where they all make the rules for everyone, and the signs says, 'No girls allowed and no Latinos.' "

In the gubernatorial race, he said, "this is their way of helping (State Insurance Commissioner) Steve Poizner, who is in real trouble. ... They think this is a way to stop (former eBay CEO) Meg Whitman and (former Rep.) Tom Campbell," both moderates expected to get independent support. Also at stake: the 2010 U.S. Senate race, where ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, expected to appeal to moderates and independents, is preparing a GOP primary run against Irvine Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a favorite of grassroots conservatives, he said.

But supporters of the plan say it would strengthen the party and encourage independents to join the GOP. Fleischman denied that party leaders are aiming to boost certain candidates and said the plan has long been debated.

"I hope if someone wants to be the standard bearer for the Republican Party, they would believe the choosing of a nominee should be the work of Republicans," he said.

But any change might be short-lived. To secure the vote of Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County), in February's budget deal, the Legislature placed an open-primary measure on the June 2010 ballot. If passed, the top two vote-getters in state primaries - even members of the same party - would face each other in the general election.

You'd think the republicans would be out of nose to cut off, but their face just keeps asking for it. XD

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