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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   29676 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023

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Parties are private organizations, though. They can just disregard the Colorado primary in deciding which candidate to back in the general election, can't they?

Parties are private organizations, though. They can just disregard the Colorado primary in deciding which candidate to back in the general election, can't they?

It's an interesting question! It depends on what you mean by "back," and also on how each state handles the primary process. I'm not familiar with Colorado's primary election laws so I don't have a direct answer for you, but in general states do not assemble their general election ballots based on what political parties want, but based on how relevant procedure (including primary elections) dictates.

For example, even if, say, Ron DeSantis won the Republican primaries generally, and the Party decided to back him, he could in theory still be excluded from some state ballots for, say, failing to get the right paperwork filed on time.

The Colorado GOP was already threatening to go to a caucus system before this; there's near certainty that they'll try to do so now. The federal GOP's rules normally hold that :

Any statewide presidential preference vote that permits a choice among candidates for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in a primary, caucuses, or a state convention must be used to allocate and bind the state’s delegation to the national convention in either a proportional or winner-take-all manner for at least one round of balloting...

And that his choice must be made before October 1st of 2023:

No material changes to the manner of electing, selecting, allocating, or binding delegates or alternate delegates or the date upon which such state Republican Party elects, selects, allocates, or binds delegates to the national convention shall be effective if made or adopted after October 1 of the year before the year in which the national convention is to be held. Where it is not possible for a state Republican Party to certify the manner and date upon which it holds a presidential primary, caucus, convention, or meeting for the purpose of voting for a presidential candidate and/or electing, selecting, allocating, or binding delegates to the national convention in effect in that state on the date and in the manner provided in paragraph (f) of this rule, the process for holding the presidential primary, caucus, convention, or meeting for the purpose of voting for a presidential candidate and/or electing, selecting, allocating, or binding delegates to the national convention shall be conducted in the same manner and held upon the same date as was used for the immediately preceding national convention. If it is not possible to hold a presidential primary, caucus, convention, or meeting for the purpose of voting for a presidential candidate and/or electing, selecting, allocating, or binding delegates to the national convention upon the same date as was used for the immediately preceding national convention, then delegates or alternate delegates shall be elected or selected by congressional district or state conventions pursuant to paragraph (e) of this rule.

But there's a few very broad exceptions, and even before touching the exceptions there's going to be serious arguments that the Colorado primary system no longer is a "vote that permits a choice among candidates".

Whether they can functionally assemble it, and whether some new principle will apply after they have done so, are exercises for the terrified viewer.

The Colorado GOP was already threatening to go to a caucus system before this; there's near certainty that they'll try to do so now.

To what end? Assuming they had the caucus system in now and Trump were to be win the nomination (regardless of if he won in CO's caucus or not), the same reason for stripping him from the primary roster is also true for the general election roster.

It just kicks the can down the road til the (deadlines for the) general election. Which is kinda a joke, but it's also kinda not.

There's one extent where the decision doesn't matter, because the Colorado primary and even general vote doesn't matter, and steps made here on the primary ballot will be swamped by actions taken for the general ballot here and elsewhere.

But there is absolutely an army of progressive twitterati champing at the bit, from Whitehouse or the White House on down, to take the acceptance or even delayed denial of an appeal -- which is discretionary! -- as evidence that the conservative side of the court -- did you know that Gorsuch is the justice assigned to the 10th Circuit, which includes Colorado? -- has been utterly compromised and is willing to sell out the Constitution to defend and promote the unlawful and doomed campaign of a monster, an insurrectionist, and a Republican. Punting at least avoids attacks on the 'shadow docket'; having months rather than weeks buys a lot of opportunity to have genuine arguments or, in the best case, to produce a per curiam opinion.

((Unfortunately, I think a lot of legal eagles are only considering it in these frameworks, while worse risks bubble under the surface. And there are probably a good many more tactics going on that I am not aware of or able to consider with five minutes of a novice's thought.))

The Colorado GOP was already threatening to go to a caucus system before this; there's near certainty that they'll try to do so now.

And that's what they have said in response to Vivek:

You won't have to because we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.

The Republican Party: "The Colorado Supreme court has made their decision, let them enforce it."

Would be amusing, but I doubt they have the gumption.

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