Why is Kentucky switching from primary to caucus?

Kentucky Republican party officials have voted to switch Kentucky from a primary to a caucus and move the caucus up two months, but why?

Because Senator Rand Paul asked them to.

Kentucky law prohibits a candidate’s name from appearing twice on the same ballot. To allow him to run in both the Kentucky Senate election and seek the GOP nod for president, Sen. Paul urged GOP officials to make the changes.

A caucus is a set of local gatherings where voters decide which candidate to support and select delegates for the party convention where a primary is a statewide voting process in which voters cast secret ballots for their preferred candidates. To make sure Paul’s name didn’t appear on a ballot twice, he just asked state officials to change to a non-ballot format.

The now-approved changes will cost as much as $600,000 dollars which Paul has promised to cover. At this time, he has pledged to give the GOP $250,000 by September 18th and the remainder as the campaign progresses.

Moving the caucus to March could also make Kentucky more important in the selection process. Later states suffer from voter apathy as candidates drop out of the race.

Not everyone is pleased that Paul is hedging his Presidential bet with his Senate seat.

In the last three national polls, Rand Paul pulled in between 3% and 6% support and is still reeling from a less-than-great debate performance in August.