Half A Primary Is Wholly Confusing

Knowing how much people love a bargain, the Washington state Republican Party is presenting voters with a rare, 2-for-1 offer:

Like a particular candidate for president? Then why not vote for him twice?

It’s this easy. First, attend your neighborhood caucus March 5 and support the candidate of your choice. Half of Washington’s 36 national convention delegates will be distributed based on how that candidate did during precinct caucuses.

Then, at the state presidential preference primary on March 26, go to the polls and vote for your man again. The remaining 18 national delegates will be decided based on the primary results.

This offer is only available to Republicans. When voters walk into their neighborhood caucus, they will be asked to sign a roster declaring themselves - at least for that evening - to be a Republican.

In order to cast a meaningful vote at the primary three weeks later, voters must sign in as a Republican or Democrat. Their ballot will contain the names of each party’s candidates only. Voters who are protective of their party affiliation - in addition to the growing number of independent voters - can request a third ballot with the names of all candidates. The Republicans, however, say they won’t count those ballots. And the Supreme Court has ruled they don’t have to.

But then, at least the Republicans are counting Republican ballots. Once again, state Democrats are ignoring the results of the presidential primary, created by a 1988 citizens initiative.

All of the Democrats’ 91 national convention delegates will be chosen the old-fashioned way - at precinct caucuses. Democrats can vote twice - once at their caucus and once at the primary - but the primary vote won’t help their candidate win anything but headlines.

State Democratic Party spokeswoman Jenny Holliday said changes in the primary law passed too late in the 1995 session for Democrats to take part. Holliday, however, pointed out the obvious: Democrats are hoping their nominating process next year is a one-man show for President Bill Clinton.

Republicans, however, have a race deserving of that grand political writers’ cliche - “a real donnybrook.” A state like Washington could be important to a candidate hoping to break out of the pack. And since Washington holds its primary the same day as California, a candidate who loses the high-stakes contest there could claim Washington as a consolation prize.

In 1988, for example, Pat Robertson won Washington on the same day that George Bush was all but assuring himself the nomination. News reports couldn’t report a Super Tuesday sweep for Bush, because of Robertson’s stunning victory in precinct caucuses here.

The GOP’s hybrid caucus/primary system is a bargain for the party in another way. It avoids a factional spat between the party’s mainstreamers and its conservative Christian wing. Generally, the Christian wing likes the caucuses; the moderates and economic conservatives prefer the primary. Some history explains why.

Mainstreamers were embarrassed by Robertson’s strong showing in 1988. The state delegation was an outcast in New Orleans that year during a convention designed to anoint Bush as the successor to Ronald Reagan. Analysts suggested that Robertson’s well-motivated supporters succeeded only because so few people attend caucuses. A small force that would be overwhelmed in a high-turnout primary election can dominate the arcane caucus process.

It was a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans that launched Initiative 99 that same year. Enough signatures were collected to put the presidential primary before the 1989 Legislature. Rather than send it to the ballot, lawmakers approved it.

The conservative Christians always resented the primary - partly because it made them less effective but largely because they thought it was aimed directly at them. The conservative Christians on the state GOP committee were forming an anti-primary alliance with other Republicans who support caucuses as a partybuilding tool. People who show up at caucuses are likely foot soldiers. And once they get active, they form a pool of donors and candidates.

The fact that primary supporters got a 50-50 split should be considered a victory. An earlier proposal would have had just 25 percent of the delegates - nine people - chosen based on the primary. As it is, Washington will be one of just three states (the others are Colorado and Louisiana) to use a hybrid system next year.

But the split at least gives the state’s presidential primary a fighting chance.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Peter Callaghan McClatchy News Service