AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that would create a presidential primary in Maine was revived Wednesday with legislative approval to study the change over the summer.
LD 1882, An Act to Establish a Presidential Primary in the State, was one of the final bills to be submitted in the 125th Legislature, which was on track to wrap up its work Wednesday night. Instead of passing the bill as written, the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee voted in late March to turn it into a resolve to study the issue and make recommendations by the end of the year.
Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, who sponsored the bill, said Wednesday that one reason for the delay between the committee’s vote two months ago and approval by the full Legislature on Wednesday was that legislative leadership had to decide whether to allow the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee to hold meetings through the summer.
The study comes on the heels of a contentious Republican caucus process that unfolded in Maine this year. The GOP caucuses, which were held in February, declared Mitt Romney the winner even before all the caucus votes were counted. Among the areas that were miscounted was Washington County, which is where Raye is from. Those events angered supporters of Ron Paul, who finished a close second in the caucuses and then managed a win at the GOP convention earlier this month.
Raye said his reasoning for proposing the bill is to involve more people in the process of nominating candidates for the presidency. He added that “it makes no sense” to nominate candidates for offices at all other levels through a primary while singling out the presidential race for a caucus.
“I have never understood why we have that double standard,” he said. “No one would ever suggest that we forego a primary for any of those other offices, so why do we do it for president?”
Maine held presidential primaries in 2000 and 2004 before switching back to a caucus system.
The resolve enacted Wednesday directs the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee to work with the secretary of state’s office on a timeline for implementing and then maintaining a primary process. The committee is directed to submit its findings by Dec. 1 of this year and develop a bill that will be submitted in the first session of the 126th Legislature.
Mean Mr. Mustard is trying to close the barn door a month too late. The RonZombie has already left !
Kevin Raye I like your mustard..
You need to step down. We will be electing new party leaders the first chance we get.
Finally! Why we switched back to a caucus is beyond me! A caucus is so decidedly unfair to those who work that particular day or are serving in the military overseas. I hope the change happens.
Could it be because this is not an election, but a process for the given party? The caucus process mirrors our government and the cost is levied on the party in a caucus instead of a burden on all taxpayers. We live in a representative republic, not a democracy. Because you do not understand the political system this country is founded on does not mean we should change it.
Times have changed. There is no need for the electoral college anymore. Technology has made it very easy to count the votes and it’s time for the electoral college to go the way of the dinosaur. And as far as caucuses go, every citizen in this country has the right to vote, and the caucus actually PREVENTS thousands and thousands of people from voting. That is unjust. THAT is what this country was founded on. Justice for ALL.
That is a completely different system. It does not matter that times have changed. We do not live in a democracy and never have. Democracies fail. They always have. We live in a representative republic and it is a very good system as long as it is adhered to. We have strayed to far from our constitution and need to return to where it started not go further away.
Unquestionably, a primary is the only way to go! It could not happen soon enough!
If we return to primary the voice of the people will be squashed. The only reason this has aroused the ire of the establishment is because it is working the way it should be.
Workin the way it should? It was a joke!!! the caucus was won by Romney, but the Paul people came in and screwed it all up. FACT!!!! Now lets let the people choose! Thats what a primary will do.
No Romney was chosen by the Republican leaders, not the voting Republicans. Many towns that voted had 0s next to their tallies. Some towns like Belfast called in their tallies and were told their tallies were already made and were different than the actual votes. The people of Maine voted for Ron Paul. Charlie Webster chose Romney for us.
The current system has too many people saying “why bother voting? Our votes don’t count anyway!” Of course that is the case when a winner has been declared before WORKING PEOPLE have even made it to the polls.
Both the caucus and the convention were on the weekend.
So, just because it’s on the weekend, that makes it okay? Tell that to the policemen, firemen, medical workers…the list goes on and on…not to mention those who are laying their lives on the line for you in Afghanistan. There are no absentee ballots for a caucus!
This is not an election. This is for the party only and the ones that are generally active and is open to all registered party members. Being on the weekend makes it open to the largest number of people. It is advertised well ahead of time and it gives people plenty of time if this is important to them.
“not an election” Semantics. You’re voting. That’s an election. I’m not sure having plenty of time will make a difference for those who absolutely have to work, police, fire, hospital, etc., and even having plenty of time it doesn’t make a difference for those in the military who are deployed. They need to be able to vote, too, and they do that by absentee ballot. They are being disenfranchised by having a caucus. Not right.
After all of the Tea Party Republican Caucus VOTER FRAUD, Maine needs to go to a primary. However knowing how Rethuglicans FIX elections, they will find a way to do their Voter Fraud with the Primary too.
Just let Charlie webster tell us who won. And it would save a lot of money.
