California: 4 Republican House seats running UNopposed

[hfojvt]

43. to some degree, people in the party do NOT like primaries

They can clear the field, but in other ways they cannot. If I file with the SoS, then I am a candidate. The party does have the option, as I understand it, to reject me as a candidate, but I have not seen them exercise it in Kansas. They did, however, steer a candidate into MY district, where I was already running instead of his own district where they had a candidate they liked (the wife of the incumbent Congressperson).

I still kinda think that happened because some rich people didn't like my "tax the rich" message.

But what the heck, if I could not sell my tax the rich message to Democratic primary voters (who were kinda ignorant and mostly voted based on geography, it seems) then apparently I did NOT have a message that would resonate with a lot of voters. The primary voters made their choice, and I came in 2nd out of three.

The party, even in Kansas, wants viable candidates. So they are generally gonna support the candidate they see as viable. They didn't want the Congressman's wife to have to spend money in a primary or to be attacked by a primary opponent. Look at Gore and Clinton. Gore would have been a stronger candidate if not for the Bradley challenge. So what did that primary challenge accomplish? Just helped us to be stuck with George W. Bush. Look at the vitriol in GDP. It's harder to unite in the fall after going through something like that, no matter which side wins the primary.