Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Contested Convention?


Every political Junkie's dream is a national Presidential contested party convention that goes on for more than one ballot. With the expansion of the primary system of nominating presidential candidates the national party conventions of the Republicans and Democrats have become more ceremonial than political drama. The last Republican convention to go more than one ballot was in 1948 in Philadelphia when former New York Governor Thomas Dewy won the Republican nomination on the 3rd ballot. 1n 1952 in Chicago there was a contested convention between Bob Taft and Dwight Eisenhower that Eisenhower won after he won a procedural vote on the seating of delegates. In in 1976 in Kansas City Ronald Reagan contested the nomination of, sitting President, Gerald Ford up until the balloting.

Based upon the results of the primaries to date we could very well see a contested Republican Convention in Minneapolis this summer. In my next post I will outline how that would develop.