Primary = Fraud
at least with a caucus you can stand there and verify your vote was counted
with a primary, Mr. Raye and his pals decide who gets counted…and when
jtc_dot_827= Smoking something other than tobacco.
Ad hominem. You should try again.
Yes, in a caucus you are right there up close and in person. THAT prevents fraud. The primary could easily be rigged… and we know who would find a way to rig it!
Who cares? Let ’em draw straws. Whoever gets the crooked one wins.
Kevin must be the bangor daily poster boy. His mug is on the site everyday from mustard testing to redistricting for his own benefit. Must be something in it for the BDN.
Caucuses tend to favor extremist candidates, so I have no problem doing away with that type of system.
No they don’t. If you think this you really do not know what you are talking about. The caucus process is set up to mirror our government system very well. Only people registered to a given party can vote. The people at the caucus select the people that will be going to the convention. Then the delegates that were chosen by all the people at the caucus to represent them select the delegates that go to the national convention. I was at both and I think that things generally went smooth considering how many people were there. All registered Republicans voting for who they want to represent them.
We had a primary system and not many more people participated than they do in caucuses. The primaries cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to help parties select their own candidates whereas caucuses are paid for by the parties.
In other words, Kevin raye wants to take mony from taxpayers to pay for his political party’s selection process because Charlie Webster was just too incompetent to run a caucus and a convention.
Here’s an idea: fire Charlie Webster, hire someone competent and STOP TRYING TO WASTE TAXPAYER MONEY !!!
I am all for Binding Primary elections.
OK, I had to work 12 hrs on the day of the Caucuses, so MY voice was not heard.
I work two jobs, and I also had to work during the State Convention. I could have cast an Absentee Ballot in a Primary, but I guess I am not good enough to cast a vote in the current system. Even if I could have gone to a Caucus, what good does it do if they are non-binding? The few folks at the Convention get to decide the Delegates. Just to be CLEAR, I am NOT a Gov. Romney or a Dr. Paul supporter. I have never missed an election, since I first got to vote for Reagan. Although I have cast an Absentee ballot, because of work, most of the time. The Caucus system makes me feel left out in the cold. I should be use to it, being a Conservative in Maine. In the long run I guess it really doesn’t matter too much, Maine will vote to re-elect Obama in November.
That’s the plan FBHD
There is a limited number of delegates. Even if you went to a caucus you may not have been selected as a delegate, but you would have a chance of choosing who you want to go to the convention to represent you. People do not understand that we do not live in a democracy, but a representative republic. A caucus mirrors our political system much better than a primary. Pure democracies are generally evil and have historically always failed. We need to move back to our roots not further away. People need to educate themselves on how our country is truly intended to work. We have been buffaloed by the politicians for too long.
Let me guess, your are a Dr. Paul supporter?
I never said we lived in a Democracy, and I understand the Electoral process fairly well. You may think that the Caucus/Convention better mirrors what our Founding Fathers wanted our Republic to be, but I think they would want as many people to be able to participate as possible. A Primary, w/ Absentee ballots, assures everyone has the OPPORTUNITY to participate. If they CHOOSE no to, that’s their fault.
The current Caucus system favors the “Professional” Activists/Community Organizers types, that are either unemployed or work “standard” M-F day shifts. For a lot of Mainers, we have to work days/eves/nights/weekdays and weekends. I guess I could request vacation days, like one of my co-workers did, so they could Caucus and go to the Convention. I shouldn’t have to do that to participate in the selection process. Or, maybe next time I should have a Caucus at my house at 2AM on a Tuesday and see how many people show up.
A binding Primary could either be a winner take all, or a proportional allotment. Each has it’s merits and I could live withe either. I see Dr Paul received about 90% of the Delegates at the State Convention, but both he and Gov. Romney received about 36% of the Caucus Preference votes. Seems there are a lot of disenfranchised Romney supporters, who’s wishes were not conveyed at the Convention . Like I said I am neither a Romney or Paul supporter, just want a fair and open election process.
The founding fathers acrually felt that landowners were the only ones who should have a say. I am neither activist nor professional. I am interested in politics and believe we have strayed a long way from how our political system was intended to work. Our current system is broken, but not because the original system was bad, but because the people that have been in office have been making unconstitutional changes for so long that people do not truly know how it is supposed to work. The caucus is not an election. It is a process for active party members to choose someone to represent themselves. The election is in November.
The Election is in November, who knew? Is that something LePage/Webster changed to foil the electorate?
A primary accomplishes the same thing as a Caucus, it just more people have the chance to select their representative.
