No Way to Pick a President

I am incredibly frustrated with the Michigan Republican party. Because they cannot get legislation passed to move the presidential primary before super Tuesday, now they want to hold a state convention to select the party nominee for president. This could be the single stupidest thing I have seen proposed in my many years in politics and believe me when I say that I have seen many stupid things.

Basically, what the party is telling the public is that they don't trust outsiders to vote in their primary. But it is these same outsiders that we will be begging to vote for our party's candidate in the general election. Why will they do that when we didn't want their vote in a primary. Add to that fact, that many Republican activists will effectively be shut out of the process as only a handful of party leaders choose the nominee for them. Of course, these are the same party leaders who selected John Smietanka to run for attorney general which opened the door for Jennifer Granholm's rise to power in 1998.

What these party leaders are proposing will set us back in the mind of the voters. They will see us a party dominated by the good old boy network and who could blame them for this judgement. Instead of closing off the process we should be working to make the process more open and inviting to public. Primaries have worked effectively in the past so why change course now?

I realize that there is nervousness that without moving up the primary Michigan will lose out on being a major player in the nominating process. But this thinking is misguided as I am becoming more and more convinced that the primary will not be settled as early as people think. Instead of being a potential key primary after Super Tuesday, we will be left trying to explain why we think a our party leaders know more than the voting public.

I would encourage all my Michigan Republican friends to contact the state party to file a complaint against holding a convention and encourage a fair and open primary. You can find their contact info at http://www.migop.org/