Washington Democrats and Republicans are taking different views of how to select delegates to the 2016 presidential nominating conventions.
Democrats have decided to select delegates based on a series of caucuses and conventions rather than a primary. The state party central committee made that official April 18 in Pasco.
Republicans have said that they were willing to use a state presidential primary until the legislature voted not to pay for it.
In the late 1980s, after backers of televangelist Pat Robertson packed Republican caucuses, Washington voters passed an initiative creating a presidential primary, but Democrats never have used it to choose delegates to their national nominating convention, and Republicans have used it for only half of their delegates. But now, for the third time, legislators have done away with the primary.
Olga Farnam, the state committeewoman from the Snohomish County Republican Party, said last week that Democrats had taken power away from many ordinary voters.
“In 2012, our governor and the Democrats in the legislature decided we didn’t need a presidential primary, so all of our delegates came out of the caucus process, which severely disenfranchised the military, the elderly and individuals who had to work at the time the caucus was held,” she said. “Also, a huge majority of the general public does not realize the consequences of not having a primary — that they will not have any voice in who the presidential nominee will be. Caucuses are primarily attended by activists in the party.”
She said that if Washington Republicans knew that the state would have a primary, party officials would come up with a formula to determine how many delegates would come from primary results and how many from the caucus process.
Canceling the primary will save the state $11.5 million.
State Democratic Chairman Jaxon Ravens said this after Democrats adopted the caucus system:
“It encourages more active participation, with Democrats across the state showing up to caucuses and talking with their friends and neighbors about our presidential candidates.”
Ravens added: “Washington State Democrats have a strong history of using the caucus system to pick their delegates to the Democratic National Convention.”
Secretary of State Kim Wyman tried early this year to convince the parties to use the primary by proposing legislation that would move the date of the primary and also would make everyone’s party choice a public record, allowing both parties to get the names of every one who voted for their respective candidates, a concept new to Washington but appealing to political parties.
“Our goals with this proposal are to engage as many voters across the state in the selection of the presidential nominees as possible, make the results of a presidential primary meaningful, and respect the political parties’ rights of association in the process,” Wyman was quoted as saying. She said that if the parties didn’t agree, a primary would be pointless.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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