An Update On Republican Rules

The Republican National Committee's rules committee is poised to take action on a proposal to revamp the party's primary calendar. I'll have more on this later, but for now, here's how Saul Anuzis, the chair of the Michigan Republican Party, describes the debate so far:

RNC Rules Committee held its first day of meetings yesterday. National Committeewoman Holly Hughes and I attended and participated on behalf of Michigan.

We moved the Ohio Plan as the base plan for the working meeting. It would create regional, rotating-state primaries. It would allow NH, IA, NV & SC to go first, then some 20+ other small state and territories…followed by 3 larger regional pods that would rotate…Michigan being part of a larger pod.

I believe today’s vote will come down to an amended Ohio Plan to replace our existing rules with the caveat of moving the start date into March. It looks like a toss-up at the break of last night’s meeting, with a lot of lobbying going on from all sides.

Comments

That sounds very good. Bravo to the GOP for taking the lead on coming up with a less insane primary schedule.

Posted by Ron | April 2, 2008 9:07 AM

I'm kind of surprised they're looking at it now instead of next February. On the other hand, so long as the Ds are flailing about and Ickes is trying to find some more states to vote, it makes for a useful contrast: Republicans, for a sensible primary system.

Starting later, starting with smaller states*, rotating regional are all good.

*Big states are then still very important, but CA doesn't wipe out everyone who comes after. I'm very convinced this season that a national primary, favoring name recognition and billionaires, is a terrible idea--let the smaller states hunt for someone who gives sound, sensible answers and is willing to do a lot of Q and As with voters.

Posted by Deborah | April 2, 2008 9:46 AM

Deborah,
The GOP has to make the changes before and during their convention this summer (The decision will ultimately be made at the convention.). The Democrats differ in that they can make changes outside of the convention environment. For example they exempted Nevada and South Carolina for 2008 in the summer of 2006.

Posted by Josh Putnam | April 2, 2008 2:06 PM