GOP Rift Over Caucus vs Primary

New twist on the Idaho Presidential plan with call for special legislative session. Plus updates from MI, GA and MS.

Regardless of who was to blame, the Presidential primary in Idaho was eliminated as part of the 2023 legislative session. That meant that all political parties in Idaho were on their own to nominate a candidate and send delegates to their party conventions.

As a workaround, IDGOP Chair Dorothy Moon lobbied for and had a caucus established and approved at the Summer GOP meeting in Challis. That caucus is set to take place on March 2nd in 2024, before super Tuesday, giving Idahoans an early say in who might be the nominee.

But this past week, a petition was circulated to call an emergency session of the legislature to restore a Presidential primary in May. Senate Pro Tem Chuck Winder is behind the petition, and it re-opened the matter to debate. The arguments for the May primary include a cost savings by consolidating two elections into one, and the ability to include voters who otherwise could not participate in a caucus due to being out of state (military) or have other responsibilities that day.

Another option was offered by Senator Scott Herndon to restore the primary in March, also via special legislative session. Read more here.

There are a pros and cons with each option. What do you think?

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MI: Whistleblower Clerks Confirm Registration Problems - The story about fraudulent registrations broke a few weeks ago. The story began with a Michigan clerk questioning thousands of registrations from GBI Industries, a ‘get out the vote’ organization. The matter was turned over to local police, then state police, then the FBI who appears to have done nothing about the matter. This past week, discussions on-line amongst other county clerks in Michigan were provided by a whistleblower showing additional concerns over similar registration submissions in other counties. Read more here.

GA: Bizarre Campaign Donation Data - The ‘smurf’ story broke earlier this year. A smurf is a person, usually older than 65, who has a large number of transactions and/or large campaign donations as reported to the FEC. But door knocking these ‘smurfs’ has led researchers to conclude they are usually small donors who have had additional campaign donations made unwittingly on their behalf. This story touches upon the DA in Georgia prosecuting the Trump case as she appears to be the recipient of a large volume of campaign donations from smurf accounts. Read more here.

GA: Fake Elector Charges Questioned - A document that appears to refute the charges that Georgia DA Fani Willis brought against GOP members who created a slate of alternate electors came to light this past week. The document is in the DA’s possession and the question is whether she had it before the indictment was announced on August 14. The targets of these charges have filed a motion to have the jurisdiction of their case moved. Read more here.

GA: Revisting 2020 Election Issues - Key to the case against Trump in Georgia is showing that he knowingly lied by claiming there was fraud. So, any evidence of fraud should exonerate him. With that in mind, Trump posted a letter this week written by Gov Kemp from November of 2021 in response to research done by a citizen detailing several irregularities with the 2020 election and recount. The two-page letter is posted here and here. This article from a few weeks later provides more detail on that research. This letter from VoterGA also addresses missing ballot images from multiple counties in violation of Georgia state code and federal law for failing to preserve election records. This is a quick summary of some of the issues and more is certain to come out as the case unfolds.

MS: Allegations of cheating in Democratic primary - Incumbent David Archie lost his re-election bid for Hinds County supervisor but held a press conference recently and alleged the Democratic County Chair of colluding to cheat him out of the election. Standing with Archie was a woman named Cynthia Walker who detailed her analysis of the 26 precincts ‘ballot boxes’, noting missing seals, tabulation tapes and thumb drives. A review is underway. A video of the press conference can be seen here. Story here.