N.C. GOP clubhouse: members only

My first thought when I read this morning that the N.C. Republican Party is considering closing its primary - a thought that popped into my head before I finished the first paragraph - was, "Oh, this is a very bad idea."

The rationale for closing the primary - allowing only registered Republicans to vote in primary elections - is that open primaries dilute the pool, meaning that the Republicans who win and go on to the general election aren't as conservative as they would be without the influence of unaffiliated voters, who tend to be more moderate. To which I say, "And this is a problem?"

Apparently is IS a problem for many actual Republicans, who think that many of the candidates they've nominated aren't true-believery enough, like that Commie John McCain (sarcasm alert). The problem is that, in this state, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by over 800,000 voters. And there are 1,3 million voters who are registered as unaffiliated - 22 percent of all registered voters. Altogether, registered Republicans are only 31 percent of voters in North Carolina.

As things stand now, a registered unaffiliated voter can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary. This is a big part of the appeal to voters who want to register, but don't want to allign themselves with any particular party. They can tack toward one party or another from election to election without having to change registration. The open primaries make a place for a lot of people who would otherwise not get involved in politics at all.

And these free agents, who really do impact elections, are unaffiliated largely because they're allergic to partisan politics. So, telling them, "You can't vote in this primary election unless you stamp yourself with an 'R'" doesn't strike me as the best way to reach them.

Moreover, restricting your primary so that you produce candidates who are going to be more conservative than 70 percent of registered voters are comfortable having seems to me to be a perfect recipe for losing every election from now on. I suppose it depends on one's goals - is the N.C. GOP interested in finding and electing candidates that will truly represent the needs of a majority of constituents, or only in growing progressively more partisan?