Kentucky GOP To Let Rand Paul "Double-Dip"

by JASmius



A bit of party corruption or a good-faith effort to hold on to a Senate seat in 2016 for and by a senator that has no chance of becoming president?

I report, you decide:

The Kentucky Republican Party has approved a presidential caucus allowing Rand Paul to run for president and re-election to his U.S. Senate seat at the same time without running afoul of State law.

State law bans candidates from appearing on the ballot twice in the same election. Paul tried without success to convince the State legislature to change the law. But a presidential caucus allows voters to vote for Paul for president on March 5th and then vote for him again for re-election to his Senate seat during the primary election on May 17th.

"This is a chance for someone from Kentucky to be on the national stage to influence the debate and really be in the competition for who our next president is," Paul told a handful of supporters outside of the Capital Plaza Hotel before the meeting began.

And have a Senate seat to return to after his quixotic presidential bid lands in its waiting grave.

But most committee members said their vote was motivated not by Paul's candidacy, but by a desire to make Kentucky a player in presidential politics. That's why Republicans crafted the caucus to appeal to as many of the seventeen declared Republican candidates as possible. The plan calls for Kentucky's delegates to be split proportionally rather than "winner takes all," and candidates only need to get 5% of the vote to qualify for delegates. That's a threshold much lower than other primary States.

"This is not about Senator Paul in my mind. This is about making Kentucky relevant," committee member Troy Sheldon said. "I think it's the best thing for voters."

That's a nice cover story.  But it's the best thing for both Rand Paul and for the GOP in a cycle in which they're defending fourteen more Senate seats than the Democrats, a number of them in "blue" States, and thus will have a difficult enough time holding on to their newly regained majority without possibly and unnecessarily kicking away an additional seat due to Rand Paul's vanity and daddy complex.

Incidentally, Senator Paul had agreed to kick in $250,000 for this primary-to-caucus transition - appropriate since he is the move's principle beneficiary - and then he reneged on it despite claiming that he'd paid up, then trying to suggest that the Kentucky GOP raise the funds instead.  Doesn't say a whole lot about either Rand's integrity or his competence.

He's got until September 18th to cough up, after which the caucus scheme goes bye-bye.  He'd be well-advised to ante up, assuming he's actually got the funds.  These days, that's no sure bet.