Pennsylvania Primary Election Day 2012: Elect Conservative Delegates

     With most political commentators dismissing the Republican presidential nomination as over, voters might miss the significance of today’s Republican primary in Pennsylvania, as well as in several other states simultaneously conducting primaries.  The significance is not the presidential primary in the Keystone State, which is a beauty contest, but the election of delegates to the Republican National Convention.

     Candidates for Delegate and Alternate Delegate to the GOP Convention run uncommitted and are not obligated to vote for the candidate who wins the presidential primary.  Three Delegates and Alternates are elected from each of the 18 congressional districts.  Not all delegates are chosen by this process, as several  “Superdelegates” serve by right or appointment, but most are elected today.  Therefore, conservatives have the opportunity to elect fellow conservatives to choose the Republican presidential and vice presidential nominees (the nominee for vice president is elected, not appointed by the presumptive presidential nominee) and party platform.  It is imperative that we conservatives send a strong message to the party and its potential presidential and vice presidential nominees of commitment to our principles.

     In my district, the 16th, for example, which is new to me because of reapportionment and redistricting, former United States Representative Robert Walker, a staunch conservative, is a candidate for Delegate.  He is also the U.S. campaign chairman of his former colleague and fellow conservative, Newt Gingrich, a native Pennsylvanian.

     Additionally, there are significant primaries for U.S. Senate and Representative and state legislators.  Many conservative candidates are on the ballot in these races.

     Today is also a dry-run for the new voter identification requirement. See my post from last month, Corbett Signs the Voter Identification Bill into Law: http://www.williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2012/03/corbett-signs-voter-id-requirement-into.html. 

     If you have not already voted in Pennsylvania or in another state holding a primary election today, vote for  candidates who can stand for conservative principles.