Yes, I knew that the FF only wanted landowners to vote, some also wanted to own other people (slaves). Are you advocating that also? Times change, so does the system. I am also interested in the political machine and I agree that our congress critters have long since left the right path. They are now professional politicians, instead of serving their communities and then returning home to work in their real professions. Shoppe keepers, farmers, Doctors and such.
Exactly!
Maine is set to give it’s delegates to Ron Paul…Maybe Maine might want to stay
out of the Headlines…Ron Paul is an embarrassement…Sheesh! Talk about
throwing away delegates…
Flip the Liar Romney is just an empty suit nothing more.
Why do you believe Ron Paul is an embarrassment?
Yeah! Durn tootin’. We don’t want some nut who wants a strict adherence to the constitution.
No siree we want a “non nut” who is an ordained Bishop in a church that teaches that mankind came from spirit orbs created by God who lives on the planet Kolub and that Jesus teleported to America after the crucifixtion and lived with the American Indians!
That sure isn’t an embarrassment!
tyke …… your comments are an embarrassment ………
But accurate.
Apparently you are embarrassed because my comment is 100% factual, huh?
Raye’s disingenuous attempt at damage control after the mess created by himself, Webster and their cronies is too late. These guys don’t even get the fact that their pompous, offensive actions alienated thousands of Maine republicans (the “wingnuts” and “nazis with outstretched arms” like me whose only sin was liking the republican candidate they didn’t approve of). They’ll need us to win, and guess what? We won’t be there! Yet, still they cling to Charlie. Fools.
They are trying to make it look bad to get their way. For the size of the caucus and the convention it went relatively smooth. It is a process and it can get messy. It went how it should have. Anyone who doesn’t think so should read the constitution and study about our founding fathers.
Republicans can’t run a caucus so now need taxpayer dollars to run a primary.
You don’t understand the caucus process. The caucus in Maine went pretty smooth with the amount of contention that was at play. The media is reporting it to make it look bad because they have an agenda, instead of just reporting the news. I enjoyed both the caucus and the convention. It is a very interesting process and more people should be active in it rather than complain about it. It is truly how the country is meant to run and if more people were involved more would understand the country they live in better. We live in a representative republic not a democracy.
I agree with you, mAineac, that the caucus is the way to go. It builds parties. But it is the Republican party that has proposed a return to presidential primaries. That takes taxpayer $$. I would prefer to do away with all primaries. Let the parties (D, G, R, etc) pay for their own internal elections. Eliminate the June primary altogether.
I see that, the caucus was not a mess though. It was long, but with as many people that were there it went really smooth if you ask me.
It doesn’t matter how the caucus went. What matters to me is that all voters have the opportunity to vote, and a caucus PREVENTS that. Only those who aren’t working and who aren’t fighting for you in Afghanistan can attend the caucus. There are NO absentee ballots in a caucus. That’s unjust.
This is not an election.
“The main thing that every political campaign in the United States
demonstrates is that the politicians of all parties, despite their
superficial enmities, are really members of one great brotherhood. Their
principal, and indeed their sole, object is to collar public office,
with all the privileges and profits that go therewith. They achieve this
collaring by buying votes with other people’s money.” ~ H.L. Mencken
Amen. Mencken was always good at getting to the core of hucksters. We seem to have no Menckens these days; just the fawning corporate press and the “it’s actually all about me” commentators and assorted besotted talking heads.
The time consuming caucus makes it a pain for normal people to devote their Saturday to a bunch of pep talks by washed out RINO representatives. I favor the primary simply because I work and have a family. I am very conservative but have a life beyond the GOP.
This is not an election, it is a process to determine a nomination. It has never been neat and tidy, and was never meant to be. A primary moves the cost from the party to the population at large. A tax increase we can not afford. A primary also gives it the false appearance of an election. This country needs to move more towards how it was designed to work not further away.
After that fire drill caucus, what a joke, we need to return to a primary for fairness sake.
A primary moves away from what the process is about. We live in a representative republic, not a democracy. This was not an election and the primary process makes it appear to be one. Because you do not understand your government does not make it a joke.
Just because the GOP couldn’t have a well-organized and effective caucus doesn’t mean the whole state needs “fixing.” They could get their act together like the rest of the state.
If the Republican party is so inept at running caucuses then change it – but let them bear the financial costs of a primary. We’re already bearing the cost of their inept running of the state.
So the GOP – that can’t run the state, let alone a caucus or a state convention – wants the taxpayers to foot the bill for a primary.
How convenient.
Yessah
The problem is not the caucus, it is the Insane GOP…!!!
Best comment for the day and i am an OldePr.
The presidential and vice presidential elections are the only truly national elections we have. Why not a national primary and have it done with? We could also spare ourselves a great deal of the incessant stupid yapping of the election industry by having that primary no more than two months from the election itself.
