Republican National Committee members question proposed 2012 primary change

[alp227]

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- Republican National Committee members expressed doubts Thursday about a proposal to change the presidential primary schedule in 2012 to delay the start of the campaign season and extend the length of the process to involve more states.

The new schedule faces a key vote of the 168-member party's national committee Friday at the RNC's summer meeting here. For adoption, two-thirds of committee members must vote for the new schedule, which party Chairman Michael S. Steele hopes will become an important legacy of his term.

But committee members from North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and others rose at a party briefing of the plan Thursday to express concerns.

"What do we get out of it?" asked Ada Fisher, a committee member from North Carolina, which typically holds a later primary. She said after the briefing that she has not decided how to vote on the proposal. "How do we keep the interest of those states that are not going to be in the deciding process, probably, in play?"

Under a draft proposal for the new schedule, no state would be able to hold a primary or caucus before the first Tuesday in February 2012, in attempt to avoid a repeat of 2008, when the Iowa caucuses were held Jan. 3.

Iowa and New Hampshire would retain their status as the nation's first contests joined by South Carolina and Nevada in February. Other contests would generally be held in April or later, although states would have the option of holding votes in March, provided convention delegates chosen at those elections would be awarded to candidates in proportion to the percentage of the vote they received, rather than in a winner-take-all system.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/05/AR2010080505013.html

[monmouth]

1. "What do we get out of it?" How typical...n/t