Would You Cross to Vote in the GOP Primary If Your State Has an Open Primary?

[CorpGovActivist]

Poll question: Would You Cross to Vote in the GOP Primary If Your State Has an Open Primary?

States with open primaries (list may change by 2008): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_primary

Would you ever cross over to vote on the GOP side, if your state has an open primary system?

[Initech]

1. If I lived in a state where the primaries counted I would consider it.

Having a right-wing nutjob candidate would make it easier for us.

[RB TexLa]

2. Got to love Louisiana, no party nominees, most (d)emocratic system in

in the country.

[Hippo_Tron]

13. That's going to change in 2008 I believe

Not sure about presidential primaries but I think we're going to start having party nominees for congressional and senate races.

[B Calm]

3. Why would anyone want to vote for another right wing nut job?

Sorry, but this thinking is stupid. This would not stop Republicans for voting for this person, hell look at George!

[sam sarrha]

4. if i were to vote for a republican you would have to put the pen in my Cold Dead Hand

[BlueManDude]

5. Absolutely - to help nominate the weakest opponent.

[B Calm]

12. Was that how George Bush got nominated?

[Catbird]

6. I would and I did

This year the South Carolina Democratic primary did not present any really close races. I was very concerned about two of the possible Republican nominees. So I crossed over to the dark side and voted for the (more moderate) Republican candidates that I most wanted to see elected if a Republican were to be elected. Unfortunately most of the Republican candidates I voted for did not get nominated. One of them (Karen Floyd) was defeated by the Democrat (Jim Rex)in the general election for Superintendent of Education. We still have a Republican lieutenant governor perhaps better qualified to be a NASCAR driver than lieutenant governor.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Well, we don't have that system here, but if we did, and I could prevent some really horrible person

ever getting near the seat of power, I would.

E.g. if I could go back 60 years in a time machine and had the right to vote for Senator Bob LaFollette Jr in the Republican primary for senator where he was ousted by Joe McCarthy, I would certainly TRY to make that difference.

If we had a primary system here, and I'd been old enough in 1975 to 'cross over' to vote to keep Ted Heath as Tory leader to keep Thatcher out, I'd certainly have done so. Doesn't mean I'd have voted Tory in the gneral election!

All this is fairly hypothetical, and brings on a lot of 'alternative history' fantasies...

What I *wouldn't* do is vote for someone dreadful, on the assumption that they'd be easier to beat. Too much of a risk. As the saying goes, the trouble with political jokes is that sometimes they get elected.

[Selatius]

8. Repubs do it all the time to get the Dem primary to produce watered down candidates on the issues.

If a Dem primary had a guy who wanted to fight for single-payer universal health care, send the Justice Dept. after white collar criminals, double the size of the Pell Grant, raise the minimum wage and then peg it to congressional pay raises or inflation, push through a timetable for getting out of Iraq, actually secure the borders, ports, and airports, start massive reconstruction programs of New Orleans and massive poverty relief programs, and get out of NAFTA and fight for fair trade instead of free trade, of course the Repubs are going to cross over and vote for the Dem candidate who will only fight for less than that.

[last_texas_dem]

9. No, it would embarrass me too much

and make me feel dirty. :scared:

[TahitiNut]

10. Other: As an independent liberal who's lived in several states, an open primary ...

... is the only time I can/will vote in a primary election for other than Propostions and other ballot items. I've voted both on the GOP ballot and the Democratic ballot over my lifetime, for a wide variety of reasons. No over-simplified answer would suffice.
:shrug:

[wakeme2008]

11. I for one do not believe in "Open Primaries"

:shrug:

[Nicole]

14. No n/t

[cynatnite]

15. After george junior and most of the repuke party cheering him on...

No way. Never. No repuke will ever get my vote.

[Generic Brad]

16. Never again

I did that once about twenty years ago and it made me feel dirty.

[NoPasaran]

17. I did it once, felt dirty afterwords

I'd rather be cast into a lake of fire than repeat the experience.

[crispini]

18. I'm in an open primary state. I know people who have done it.

It can be really important in areas where you effectively have one party control, and a vote in the primary IS going to mean who the winner is. Also, if you have local issues and offices you are concerned about, it might be important.

BUT, what it means is that people in your own party WILL look up your voting record (they know which primary you voted in, it's public record) and they WILL use it against you if you ever run for office in your own party.

Also, it means, at least in my state, that you are effectively a member of that party for the next two years. So, you can't be a precinct chair, or a delegate to your party conventions.

So, no, I wouldn't do it.

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. Many Democrats did this in Michigan in 2000

Gore sewed up the nomination earlier than Bush, and MI Democrats helped McCain win the state's primary.

[BlueManDude]

20. Which I never understood because McCain would have actually WON the 2000

presidential election. He was a much stronger gen election candidate than Bush was.