Who is in charge, anyway?

[vakkotaur]

Three primary candidates are pulling out of the Michigan primary. The reason is interesting: it's to punish Michigan for moving its primary to a date earlier than the Party wants. Story here. Note that both Michigan and Florida are being threatened with punishment by the Party by having their delegates stripped from the Party convention.

While the ever-earlier campaigning is annoying, and the mad rush of states to be earlier and earlier is silly*, I have no sympathy for the Party here. Nor would I for the other Party, or another other. Political parties do not get to dictate what states do. State government does that. If a Party wants to control what a state does, let it get its candidates elected into that state government, ideally with the platform stated up front and in the open.

Note that other candidates have not said that they are pulling out. That's interesting, and somewhat suspicious. Do these other candidates figure that if they need the votes from Florida and Michigan they'll finagle some deal? Some deal that those who toed the Party line won't be able to make?

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* There is at least one state that I wish would move its primary a bit earlier: Minnesota. Why even bother with it when the primary is after all the party conventions?

Comments

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

Yes, this all seems silly to me (and reading the linked article makes it seem even sillier. Words to the effect of "States cannot hold primaries before Feb. 5 by party rules - except this one, this one, thisonethisonethisoneandthisone. Might as well say all states have to hold them before Feb. 5 except one or two. :)

And the fact that I still don't understand your political system, and never will (despite having a good friend who is definitely in the inner circle in one of your parties), especially the primary system, didn't contribute to my "silly" ruling.

Oh, and finally, kudos to you for not mentioning which party in your post. It seemed very adult of you, lest you seem biased and against said party, by mentioning it. Instead you just left the link for us to follow to read details if we wanted. My hat's off to you (were I wearing one.)

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

The advantage to having set dates for general (rather than primary, which are obviously a bit variable) elections is that a politician has to deal with that schedule and can't call for an election when it's convenient, such as when the poll numbers are high. The price for that is a long campaign season.