“America was founded by men who understood that the threat of domestic tyranny is as great as any threat from abroad. If we want to be worthy of their legacy, we must resist the rush toward ever-increasing state control of our society. Otherwise, our own government will become a greater threat to our freedoms than any foreign terrorist.” –Ron Paul
The poll here shows just how much the education system in this country has failed. We live in a representative republic. Not a democracy. This was not an election. This is a process that the parties go through to select their delegates for the national convention. This is a two step process and the Republican caucus was held on the weekend to maximize the number of people who can attend. This year there was record attendance. This is a good thing, not a bad thing as it is being reported. At the caucus people vote for people to represent them as delegates at the state convention. People were selected for this process, they did not just show up to the convention and say ‘pick me’. Once we are at the convention, the people that were chosen by the people at the caucus select the delegates to go to the national convention. If some delegates did not think that this was important enough to show up then the people that selected them should be angry at those people and not select them the next time, not be angry at the process and call for changes that take us away from a process this country was founded on. The caucus process mirrors our form of government very well. It also keeps the money being spent with the parties and not with the state. The parties are responsible for this process and not our tax dollars.
Hey I was wondering does District 1 have the votes counted yet from the GOP convention? I was going to send them an abacus to help them along. Figured they would have to come up with a plan to keep control. WOW
And we’re supposed to believe that it’s student voters who are the frauds. lol
Moving to a primary system would only take the voice away
from the working people who care enough to take the time to attend, listen and
be involved and hand it over to the media! I saw more than enough of what the “good
old boy” establishment prefers to have happen in order to get their own way
when I attended my town’s caucus and then visited other caucuses to see how theirs
ran too.
The established leaders of the town level parties are
running scared and they should be. We’ve had enough of “this is how we have
always done it” or “that is not what we did four years ago”.
My goodness Mainers – wake up and smell the coffee / take
back this state – getting LePage 2 years ago was a fine first step, let’s not
stop now! The media wants you to believe that the GOP convention was a takeover;
it wasn’t. What it was: a fine display of democracy that has been missing from
this convention for years. The same as what came out of having a lot of people
at the caucuses. This is where the “good old boys” first got called out and
requested, respectfully (by using a “point of order”) to abide by the rules and
follow the by-laws that have been adopted by the party. That is not a takeover.
If you are still looking to call it something other than “democracy” , then try
“being held accountable” and to operate within the guidelines that have been
set. The leadership that is needed to run our towns, this party, our State and our
Country is not a beauty contest as Gannett, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and FOX would
have you believe. Don’t rollover and hand it back to the “good old boys”, the
media and big business to tell us what is good for Maine – there is nothing
wrong with “good face to face discussion” and debate. At least then you are
really being heard, if that is what you are looking for. I know I am and I’m
not planning to stop anytime soon.
Moving to a primary system would only take the voice away
from the working people who care enough to take the time to attend, listen and
be involved and hand it over to the media! I saw more than enough of what the “good
old boy” establishment prefers to have happen in order to get their own way
when I attended my town’s caucus and then visited other caucuses to see how theirs
ran too.
The established leaders of the town level parties are
running scared and they should be. We’ve had enough of “this is how we have
always done it” or “that is not what we did four years ago”.
My goodness Mainers – wake up and smell the coffee / take
back this state – getting LePage 2 years ago was a fine first step, let’s not
stop now! The media wants you to believe that the GOP convention was a takeover;
it wasn’t. What it was: a fine display of democracy that has been missing from
this convention for years. The same as what came out of having a lot of people
at the caucuses. This is where the “good old boys” first got called out and
requested, respectfully (by using a “point of order”) to abide by the rules and
follow the by-laws that have been adopted by the party. That is not a takeover.
If you are still looking to call it something other than “democracy” , then try
“being held accountable” and to operate within the guidelines that have been
set. The leadership that is needed to run our towns, this party, our State and our
Country is not a beauty contest as Gannett, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and FOX would
have you believe. Don’t rollover and hand it back to the “good old boys”, the
media and big business to tell us what is good for Maine – there is nothing
wrong with good “face to face discussion” and debate. At least then you are
really being heard, if that is what you are looking for. I know I am and I’m
not planning to stop anytime soon.
Maybe this is being sponsored because it seems to me the primary states have a rather biased opinion. And not to Mention Kevin is a little mad because his man Romney was overwhelmingly beat by Paul. There was proof of ballot stuffing by Romney supporters I was there and witnessed this, that is why there was such confusion, the only people who were causing delays were the Romney people. Paul’s people were not disruptive or being out of order as the “news” has said. So this article is complete and udder Bull to be quit Frank about the situation.