Sen. Rand Paul will likely get what he wants in Kentucky, a member of the state’s Republican Central Committee told TheBlaze: a way around state law preventing him from appearing on the ballot twice.
In a letter this week, Paul requested his party establish a Kentucky presidential caucus for March 2016 instead of a primary for May of next year. Under Kentucky law, a candidate cannot be on the ballot for two offices. That presents a problem for Paul who plans for run for reelection to the U.S. Senate and likely plans to run for president.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) (Image source: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
“Most of us will go with a caucus,” Kentucky state Sen. Albert Robinson told TheBlaze. Robinson is a member of the central committee that will decide on replacing the presidential primary with a caucus. “We would see it as a way of helping one of our own.”
“I would yield to his wishes. I think a lot of us would,” said Robinson, a senior Republican who served in the legislatures since the 1970s. “It would be nice to have a president from Kentucky.”
The Republican-controlled state Senate sought to change the ballot law to help Paul, but the Democrat-controlled state House of Representatives has blocked the proposed change.
The Courier-Journal reports that Paul’s letter says:
"As you may have heard, you, as a member of the Kentucky Republican Central Committee, will be the one to decide if you want to help me get an equal chance at the nomination. The GOP Executive Committee will discuss creating a presidential preference selection for 2016 at a meeting on March 7 in Bowling Green. The proposal we will ask you to look at is moving the presidential preference vote from a May primary to a March 2016 caucus.”
Paul’s letter continues that changing to a caucus system would be bigger than any one candidate, but would raise Kentucky’s standing in the presidential nominating process:
“It has been suggested by others for several cycles that Kentucky has no influence on the presidential process because of our late primary. By May 2016, the GOP will likely have decided its nominee, rendering our votes useless in deciding anything. On the other hand, a March caucus would allow Kentucky Republicans to vote in the middle of the presidential primary, when our votes will matter.”
Robinson agrees that in a bigger picture, an earlier caucus would help the state.
“If we promote it, it could be great,” Robinson said. “It would let us help pick the candidate. It would bring prominence and money to the state.”
A caucus differs from a primary in that it functions in a similar way to town meetings across the state in which citizens speak up for their candidates and then cast votes, often on paper notes. A primary functions like a regular election, in which voters cast ballots at local precincts.
