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GOP POSITIONING Last weekend the Idaho Republican central committee sent out some mixed messages - depending on who you are, you could find something hopeful and something troubling inits actions (the specifics will vary). The group rejected a proposal by former state Senator Rod Beck to require that candidates seeking to run in the Republican primary first get a seal of approval from party leaders. But it reaffirmed a policy (backed by Beck as well over the years) in favor of party registration for voting in the GOP primary. There was plenty else as well.
And there was division, plenty of it. Here is how Rocky Barker of the Idaho Statesman describes one view of it: "Former Idaho State Sen. Stan Hawkins of Ucon, who was at the meeting in McCall said the party was increasingly divided between people who supported traditional Republican values like the free market and those that were involved in “state-sponsored crony capitalism.†He said the press was a part of the problem because it minimized how former GOP state officials leave to get lucrative jobs in everything from utilities to failed ski resorts."
Are we seeing here a line of argument in next year's primaries?