by: Grebner
Thu Feb 23, 2012 at 00:05:09 AM EST
At first, the official position of the Michigan Democratic Party was that anyone who was caught voting February 28 should be drawn and quartered. Since that was beyond the MDP’s power, the penalty was simply being excommunicated, and forbidden to participate in such activities as the May 5 caucus.
Then, the word came down that the presidential primary was irrelevant, and we could do whatever we wanted, and the MDP would take no notice.
Today, Mark has communicated a strong suggestion that we jump in and stomp around in the Republican primary.
I assume – without evidence – that word has come from on high that derailing Mitt would be a good thing, and that Mark should do whatever he can to make that more likely. It has never been a hobgoblin of Mark’s mind to suffer any foolish consistency. And since he no longer clings to even a shred of public dignity, his involvement will cause him no great pain.
I have several thoughts on all this.
- Whether it’s successful or not, it’s certainly a big deal for one state political party to deliberately screw around in the other’s primary. We’re going to hear about this for years.
- Every mentally active Democrat in the state has been thinking about this exact question for the past two weeks – basically ever since Santorum’s hat trick in Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota. It still isn’t clear that a massive crossover is in the works, judging from the polling and absentee request data I’ve seen, but there have been hints of at least some activity.
- It’s not clear that a Democratic crossover can be very effective, since some of it will bleed off into unproductive uses (Ron Paul and Newt) and the sensitive among us actually vote for Romney as they recoil from the craziness that is Santorum. But if 100,000 Dems cross over, maybe there will be a net advantage to Santorum of 20,000 votes.
- The presence of Obama’s name on the ballot in a Democratic pseudo-primary – meaningless as it is – will sop up 250,000 to 300,000 Democratic voters, and the requirement to make a public request for a Republican ballot will discourage others. Without these legal structures, the risk of a crossover raid would be much more severe.
- If there were an organized effort to raid the Republican primary – and at this point I judge there isn’t one – the most cost-effective step would be to convince a few thousand Democrats to help Santorum in CD13, where there are very few genuine Republicans, plenty of Democrats, and two national delegates at stake. There are probably four districts in Michigan where a handful of reinforcments would be likely to allow Santorum to snatch pairs of delegates from Romney.
- I’m surprised that Brewer’s email hasn’t blown up in the media – it really seems pretty unprecedented to me.
- It’s not at all like the affair of the Faux Tea Party, since Mark wasn’t involved in that at all.
Friends,
Republicans have extended an invitation to all Michigan Democrats to crossover and vote in the Michigan GOP presidential primary this Tuesday, February 28th. Yesterday, Republican Senators Rick Jones and Arlan Meekhof said they’d welcome Democrats to crossover. You can check out the invitation for yourselves by watching the video clip below.
Any Democrat who takes Senators Jones and Meekhof up on their offer will still be able to participate in the Michigan Democratic Party’s presidential caucuses on May 5, 2012.
If Democratic crossover votes affect the results of the GOP presidential primary next Tuesday, the Republicans willonly have themselves to blame.
Sincerely,
Mark Brewer
Chair, Michigan Democratic Party
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