From: "Jason Auvenshine" <auvenj@mailcity.com>
Kathy,
>Nothing in the primary is binding on any delegate.)
Do you have a reference for this statement? It was announced at the last Pima meeting that the results of the primary were binding on the delegates to national. That's why we were all encouraged to "get out the vote" for this thing.
--Jason Auvenshine
The following an excerped Arizona Attorney General's Opinion on the Presidential Preference Election: ( http://www.attorney_general.state.az.us/opinions/I99-025.html )
This election is to "give qualified electors the opportunity to express their preference for the presidential candidate of the political party...."
The presidential preference election is not denominated a "primary" election and, in fact, it differs significantly from a primary election. Unlike a primary election, the presidential preference election does not determine which candidate is placed on the general election ballot, nor do all parties that will have candidates on the general election ballot participate in Arizona's presidential reference election.
While the statutory provisions for the presidential preference election allow voters to express a preference for their party's presidential candidate, the presidential preference election does not actually select delegates to the parties' national presidential nomination conventions. Instead, each party selects convention delegates as provided by its bylaws. A.R.S. 16-243(A). The delegates of parties participating in Arizona's presidential preference election are directed by the statute to use "best efforts" at the convention for their party's presidential candidate who received the greatest number of votes in Arizona's presidential preference election. A.R.S. 16-243(B).
16-243. National convention delegates; pledged support to candidates
A. The selection of delegates to the political party national conventions shall be as provided in the bylaws of each state party.
B. Each delegate to the national convention shall use his best efforts at the convention for the party's presidential nominee candidate who received the greatest number of votes in the presidential preference election until the candidate is nominated for the office of president of the United States by the convention, until the candidate releases the delegate from his obligation, until a candidate withdraws from the race or until one convention nominating ballot has been taken. After a candidate is nominated, withdraws from the race, delegates are released or one ballot is taken, each delegate is free to vote as he chooses, and no rule may be adopted by a delegation requiring the delegation to vote as a body or causing the vote of any delegate to go uncounted or unreported.
In Arizona State Democratic Committee v. Hull, No. CV96-00909 (Maricopa County Super. Ct., February 1, 1996), the court held that presidential preference elections are different from primary elections and that political parties can choose whether or not to participate in them.
5. There are limits to a State's ability to impose requirements on party delegates that would violate party rules. In Democratic Party of the United States v. Wisconsin, 450 U.S. 107 (1981), the Supreme Court held that Wisconsin could not bind party delegates to honor the results of an open presidential primary when doing so violated national party rules.
Hope this confuses things,
P.S.: If you look at the Old bylaws, the 1999 Bylaws alledgedly passed and now voided by the courts, and this weeks Bylaws passed, you will not find a great deal of answers. The most persuasive is the resolutuion passed this week giving the Governing Committee the powers to make the determination for the 2000 Presidential Candidate.]
Powell