YAKIMA – Washington’s Republican Party decided Saturday that it will use the state’s primary election to allocate just over half of its delegates to the GOP’s presidential nominating convention.
That contrasts with the state Democratic Party, which decided in April to use its precinct caucuses, rather than the primary, to allocate delegates to the various candidates of their party.
The state Republicans’ 78-member State Committee, meeting here, said their move was needed to save the primary in light of the Democrats’ move.
“It’s clear that Gov. (Chris) Gregoire and the (Democratic) majorities in the Legislature were poised to kill our presidential primary if the Republicans chose to ignore the primary as the Democrats have always done,” party chairman Luke Esser said.
The Republicans say they will use the primary results to allocate 51 percent of their elected delegates. Of the party’s 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention, three are automatic and 37 are elected, so 19 of the elected ones will be allocated based on the primary and 18 on the basis of the party’s precinct caucuses.
Both the Democrats and Republicans plan to hold their caucuses in February.
Still up in the air, however, is when the primary will be held.
As it stands, Washington’s presidential primary won’t be held until May 2008 – making it one of the latest in the country.
Washington’s primary was created in 1989 through an initiative to the Legislature. But since it was first used in 1992, Democrats have never used the outcome to allocate delegates to their national convention. Instead, they use the caucus system, in which voters meet in their precincts to discuss candidates and elect delegates.
Lawmakers canceled the primary in 2004, when the only contested presidential primary was the Democratic ticket.
A bipartisan panel assigned the duty of setting a date for the primary meets again on June 11. It deadlocked in a previous attempt.
Secretary of State Sam Reed now backs either Feb. 12 or 19 — avoiding the pileup of Super Tuesday in California and other states on Feb. 5.
GOP negotiators had originally wanted that date, but Democrats said it would detract from Feb. 9 caucuses and suggested a date of March 18.
Saturday’s GOP vote backtracks on a vote in March, when the state party’s executive board decided informally to ignore the primary, which is expected to cost the state $9.7 million.
“I think people realize that the Democrats would have killed the primary if we didn’t make it meaningful,” Esser said.
When the Democrats voted to allocate delegates solely on the basis of caucuses, Esser said Republicans were concerned that Democratic voters could request a Republican ballot in the primary and skew the results.
“A number of our state committee members are still very concerned about crossover voting,” Esser said Saturday. “But our party thought it was critical that everyone have the chance to participate in picking our next president.
“Caucuses are very important, but not everyone is able to participate in a caucus, and we want to make certain that those serving in the military have a full opportunity to join in the process of selecting the next commander in chief.”
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