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How the Democrats select the Republican candidates in Montana A Flawed System Have you ever suspected that something was wrong, but upon investigation discovered you were mistaken; it is actually much worse than you thought? That is what I discovered with the Open Primary election system in Montana. I was shocked in the recent Primary when Mark French was so badly defeated by incumbent Denny Rehberg. With the current nationwide attitude of throwing out the incumbents, and with Rehberg's horrible record of voting for the Patriot Act, having never read it, the Real ID act, Cash for Clunkers, the Hate Crimes Bill, and many other Socialist agendas, how could he have won by such a wide margin? Adding to that, the Republicans had a clear choice of candidates with Mark French being a true Constitutional Conservative who campaigned tirelessly in every nook and cranny of the state? When I looked more closely at the actual numbers, it suddenly became obvious that Rehberg was not elected by the Republicans, but rather by the Democrats. Here is how it works in an open Primary state: When you enter the polling place, you are given two ballots, a Democrat and a Republican. Now in the case where the Democrats have a single candidate running unopposed, they are assured he will be in the general election. So their major concern is to make sure that their candidate will be opposed only by the Republican most closely aligned with the Democrat agenda. That way they are assured of a win either way. If the Republican wins, it is in many cases preferred, because the party loyalists will make excuses for the liberal leanings of their RINO Republican. Democrats know that their liberal candidate would not have a chance in the General election against a true conservative. The obvious choice is for them to cast their vote on the Republican ballot, thus picking the Republican of their choice. In most cases the choice is pretty easy. During the pre-primary campaigning, the true conservative candidates are very clear on how they stand on the issues of Constitutional government. You would think that this would give them an easy victory, but conversely it ends up being the kiss of death. This would not need to be the case if all the conservatives would actually care enough to get out and vote, but so many (around 70%) are of the misguided notion that the Primaries are not that important. They think they are doing their patriotic duty if they vote in the general election. In any basic logic one would deduce that the Primary is the very opportunity to give the best candidate the chance to even be in the general election. To illustrate and confirm my point consider that Montana is basically a 50/50 Republican/Democrat State. The revealing fact is that over 80% of the votes cast were on the Republican ballot. Less than 19% were cast on the Democrat ballot in Ravalli County. Similiar results took place statewide. The candidates who identified themselves as the most conservative, all lost by a wide margin. The answer is pretty clear; the Democrats elected the Republican candidates chosen to compete in the general election. What I find even more ironic about this is that the Ravalli County Republican Central Committee will not endorse candidates in the Primary election, but are duty bound to support whatever candidate the Democrats pick for them in the General election. I don't know what the real answer is to remedy this serious flaw in the system, but there are some viable options, which need to be addressed. In the meantime, it looks like the only options to elect true conservatives in several offices in November warrant taking a serious look at the Libertarian candidates. A good place to start would be to study their website at. http://www.ivotelibertarian.com Dewey Baker dew1643@yahoo.com |
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