At least as far as the NH Democrat Party is concerned. Steve and I had talked a bit about this on the phone early last evening; his post covers most of our conversation high points (and more) before the Democrat National Committee Rules Committee voted to adopt the 1) South Carolina, 2) + 3) NH and Nevada, and…who cares which State is next.
And now that Committee, according to a later WMUR report, has actually voted to confirm that with that decision going to full DNC probably tomorrow. I’m betting that Mo Elleithee, the Rules Committee Chair, is CERTAINLY going to get a lot of questions from Fox News as he is a regular contributor on a number of their shows. But he’s quoted as saying this:
“We are making a decision I think people can get behind, and we’ve also empowered the chairman to enforce this decision in a way that gives it more teeth than I think it ever has before, which I think will be important in the event there are any issues“
Ah yes, a GREAT Show – and it is a long time from being over. As the title above says, the DNC has become FITN Deniers as in denying the NH Dem Party the First In The Nation Primary. And that set of “choppers” will be used on both the NH Dem Party and the candidates themselves. No, they didn’t say the quiet part out loud but Steve runs down a few scenarios with the most important one being here:
The gobs of money that once poured into the hands of Dem Chair Buckley, his ‘Crats,’ and the assorted “non-partisan” partisan Lefty groups will dry up a bit and maybe a lot. Without a legitimate primary, they stand to lose money, primary delegates, prestige, connections, and influence.
Hit hardest will be Ray Buckley even if he’s been a high muckity-muck DNC title holder for decades. Much of it, IMHO, is that he has brought in MILLIONS of buck almost every year with his connections (and, in at least part, being part of one of the sexuality identity groups that the Democrats so highly praise (even if he is old and white). Alack and alas, his vaunted pull has been downgraded to a weak tug. And with that, AND the loss of the FITN, why should the cut-throat DNC politics pay him or NH much mind? Why should they, being the Chair of what has become a shrunken State Party. Et to, Brutus? Blindsided by the Democrat version of Survivor where you just got outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted. Cast out and told to cast off.
I’m betting that Buckles is now thinking of retirement (or as least, being downgraded to a “wise man” who is occassionally asked for advice but with no real power. After all, in the Dem scheme of things, if your money spigot is shut off, so are you. I’m also betting that as he’s lying prostrate on the floor with a knife, with “DNC” on the handled, in his back.
His long years of service was justly rewarded.
So the question is, with all that, he up to making yet another big decision?
What’s he going to do about the Primary?
It’s no longer the FITN for the Dems (and the new NH GOP Chair, assuming status quo for the GOP, will be smiling broadly as s/he will get all the limelight that Buckley believes is his). The State now pays the freight for both parties Primary elections. Will Buckley just go with what SecState Scanlon has already said – our Law keeping our Primary 7 days before any other such election anywhere else?
Sidenote: Is THIS action by the DNC now going to muddle the NH Secretary of State election next week? Democrat Melanie Levesque is challenging SecState Scanlon, who has only been in that office 10 months, under of silly motto of “WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP!!!”. Or will SHE jump out to challenge Buckley, at his time of weakness and blame, for the NHDP Chair? I can’t speak to how divided the NHDP is but certainly the NH Legislature is barely a Republican majority – and the Legislature is the entity that elects the SecState and not by general election.
That certainly would strip the NHDP of pretty much EVERYTHING…except there is a loophole that Buckley could use…
Each Party can set up its own Primary election on any date it wants if I am remembering this right. This would allow Buckley an escape hatch in scheduling the NHDP Primary when the DNC tells him it should be held. This loophole, however, is fraught with its own issues.
The Problem is that the NHDP would have to pay for it themselves if they held on the same day as Nevada (which, as Steve points out, is “delegate problematic”. It would allow them to “play by the rules” and keep their delegates in play and allow the Dem candidates to show up. It won’t be cheap, though. Such a dilemma: stay a cheap #1 (which really turns out to be a zero) or an expensive #2.
What will he do? If he retires, we’ll never be able to use this again:
except to remind him that the DNC now forced him to wear it. Always. And for us to remind Democrats that it was during Ray Buckley’s watch that the NHDP lost the FITN Primary.
