Primary for Dickenson County
Brian January 12th, 2007
Last night, the Dickenson County Democratic Committee overwhelmingly voted for a primary to select our candidates. The three options that were considered by the Committee were:
1. Primary
2. Convention
3. Firehouse Primary
The vote ended up being 30 for primary, 4 for firehouse primary, and 3 for convention.
Up until the last county election cycle in 2003, when the Committee also opted for a primary, it had always used a convention to select its nominees.
In 1999, the last time the Committee used a convention, there were the usual allegations of misdealing, but the big factor that seemed to upset people were the candidates who failed to win the nomination running as independents. Using the primary will, thus, remove that possibility and seems to have worked well in 2003.
I personally favor the primary because it will give each of the candidates a chance to start getting their name out, give them some practice campaigning, and it ensures a candidate cannot run for the Democratic nomination and as an independent candidate too.
The downside is, of course, that spoilers (Republican or otherwise) can show up, vote, and attempt to affect who the Democratic candidate will be.
Personally, I am a fan of the primary as it allows people like me who work too many hours per day a chance to be involved in the party (albeit very distant involvement) and its matters.
The effect of Republicans trying to affect the results of a Democratic Primary would (in my opinion) share the same overall effectiveness as the attempt by some Democrats to affect the resuts of Virginia’s last Republican gubernatorial Primary …
But I am frequently wrong about such things. I suppose it depends on the integrity of your local Republicans…
Okay, watch me show my ignorance here…
What is a firehouse primary?
Good point Chris. A lot of people who work can make it by the polls in a primary, but can’t attend a mass meeting at a specific time/place.
The big story here was that the Republican Sheriff asked his supporters to vote in the Democratic primary and vote for a weaker candidate.
But, I agree, to the extent that happened, it was probably less than a few percent of the vote.
I have never attended one, but based on what I have heard and read, it is similar to a caucus or mass meeting.
The Committee selects one (or sometimes a few) place and a time for everyone to meet. Everyone that is there at the specified time gets to vote for the nominee.
A firehouse primary is also referred to as an unassembled caucus. The committee decides how many places will be available for people to vote and how long the caucus will last, but the participants do not have to stay the entire time. For example, Scott County decides to hold a firehouse primary or unassembled caucus to choose our local candidates. We decide to have one “polling” place in each district and to be open from 1pm to 5 pm on Saturday, June 9. At least 2 party workers need to be at the location in each district with the caucus forms and ballots during those 4 hours. A participant fills out the caucus form and receives a ballot once he votes the ballot is deposited in a ballot box. After the end of the caucus the ballots are brought to a central location and counted by a teller committee. This is the process that we used in 2003 to decide our local candidates and in the end we only had one contested race. We did however have a candidate run as an independent for Sheriff instead of going thru the process for the nomination. So these processes don’t necessarily keep a candidate from running as an independent. It just forces him to make the decision earlier.
That’s an interesting procedure on the firehouse. The Washington County model I’d heard described involved one central location only, the doors being locked at the beginning, and noone leaving until it was over.
Although I still have to say I’m unswayed by any procedure unless it excludes independent candidates from having their name on the November ballot, which a primary does by virtue of state election law. It also means anyone who wants to be on the party’s ticket has to pay their filing fee before the primary and participate, and if they lose, they’re not on the ballot in November. Exclusion of independent spoilers is essential not only to our candidates’ races in November but also helps out party unity in the months before November whereas independents can cause splits and factions.