Senate Bill 40, which proposes to bring all Republicans into the process of moving the primary process of selecting several constitutional officers from the Republican State Convention to all voters at large has passed another hurdle in the House State Affairs Committee.
On a vote of 8-5, the Committee moved the measure to the floor with a “Do Pass” motion to allow all of those registered with a political party to vote in the June primary for the State Auditor and State Treasurer the same way that they do their County Auditor and County Treasurer, referring these offices to all Republicans (and Democrats).
I’ll have more on this after I have some time to listen to the committee hearing. At least on the Republican side, when people argue against it claiming that it somehow takes it away from “the grassroots,” that is not a cogent argument. Because what is more grassroot than ALL Republicans? Or should these offices continue to be decided by an elite few?
And as part of the discussion, it’s time for another history lesson.
In the 1990 GOP convention when GOP Chair Dwight Adams (Doing double duty as Mickelson re-election chair) threw the doors open to bring more people into the process in exchange for precinct peoples labor, it was lauded as an expansion of the process. In fact, I wrote about it in Dakotawarcollege’s early days waaaaay back in 2005:
Dwight took the party representation for the State Party convention and blew it wide open. He went from having county representation comprised of only a few select individuals on a county wide basis to opening it up to dozens or more per county. He opened up participation and guaranteed that precinct level representatives would be part of county delegations at the state convention. What he did was in effect a molding of the command structure of the party to a military model. It was an organized and well defined structure from the state chairman at the top down the precinct level.
The system was transformed! The “carrot” was that the precinct level people could vote for the candidate of their choice and on issues at convention. But in turn, they also had to be active in precinct level activities, such as poll watching, etc. This in turn gives the party a literally endless pool of volunteers and activists – activists, many of whom someday might be candidates.
With the simple change of a set of rules, the number of people who attended conventions exploded. While the loyal opposition still might be pushing 100 or so for their convention, in some years the GOP has had numbers exceeding 800 or more. (Why do you think Frank Kloucek sometimes makes an appearance at our convention? It’s where the people are). County GOP meetings have people attending simply because they identify themselves as precinct people – another positive effect.
I would make the argument that no other single factor has helped ensure the party’s continued electoral success than making it more participatory. It’s not that people didn’t identify before – party registration numbers illustrated that – but more people than ever could dig into the nuts and bolts work that happens behind the scenes with the party.
You can read that entire piece here at Dakotawarcollege Classic.
The issue that has come about since I wrote that piece in 2005 is that there’s a lot of the precinct process that has changed in the years since 1990. Technology has made precinct watchers obsolete. The phone tree has been replaced with auto dialers and call centers, and a lot of their job has gone away. But, while the call to action for working together has gone away, it’s been replaced in some cases by those who have no interest in being representative of their communities for the GOP, and are more interested in weaponizing the process. These are the people who are recruited for one candidate, only to vote and never be seen again. These are the same people who complain incessantly that when a convention is held, it should all be a free lunch, as a number attempted to do in 2022.
If there is to be a change in the role of the precinct people, there needs to be an evolution of the process. Just like in 1990, the process needs to expand. And what would be more of an expansion than to let ALL Republicans choose their candidates, rather than the few. Because what’s the worst that can happen? That we’d be like the other 47 states who don’t use this process anymore? There would be an outbreak of Democracy?
Opponents claim that only the wealthy would run for these positions. Unfortunately for them, that’s a completely BS argument. There will be no more wealthy people trying to buy these offices in a primary than they do in the general election. If anything, making it a process that is more open, and encourages more candidates applying a reduced number of signatures to gain access to the race. Getting six or seven hundred signatures is much less intimidating to the uninitiated than trying to access a group of 1000 party insiders, especially since phone numbers and e-mails are not given out for them.
And really, what is the argument going to be to a Republican constituent who isn’t a precinct person when they ask why legislators voted against letting them vote in the primary for State Treasurer or Commissioner of School & Public Lands? Are legislators going to tell them they aren’t informed enough? That they can vote in the General, but when it comes to the primary, they can vote for Senate, Congress, Governor, and then jump down to legislators and county officials, but the ones in the middle are a special selection for only those in the know? THAT would go over well. (sarcasm here)
I would argue that nothing would be more revolutionary and evolutionary than opening up the primary process to all Republicans.
Along with that change, it could be a new dawn for the GOP. The party could be fully empowered to revise their charter and instead of having a selection convention, move forward and have an actual party endorsement convention, like many other states do, including North Dakota. It would reap a benefit for those who do participate. Why not let delegates put their stamp of approval on all primary candidates, as opposed to just a short list of 5 or 6? They would still get an up or down vote and provide guidance.
Now, I’m sure there are those who disagree with me, and that’s ok. But I think most would agree that we should do something to change the way things are now.
The question that needs to be answered is whether the GOP holds on to 1990 and tells Republican voters at large that their input isn’t needed. Or do we expand the process for all Republicans?
I think the Republican Party is a big tent, and that hearing from everyone isn’t a bad thing. If we can trust our voters to make a selection in the primary for US Senate, Congress & Governor, we can add a few other races to the list.
