Uneven and unfair, the American primary system

by YankeeJim | February 28, 2012 at 07:16 am

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They call it “states’ rights,” yet truly states are wrong about politics.

First of all, the American System of representation in the House of Representatives is from districting the US based on concentrations of population warranting the creation of a Congressional District. That in itself involves a political process governed by state legislators who draw lines (called gerrymandering) to corral voters favorable to their political disposition. This is subject to an every 10 year adjustment to reflect changes and shifts in the population.

States, as I have written before, were created from historical evolution without much rhyme or reason.

In reaction to their colonial being, Founding Fathers had to invent the senate body to provide additional representation with special rules dividing tasks between the House and Senate.

Now, back to the primary mess, different states have different rules.

“The series of presidential primary elections and caucuses held in each U.S. state and territory is part of the nominating process of United States presidential elections. This process was never included in the United States Constitution, and thus was created over time by the political parties.

Some states only hold primary elections, some only hold caucuses, and others use a combination of both. These primaries and caucuses are staggered between January and June before the general election in November. The primary elections are run by state and local governments, while caucuses are private events that are directly run by the political parties themselves. A state's primary election or caucus usually is an indirect election: instead of voters directly selecting a particular person running for President, it determines how many delegates each party's national convention will receive from their respective state. These delegates then in turn select their party's presidential nominee.

Each party determines how many delegates are allocated to each state. Along with those delegates chosen during the primaries and caucuses, state delegations to both the Democratic and Republican conventions also include "unpledged" delegates, usually current and former elected officeholders and party leaders, who can vote for whomever they want.

This system of presidential primaries and caucuses is somewhat controversial because of its staggered nature. The major advantage is that candidates can concentrate their resources in each area of the country one at a time instead of campaigning in every state simultaneously. However, those states which traditionally hold their primaries and caucuses in the latter half of the primary season are normally at a tremendous disadvantage because the races are usually over by then. As a result, more states vie for earlier primaries to claim a greater influence in the process.”

Remember that George Washington, among other Founding Fathers opposed the creation of political parties. Yet, political parties hijacked the primary election process.

So, in the instance of Michigan, Democrats can corrupt the primary process by voting for Republican candidates. Flip flopping parties can produce flip flopping candidates, I guess. What a mess. From this we expect outstanding results?

“Romney blasts Santorum for 'dirty trick' calls to Michigan Dems encouraging vote in GOP primary

Published February 28, 2012

FoxNews.com

Mitt Romney is calling Rick Santorum's calls to Democrats to vote in Tuesday's primary in Michigan "outrageous" and "disgusting" but Santorum says he's not doing anything besides getting people to vote in an open primary.

Romney complained about the automated calls Tuesday, as Michigan voters go to the polls in the Republican presidential primary. Arizona also votes Tuesday in a winner-take-all battle, but Michigan, with its proportional delegate award system, has added value since Romney was born in the state and his father served as governor there.

"I know why Obama doesn't want me to face him but I just think it's outrageous and a terrible dirty trick at the last hour, by the way, late in the afternoon on the day before the election, maybe hoping no one would notice, they start sending out calls to Democrats, union members telling them to go into the Republican primary and vote against Mitt Romney," he said.

"This is a new low for his campaign and that's saying something," Romney told Fox News

Santorum told Fox News on Monday night that he is trying to attract the Democratic voters he'll need in a general election campaign. He added that nothing he's said in his robo-call is any worse than the campaign Romney has run.

"When he runs a robo-call of my voice from four years ago saying good things about him, that's not a low moment, and when I run a call basically saying, calling Democrats that are eligible to vote here, to vote for us, that's a low (moment)?" he said.

"And of course, you know, it's interesting that he criticizes me for attracting Democrats because one of the things that the Governor Romney's people say is, oh, he can't attract Democrats. Well, guess what? We will wait and see. I think we can."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/...ne-calls/#ixzz1ngqpCh9P’