California GOP Contemplating Irrelevancy

The best way to make your part irrelevant is to plan a primary election in which non-party members can vote:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California Republicans are struggling with the question of whether they should open their 2008 presidential primary to independent voters or restrict participation to the party faithful.

National GOP officials have been asked to review party rules to determine if California can consider opening its primary to 3 million independent voters.

Democrats permit independents to vote in their presidential primary. Some Republicans fear that if independents remain locked out of the GOP contest, they will be unlikely to vote for the Republican candidate in November.

California Republican primary voters have tended to be more conservative than the general electorate. Opening the primary to independents could enhance the prospects of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain to capture some of California's 173 delegates, the largest stash of any state. Both candidates have been known to break with party orthodoxy and have demonstrated appeal that crosses party lines.

All this would do is invite all kinds of shenanigans and dirty tricks. Right now there's a bit of a scandal brewing at "American Idol" because of websites that are encouraging folks by the thousands to vote for the worst singers on the show just to mess things up. You could easily have a similar problem in an open primary where people, both independents and Democrats who temporarily change their registration, could intentionally vote for the weakest candidate in order to deprive the GOP of their best chance to win.

If we're going to have a party, then the primaries should be restricted to those voters who are a member of the party. Otherwise, let's all just become independents and stop sending money to the GOP.