State democrats should reimburse costs for bogus primary

by HOWARD M. BERLIN

2/8/2000

Delaware's Democrats should be required to reimburse the State of Delaware for their shameful performance on Saturday's presidential primary. The News Journal estimated that Democrats wasted $400,000 to $500,000 of the State's money by holding a bogus primary - albeit the "official" one - whereby the results counted for nothing. Only 5% of the registered democrats voted in a meaningless exercise that was a popularity contest and elected no delegates - these are to be nominated later in a caucus. Although the Republicans, who didn't want to offend New Hampshire by holding their non-State sponsored primary three days later, at least incurred the costs of staging the event that produced committed delegates. Primaries should be events staged by the political parties themselves and should not be bankrolled by State funds, especially when the few votes are meaningless.

As a non-aligned independent, I propose that the State require that a political party must have, say 10% participation in their previous primary and be required to elect delegates with commitments for first ballot candidates in their national conventions in order have the taxpayers pay for their portion of their dog and pony shows every four years. Otherwise, let's get rid of this obsession with trying to compete with New Hampshire and put this money to better use.