GOP moving ahead with 2016 primary changes
National Republicans meeting in Washington, D.C. this week are ready to ratify an accelerated primary and caucus selection system for 2016, a move that would give the GOP nominee an extra two months to focus on the general election.
The plan before the Rules Committee of the national GOP would set the Republican National Convention in either late June or early July of 2016, which would be the earliest GOP gathering since 1948.
The effort is basically a bid by GOP leaders to exert some more control of the party's nomination process - and get it over sooner.
In recent years, both Democrats and Republicans have held their national party conventions in the last week of August or first week of September, as they wait as long as possible to use general election money .
But GOP national chairman Reince Priebus has made no secret about his desire to move up the convention, arguing that an early national party gathering would allow the GOP nominee to start using money donated for the November election in the summer - and not just after Labor Day.
The basics of the 2016 GOP plan:
The first four states of recent years will be allowed to stay in their primary and caucus slots in February of 2016 - Iowa goes first, followed by New Hampshire, South Carolina and then Nevada.
On or after March 1, then any other state could hold a primary or caucus, and any state that goes before March 1 would face very strong penalties from the national Republican Party.
The contests between March 1 and March 14 would have to award delegates on a proportional basis; states holding primaries and caucuses after March 14 could award delegates either proportional or winner take all.
The national party also wants to rein in state parties somewhat, by requiring states to "bind" their delegates according to the actual results of the caucus or primary.
Another rules change would lower the threshold that candidates need to get to grab a certain percentage of delegates in contests which award delegates proportionally.
And if you think that discussing this in early 2014 is somewhat silly - think again.
Earlier this week, Tuesday brought us the Iowa caucuses for 2014; for the GOP, it turned into an organizational face-off between the GOP Establishment, Tea Party and social conservatives in the Hawkeye State.
Which part of the GOP wins this intramural battle for control of the Iowa GOP as the process goes forward could well influence where Iowa goes in the 2016 caucuses.
2016 isn't that far off after all.
