Eugene Hedlund and the folks at Truth and Hope are to be congratulated for helping Howard Dean make one more piece of history in Vermont on Tuesday. The quest for delegates continues, although doing so will require convincing voters that their votes won't damage Senator Kerry.
But then, I had a thought. What if, in addition to sending delegates to Boston, we might send some to New York?
The Republicans don't have a uniform rule for delegate allocation as the Democrats do. Many different rules prevail. Some states are winner-take-all. Some are winner-take-all by congressional district. Most are caucuses/ conventions where interlopers will stand out like the proverbial sore thumb.
Several primaries, however, have thresholds like the Democrats' uniform 15% rule. But some set the percentage much lower. Examples:
Louisiana (GOP primary March 9): 10% threshold for statewide delegates [or maybe not, Bush-Cheney may get to pick]
Oregon (GOP primary May 18): 10% threshold.
Idaho (May 25): 5% threshold.
In addition, Montana (June 8) has a beauty contest primary without direct delegate selection.
Having even one delegate in the other party's camp can be a real coup, as my state's a$$hole Zell Miller is likely to demonstrate. Turnabout is fair play. Just wondering what anyone else thinks of this.
Source: The Green Papers