An afterthought. That’s what the presidential primaries in North Carolina look like right now.

Sure, things could change. Perhaps Marco Rubio gets some momentum going into Super Tuesday and wins a handful of states. That would certainly make North Carolina important. But barring significant events, it looks like both Trump and Clinton will romp in their respective primaries. North Carolina will merely affirm the decisions of other states.

It wasn’t always going to be this way. Originally, the legislature set a date of just three days after the South Carolina primary. But the national Republican Party refused to cooperate and the date was changed to March 15th. Had the initial plan held up, we would have been swarmed with candidate visits – and our vote yesterday would have received national attention and perhaps influenced the direction of the race.

Mainly, the problem is timing. March 15th is not exactly early in the process. It’s after Super Tuesday, the date that tends to decide nominating contests if they haven’t been decided already. As far as states go, North Carolina is in the middle of the pack. And in our crazy nominating system, if you’re not early, you’re irrelevant.

An additional problem is the fact that North Carolina is not a winner-take-all state. Being a populous state, we have a bunch of delegates. But proportional rules lessen our impact. If legislators had to do it all over, they would probably make us winner-take-all, which was the original plan.

But the main thing is getting our state to go out as early as possible. To some extent, that’s limited by the decrees of the parties themselves. We need to fix our primary process. Otherwise, we’re always going to be in the shadow of our neighbor to the south.

Once again it looks like along with the vast majority of states in the union, North Carolina is going to be an afterthought. That’s unfortunate for the millions of people who wish they could influence the nomination process but are denied a voice by our archaic and arbitrary presidential nomination system.

7 Comments

  1. Walt de Vries, Ph.D.

    John: Do you see a Republican legislative pattern here? First, take one of you long-cherished unproven myths (e.g., ticket-splitting, reapportionment, welfare, etc.) then pass a law that you suspect is unconstitutional. Sure enough a court rules it is unconstitutional, so you appropriate millions of dollars to private GOP lawyers to appeal it (our Attorney General you assert won’t do his job because he is a Democrat). You lose the decision, maybe appeal to another jurisdiction or pass another law and, then, finally just give in to reality. This really fits in with Republican concepts of smaller government, less spending, more accountability,doesn’t it? Multiply this by their other legislative travesties and you have the Republican version of less government, less spending,and less control.

  2. David Scott

    Mr. Wynne, I would be very interested to know what YOU think of Donald Trump. If Trump is in fact nominated, will reputable Republicans like yourself support him? If not, what should Republicans with conscience do? If a person supports a nominee like Trump, are they not also supporting his behavior and his attitudes? Please share your wisdom with us. I am genuinely curious as to what old school Republicans should and will do.

    • Norma Munn

      Yes, please explain how a rational Republican supports Donald Trump? The few I know are all looking the other way as though the spectacle had nothing to do with them. What will you do when it is a Trump/Rubio ticket, which may sound far fetched, but only if one underestimates the ambition and lack of scruples of Rubio.

    • John Wynne

      I’m hardly reputable, or an old-school Republican. That said, I could see myself supporting Trump. The only alternative is Hillary or Bernie.

      • David Scott

        That tells me, at least, all I need to know about your judgment. So, in essence, you would support anyone before you would support a Democrat or simply abstain from voting? To me, that defines blind partisanship and I’d say the same for a Democrat that felt the same way. This helps explain the polarization paralysis that plagues our politics and jeopardizes our very future. Thanks for your honesty.

  3. dberwyn

    Based on NC polling, how might NC’s voice change anything? Seems like no matter when our primary happens, it’s already in line with what is happening Nationally. How would we ‘influence the nomination’ process?

    • John Wynne

      You’re right, polling in North Carolina reflects what is going on nationally. But it would’ve been nice if the other night, instead of the focus being all on Nevada, we had all the candidates over here trying to win our support!

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