So says Quin Hillyer in today's American Spectator online. Hillyer sees a slate of "favorite son" candidates running for their home state delegates as the way to increase conservative influence at the GOP covention.
The way to force an open convention is for conservative candidates to amass delegates pledged to themselves rather than to McCain or Huckabee. And the way to do that is by reviving the old stratagem of the "favorite son" candidacy. Rather than having a candidate try to run nationally, a candidate can compete just in his own home state. Win the state, or at least a majority of the delegates thereof, and you go to the convention with some bargaining power.
The filing deadlines for presidential primaries or caucuses in seven states, boasting 285 convention delegates, occur after Super Tuesday. Mega-state Pennsylvania, with 74 delegates, allows candidates to qualify up until Feb. 12. The filing deadline in South Dakota isn't until March 25. If favorite sons run and win in all those states, and if Mitt Romney continues to fight McCain and Huckabee throughout the primary season, then the favorites sons could, collectively, hold the balance of power at an open convention.
Oh, why not? This primary season has been both interminably long and immeasurably crazy. What's a little more complication among party members?
Would you vote for a favorite son in your state just to introduce some uncertainty at the convention?
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...but, if Michigan still had a March primary, I'd probably be floating out the idea of trying to draft Engler into running for the state GOP's nod.
Not like our remaining options are much better... just hope we don't get Term Three Engler, but rather the earlier, non-lame-duck, executive.
"No matter how much lipstick you put on the taxation pig, it's still a pig... and it's currently snout-down in your wallet." - Michael Fisk