South Carolina is one of the first states that will hold a presidential primary in 2012. That is, if they can come up with the money to pay for it, and now there seems to be some doubt that this will be a struggle-free process. Here's Jim Davenport of the Associated Press:
South Carolina will not fund the state GOP's first-in-the-South presidential primary in February, leaving officials scrambling to sort out who will pay for it.
The Republican Party insists the primary will go on, even if the GOP must come up with as much as $1.5 million to run it.
"In no way is this primary in jeopardy," said Matt Moore, the state GOP's executive director.
Well, if you say so, Matt Moore! But according to this report, the state GOP has $137,000 worth of "cash on hand" and are hoping that the state's Attorney General will let them "use leftover money from last year's elections -- $680,000 at most -- to pay for the primary." Coming in this week will be $35,000 from Jon Huntsman, which means they're still quite short of the $1.5 million needed to pay for it.
The state's primary problems are rooted in the fact that budget-conscious South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has been pretty steadfast in her stance that taxpayer money should not be used to fund anything that is not a "core function" of government. That's not particularly unreasonable -- unless you're trying to mount a presidential primary, of course.
South Carolina is not the only state whose budget strife has caused lawmakers to rethink their presidential primary priorities. In mid-May, the state of Washington opted to save themselves $10 million and suspend their primary altogether. Washington will instead rely on a "precinct caucus-convention system," like Iowa does, to select their nominee. The key difference between Washington and South Carolina, of course, is the stakes. Unlike South Carolina, Washington doesn't have to worry about being one of the first key contests. As Washington's Secretary of State Sam Reed told Reuters, "Our primary is a bit of a beauty contest...It was not a difficult decision by the Legislature."
Per Davenport, the "party could go back to running the primary with paper ballots and volunteers," which was a good enough solution up until 2008.
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