Step Backwards

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/07/31/news/state/30-caucus.txt" >Montana Republicans eye caucus in February</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>Montana Republicans would hold a presidential caucus Feb. 5, 2008, four months before the state's increasingly meaningless June presidential primary, under a proposal released Monday by Chairman Erik Iverson.<br />n<br />n…..<br />n<br />nIt would make 2,262 Republicans statewide eligible to vote in caucuses. The list would include members of the state party's executive committee, elected county central committee officers and elected and appointed precinct people, legislators and statewide elected officials.<br />n<br />nThat's a fraction of the 112,747 Montanans who cast votes in state's 2004 Republican presidential primary.</blockquote><br />n<br />nThis appears to me to be a step backwards. Why would the Republicans want to limit the number of people who can vote in the Presidential Primary? Why don't I have a right to vote if that's what I so choose to do (In Montana you don't have to declare party affiliation and can vote in which ever primary you wish to)? Or is that some how the reason, to keep those pesky Democrats and other party members from crossing over and voting in the Republican Primary? You know, it's not like Montana has a lot of say when it comes to Presidential elections so why do this, it seems like a proposal meant to exclude the public which will give the wrong impression.<br />n<br />nThis is just flat wrong and needs to be scraped quick. The Montana Republican party seems to be trying to kill itself slow but sure and this proposal is just another nail in the coffin.<br />n<br />n<strong>Everyone always has a different perception of you. Peter Fonda </strong>