November 2010 - Central Florida Chapter Associated Builders and ...

PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE
Just when you think it is safe to turn off your TIVO® …
Just when you think it is safe to turn off
your TIVO® and start watching TV live again
because the elections are over, another
specter is looming in media land: the 2012
Presidential elections.
Candidates like Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney
and Sara Palin will be vying to become the
Republican standard-bearer to challenge the
“Obama Dragon.” All of them and more will take
to the news talk channels and rubber chicken
circuit, trying to call in the chits they doled out
during the 2010 election cycle helping congressional,
state and local candidates win elections
or mightily challenge the Democrats.
This next election on the horizon brings up an
ugly sore in the Republican and Democratic
corpus. No, I am not talking about unwinding
ObamaCare or fixing Social Security. Those are
patty-cake games compared to the Big Problem
for politicians: primary elections.
If you recall – in what seems like light-years
ago – Florida and Michigan were particularly
piqued that their significant delegate count
would hardly matter in the Silly Season of the
Presidential Party Primaries.
Every candidate, no matter how crazy or brilliant, has an opportunity
to soar, or crash and burn from these runway states.
4 BUILDING CENTRAL FLORIDA NOVEMBER 2010
Those states, Iowa and New Hampshire, have
populations that are antithetical to most
populous states and are the darlings of the
candidates and the party apparatchik. To them,
the Iowa Caucuses were the “kiddy wading
pool” for presidential contenders. The media
markets are cheap, and winning in those states
is all about putting together an army of supporters,
which anyone can do.
Every candidate, no matter how crazy or brilliant,
has an opportunity to soar, or crash and
burn from these runway states.
Like Little League parents of a Frank Viola
watching the coach installing his son of questionable
abilities to be the starting pitcher,
Florida and Michigan said “No Mas!”
Those states’ political parties thought they
should also be invited to the dance.
(How many metaphors do you think I can cram
in this column? I am going for the record!)
When Florida moved up its primaries to January
of 2008, you would have thought the state had
contracted Ebola and it quickly became the pariah
of the contenders.
Votes cast for Obama or Hillary, McCain or
Romney would not be counted in the conventions,
and delegates from these states would
not be seated at the party conventions. (Never
mind that party conventions are little more
than poorly staged Shakespeare plays, with a
well-known script and outcome.)
When Florida announced its date in late January,
both Iowa and New Hampshire moved their
elections up to early January, and pledged titfor-tat
if any state tried to move earlier.
It was only resolved in 2008 when Obama and
McCain came out of the pack and secured the
necessary delegate votes by the middle of the
summer. Then both graciously agreed to seat
those delinquent delegates at the party conventions.
Lord knows what would have happened
if either had been a close race.
It did help the public understand that the
primary races are actually private elections.
That is, they are not open to the public. If you
are not a party registered voter in most states,
you cannot vote in the primary election. Also,
the National Party determines the rules, not
the Constitution, not the state legislature or
even the state party. (Tell me again why tax
money should go to pay for these primary
election costs???)
So, here we are at the starting line of the 2012
presidential elections, and nothing has been
resolved. Unless the disenfranchised states like
Florida, Ohio, Texas and California are allowed
to be part of the decision-making process,
particularly in the Republican primaries, you
might see the primary elections a year or more
earlier than 2008.
Given the ugliness in this primary, the litany
of blame and accusation, don’t look for these
folks to suddenly become Solomon and
Mother Teresa when it comes to winning the
big prize in 2012.
Where are my TIVO® instructions?
Mark P. Wylie, President