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Florida, Michigan must play by the rules
5/10/2008 | Today's Georgetown Times Online Edition
Published on 3/23/2008
By Katon Dawson
During the presidential nominating process, I heard from countless supporters, activists and voters who expressed a common concern: They are tired of politicians trying to avoid the consequences of their actions. Nothing arouses this concern more than the debate about redoing the Democratic primaries in Florida and Michigan.
The proposed revotes represent an effort to change the rules of the game after it has been played.
Imagine if all the basketball teams in all the NCAA Division I conferences agreed on a system to pick the national champion. But then, after the season had passed and all the games had been played, a few of the teams that didn't have quite the year they'd hoped for decided to hold a do over and picked a new champion.
That would truly be March madness. Luckily, the NCAA has rules to govern the basketball championships, just as the Democratic and Republican national committees put together an orderly system to pick presidential nominees.
They developed rules to penalize states holding primary elections on dates not approved by the national parties. One such penalty is to decline seats for all or part of the delegates from these states at their respective national conventions.
Those are the rules -- plain and simple.
These rules are in place to bring some order to a potentially chaotic process and to deter those states that would kick off the presidential primary season years in advance of a general election.
Legislators in Florida and Michigan decided that earlier roles in the presidential nominating process were worth the risk of losing their delegates to national party conventions. According to one report in The New York Times, "...Florida officials scoffed at those [delegate penalty] threats, calling the conventions little more than a formality."
Political leaders clearly understood the rules of the game they chose to play. Each state involved knew the costs of moving their primary, and we shouldn't change rules just because they don't like the consequences.
In South Carolina, we took that same calculated risk. We knew our first-in-the-South Republican presidential primary had grown in significance over time. Since 1980, no candidate had won the Republican nomination for president without winning our Republican primary. We also knew we could lose some of our delegates if we moved our primary up earlier than was allowed under Republican National Committee rules.
But we wanted to retain our historic role in presidential politics.
And that's what we did.
We were proud to play an important role in our country's political process when we went to the polls on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008. Sen. John McCain won a historic victory in our primary, and he was propelled to victory in later primaries in no small part because of his historic win in South Carolina.
Now, we are willing to accept the penalties imposed by the RNC. We knew the rules of the game and voted unanimously to keep our primary the first in the South. While we may disagree with the RNC over the interpretation of the rules, we agree that we must accept the consequences of our actions.
But in Florida and Michigan, politicians are asking to hold presidential primary do-overs simply because they don't like the rules. If Florida and Michigan are allowed to hold presidential primary revotes this year, we are setting precarious political precedent.
Politicians and political party bosses in any state could demand presidential primary re-votes any time the outcome of the election displeases them.
Then what's next? One state's primary voters kicking off the presidential nominating process in 2010, knowing they can simply ask for and be granted a do over vote in 2011 and, if necessary, another in 2012?
I am calling on party leaders in Michigan and Florida to do their part to restore the confidence of everyday citizens who are disheartened by the actions of politicians who act as though they don't have to play by the rules everyone else plays by.
Accept the consequences of your actions.
Katon Dawson is chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.
