Never mind the Republican whinging about the cost of a primary.

There’s some odd complaining going on about Fifth District Republicans’ decision to hold a primary, I see in Brian McNeill’s article in today’s Daily Progress. The logic is that primaries are expensive, with the bill footed by local registrars’ offices, and they really can’t afford it right now. With Republicans trying to claim the mantle of being the party of less spending (amazing that they managed to keep bottled up their burning hatred for gub’mint spending during six years of unrestrained spending by a unified Republican government), they think it’s hypocritical of them to hold a primary. Albemarle County Republican chair Christian Schoenewald is quoted as complaining about it, as is the Pittsylvania registrar, who says that she “resents” primaries. (That woman is in the wrong line of work.)

As fun as it would be to pile on and declare them hypocrites for holding a primary, I just don’t believe it. Elections cost money. The civic/political process is not free. Of the methods of nominating candidates, the most accessible and most open process is a primary. In selecting a primary, the Fifth District Republican Party has ensured widespread participation. (Some activists are complaining that Democrats will vote, skewing the results. Crossover primary voting is both rare and irrelevant in all but the closest of elections, if even those.) It is not Republicans’ fault that the bill for their primary is paid for by localities. Even if it wasn’t paid for by localities, the party couldn’t possibly come up with the requisite quarter million, anyhow. Which is fine. Because this is how democracy works. Any political party that has enough support ought to be able to hold a primary at taxpayer expense, because that’s how American-style democracy works. As much as the fringe right might think that everything government does should be done by private interests, they should know better to include this in that list. Elections aren’t supposed to be outsourced—they’re to be conducted by unbiased third parties (registrars) and overseen by an unbiased umbrella organization (the SBE) because that’s how people know that they can trust the outcome. Good governance isn’t cheap.

If Republicans—or Pittsylvania registrar Jenny Lee Sanders—believe that there should be a method to allow a political party to help fund the cost of a primary, they should make a proposal to their legislator and get a bill through the General Assembly to that effect. Until such a law passes, though, the fact that primaries cost money isn’t a reason not to hold them. Compared to the cost of running a congressional office, a quarter million is chump change. If Republicans figure that their guy would spend less than Rep. Tom Perriello, they ought to see the cost of a primary as an investment. The fact that they think it’s money wasted says a lot about what they think their nominee’s odds will be.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

3 replies on “Never mind the Republican whinging about the cost of a primary.”

  1. I have the answer. The Republicans can have a yard sale and raise the $200+K needed and donate it to the local electoral boards. Then they can maintain their mantle of being the party of low taxes.

  2. Hmmmmm, aren’t these the same people who have complained about how their own Party conducts elections? Seems to me that I remember quite a bit of howling coming out of Prince William County about a corrupt and poorly managed GOP nominating convention in 2007. I also know a couple of Bob Marshall supporters who still claim that the 2008 GOP convention cheated him out of the nomination by, again, being poorly managed with alleged chicanery.

    I do not have a clue as to why Hurt is putting himself in the middle of all of this. He’s a nice man who is going to be eaten alive by the wing nuts before this election is over.

  3. Of course, the method of nominating a candidate is only good if it benefits one’s preferred candidate…hence the outrageous outrage from the Marshallites and now from the Jacobins opposed to Sen. Hurt…

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