No less an insider than the current Chester County GOP put the whole open-primary case to me in the following manner, and I happen to agree with it. So never let it be said that I don't always give people a fair listen.
It isn't really in a party's best interest to happily let a primary with a whole raft of candidates hit the ballots. Inevitably in these situations the winner is the one who can really motivate a fire-breathing minority. If you're running against four or more candidates, the party will probably end up with a general election candidate with virtually no cross-party appeal. Fine for upstate, but not so fine for southeastern PA, or those parts of the Commonwealth that probably belong on Ohio. I kid, I kid.
But when you have just two or three candidates that are pretty well-liked, a primary is the best way to figure out which one is actually good at motivating voters. Winning the primary proves you know how to win an election, and it gets your organization in fighting trim for the general.
So by the logic of the chair of the Chester County Republican party, it would have probably been best for the state committee to winnow down the Lt. Governor's race. But for senator and Governor, where you really had only two viable candidates apiece, the state committee should have let a primary decide the winner.
Now, the way we do it in Chester County is in order for the two-way primary to happen with the party's blessing, each candidate needs to secure 40% of the committee votes. Then they're both "recommended". Obviously, up in Harrisburg this weekend, neither Rohrer nor Luksik got anywhere near that. So by the letter of the law, here in Chester County, we would have ended up with the same result.
But when it comes to Sam Rohrer, every man and women in that room knew the vote would have been a LOT closer if left to the County committee people, let alone actual voters. So by the spirit of the Chester County rules, every man and women in that room should have at least consulted with their county people. Frankly, I'm not even sure why only the state committee votes on the statewide offices.
I mean, sure, a hundred years ago it would have been a tremendous chafe to organize precinct level endorsement votes. But it's no problem at all, today.
So perhaps the first step of reform, here, is not to insist the party never make an endorsement. Maybe it's just to say "We have two committee people in every precinct in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Why don't we let them vote on the endorsement?" Wouldn't that be the best way to figure out what Republicans on the ground want?
I agree that each race should be looked at different. Statewide races for high profile offices could actually strengthen the front runner. There is no doubt that Lynn Swann would have benefited from a primary with Bill Scranton in the last gubernatorial election. I also like the county committees voting for endorsements instead of the state committee. If a majority of the county committees want an open primary than so be it.
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