April 3rd Primary No Help for Perry

When the Supreme Court torpedoed Texas’ March primary there was all sorts of speculation on what was going to happen. The first thing to come out of the mouths of Republicans, in the person of a State Attorney General, was that there should be two primaries, one for President in March, and one for everyone else later on.

Impossible chime in nearly every County Clerk in the state. Too expensive, they said.

But there remained this enclave of Republicans who insisted that this is the way to go. The Democratic Party was 100% for a later Presidential Primary, and it was roughly 50-50 in the Republican Party.

But reason ruled the day and the primary date was moved back a month to early April.

But I have been puzzling on this for days and I just couldn’t figure out what was behind this lame-brained idea of two primaries? Why make a serious argument for such a bad – and prohibitively expensive – idea.

And I continued to puzzle about it until I uncovered this tiny article from an unlikely source, The Jerusalem Post all of which is pasted below:

“SAN ANTONIO - A panel of three federal judges approved a plan late Friday to delay the Texas primary elections to April 3 from March 6, a move that could be a blow to Republican Governor Rick Perry's presidential hopes.”

“A likely victory in Texas on March 6 could have helped Perry because it's Super Tuesday, when 10 other states are holding primaries or caucuses. Now, Texas' primary will be toward the end of the primary season calendar.”

“The delay came amid a series of legal challenges to the state's legislative and congressional redistricting maps.”

Really? That was what was behind Attorney General Greg Abbott/s plan? That moving the Presidential Primary would negatively affect Rick Perry’s chances at getting into the White House?

Has to be. It was such a stupid – and expensive – idea it has to have come from our self-serving governor’s campaign.

How expensive? At $350,000 per county times 254 of them that’s a whopping $90 million.

That would pay the salaries of nearly 2000 Texas public school teachers.