RNC Chairman Reince Priebus Talks About Reforming Iowa Caucuses And The Primary And Debate Calendar

[Valin]

Hugh Hewitt Show:

Reince Priebus. Hugh Hewitt

1/7/14

 

(Snip)

HH: And the NCAA bit the bullet. They got rid of the BCS. Will the RNC get rid of the Iowas Caucuses? They kill us.

 

RP: Well look, here’s what I think, and I’m not quite going to take that bait, yet. But let me tell you what I think. I think we’ve got a six month slice and dice festival that’s destroying our party. And so the first thing I want to do is shrink that six months down to 60-70 days. I believe we’ve got to have a death penalty up front for states that want to jump the calendar and elongate everything. So the first thing is you shorten that time frame. You take the convention, you move it from the end of August to the end of June. That compresses the time frame by sixty days. And then obviously, you’ve got to do something about that traveling circus that you and I have talked about so many times on the debates. And I’m serious about this, about our party taking control of these debates, taking control of the moderators, the debate partners. And the way that you do this, and people say well, that’s kind of cute that the chairman keeps talking about controlling the debates, but the candidates are going to do what they want. Well, not true, because we’ve got delegates. And every candidate, no matter who you are, you can have $50 billion in the bank, or you can have two nickels. Every nominee has to have a majority of delegates on the floor. So what do we do about it? We say here you go, guys and gals, here are seven debates. Here are the moderators. Hugh Hewitt’s going to do one of them over here, by the way. That’s a little catnip for you.

 

HH: We like that.

 

RP: Here are the seven debates. You can compete in these debates if you want to, but if you compete in a debate other than the ones that are on this calendar, you lose 30% of your delegates every single time you violate. Or better yet, you lose all of them. So you have to comply with this calendar. I think that we’d have to use the leverage that we have as a national party to force compliance.

 

HH: Well, I love that, but I want to go back to your first line. I’m not going to take that bait, yet. I think you must recognize, as we all do, it’s not that it’s Iowa, it’s that it’s the caucuses, and they’re open, it’s Tuesday night, and it just distorts the process. Can’t you make Iowa do it the right way? If they’re going to be the first caucus, at least close it to Democrats and make sure that it’s on the weekend, and that it’s not run by a very few people?

 

RP: Well, actually, we did change, one thing that has not been reported, and maybe this is the first place on your show, we did change the rule. And it’s been, no one’s really noticed this. We changed the rule here at the RNC that we don’t allow for caucuses that don’t bind delegates anymore at the Republican National Committee. So if you’re going to have a caucus, or a beauty contest, or a straw poll, you have to bind delegates to the outcome of that contest. One of the problems facing our candidates, Hugh, is that you go to a straw poll, or you go to a state caucus, and you spend all this money to win this caucus, and it turns out you’re not awarded a single delegate. And then you’ve got to come back six months later and fight in that same state that you already spent $5 million dollars winning to make sure that the delegates that you want get elected from that state.

 

(Snip)

[righteousmomma]

Have to confess i scan read this - bored me and I am too stupid to understand most of it because I live in realsville. The last paragraph with Priebus was very interesting and very maddening.

Words, words, words while the GOP sits on its big elephant butt .

[Valin]

@rightousmama

 

Cliff note version

A. fewer debates

B. different debate moderators...(think Mark Levin asking the questions)

C. shorter primary season, ending earlier.

D. state parties will pay attention to the RNC....or else.