Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Presidential Primary Off the Table in West Virginia Special Session

West Virginia Republican Party chairman, Mike Stuart, is now 0 for 2 in his efforts to keep Mountain state Republicans' voices from being "irrelevant" in the presidential nominating process. This past weekend, Stuart was spurned by his own party when the West Virginia Republican Party Executive Committee voted against the Stuart-backed plan to hold a nominating convention in 2012 as in 2008. On Tuesday, Stuart then saw his call for an earlier West Virginia presidential primary denied when the matter was left off the special state legislative session agenda in acting-Governor Earl Ray Tomblin's session call.

Stuart had little more to say in response than:
“I’m disappointed there is no call for an early presidential primary in 2012,” he said.
However, with unified Democratic control of the state government and an uncontested nomination for the party's nomination, the likelihood of a primary move, much less it being considered in a special session, were always going to be pretty low. As FHQ speculated earlier, Stuart's call for an earlier presidential primary West Virginia now at least gets it on the radar for when/if Democrats either lose control of the state governmental apparati in West Virginia or have a contested presidential nomination race in 2016.1

With both the convention and earlier primary options now cut off, West Virginia Republicans are locked into delegate selection through the May 8 primary next year.

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1 It is unclear if the former will happen in the next four years, but nationally, Democrats are certain to have a contested presidential nomination race in 2016. There will either be an out-going, term-limited Democratic incumbent leaving the White House or a Republican, installed by the 2012 elections, there when that time rolls around.


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